Jurrien Timmer, Director of Global Macro, joins us again today for his weekly look at the markets. Jurrien unpacks the story behind commodities having done well since March 2020, noting a similar story after the Spanish flu in the 1920’s. He also analyzes future expectations for inflation and U.S. Federal Reserve rate hikes. When debating if inflation is transitory or structural, Jurrien believes it’s a bit of both. Transitory because base effects wear off, cycle progresses, bottlenecks in supply chain become resolved. But also structural, with demographics as a structural driver of inflation. Jurrien shares people are quitting their jobs in the U.S. with the quit rate at 4.2 million in the U.S. People doing that because they think they can get a better job at a higher wage. Visit @TimmerFidelity on Twitter to follow along with Jurrien’s charts.
Recorded on October 18, 2021.
Transcript (PDF): https://www.fidelity.ca/cs/Satellite/doc/transcript_podcast_timmer_18oct.pdf