Please see today’s daily update from EPIC Investment Partners below:
From Beige Books to Beige Bots
The Fed’s November Beige Book, released yesterday, noted that economic activity had slowed since the last update, with businesses reporting that high inflation and rising interest rates dragged down their economic outlook. Four Districts reported modest growth, two indicated conditions were flat to slightly down, and six noted marginal declines in activity.
Retail sales, including autos, remained mixed, with sales of discretionary items and durable goods, like furniture and appliances, declining with consumers showing more price sensitivity. Travel and tourism activity was generally healthy. Demand for transportation services was sluggish. Demand for labour continued to ease, however, skilled workers were still in short supply, leading to continued wage pressures in some sectors.
Manufacturing activity was mixed, however, again their outlook deteriorated. Demand for business loans decreased slightly, particularly real estate loans. Consumer credit remained largely flat, but some banks noted a slight uptick in consumer delinquencies. Commercial real estate activity continued to slow. Several Districts noted a slight decrease in residential sales and higher inventories of available homes.
Clearly, the Fed’s rating cycle is having the desired effect, whether the Fed manages to pull off a “soft landing” remains to be seen. With the Fed now at, or close to, peak rates, the market awaits the pivot.
Also, have you ever had one of those days when you really can’t be bothered to update your followers on social media, telling them what a wonderful life you are living? Well, it seems Facebook has a solution. Meta has announced it is bringing “AI post creation tools” to its platform, effectively enabling you to outsource to the social media giant the task of saying something pointless to your gullible (or uninterested) audience.
It gets better. Coders believe that Instagram will soon let users of its site create their own AI bots modelled on their own individual image, thus enabling them to create custom AI characters able to respond in their own distinct voice. In time, this could lead to bots speaking to other bots, forever, at which point we can hopefully just leave them to it and get back to the real world.
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Andrew Lloyd DipPFS
30/11/2023