Green energy transition is delayed.

Pickleball. Yes, pickleball. No it’s not wordplay, just that fastest growing sport in America and has about 37 million players. Pickleball is basically if tennis, badminton and ping pong had a baby, none of whom would be proud of. Hey I am game for it, not judging.

Nvidia keeps flexing it’s chips, green energy transition is going to face delays, while the inflation ship is steadying a bit. Let’s see what’s up.

The Big Picture

Consumer price index reports are out as overall inflation cooled a little to 5% from 5.5%. Lower prices were observed last month on groceries, gasoline, medical care while airline fares and insurance were higher. Core inflation, which doesn’t include volatile energy and food went from 5.5 - 5.6%. Federal reserve staff do forecast a recession later this year. However there still isn’t sufficient drop in consumer activity to reverse their strict monetary policy. In the auto-sector fuel-efficient cars are having a good sales run, while labor market in construction hasn’t fallen yet. There is also an increased demand in consumer spending with reduction in gasoline prices. As of now the Fed is delaying pausing interest rate decrease.

Sector Sweep

Tech

• Nvidia is enhancing its mid range chip RTX 4070 with AI features to improve graphics targeted for the gaming industry.

Real Estate

• Rising interest rate are beginning to affect the multi-family rental market as Houston’s Applesway Investment Group is foreclosing 3200 units. They had borrowed nearly $230 million to buy the rental buildings. Commercial real estate like shopping malls and other urban offices are feeling the pain.

Consumer products

• Colgate is recalling 5 million bottles of its cleaning product Fabuloso which may contain bacteria that is harmful to immuno-compromised people.

• Whole Foods is looking at building off-site commercial kitchens to improve customer experience and food quality for their prepared meals.

Energy

• Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm says the transition to green energy comprising of boosting electric vehicle infrastructure, hydrogen production has been hampered by increase in fossil fuel costs. In order to control inflation, US is looking to increase the drilling activity from oil and gas producers as prices post Russia-Ukraine conflict have gone up considerably. The government plan is to make clean energy more abundant and cheaper.

Insurance

• Health insurance company owners like United Health, CVS Health Corp are seeing gains in stocks during April. This is primarily coming from the announcement that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will reimburse private insurers that administer Medicare plans at a higher rate in 2024 than analysts expected

That’s all for today folks. Do keep a lookout for our weekly email about stock deep dives and personal finance strategies this Saturday.

Have your heard of interstate purchase power parity?

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