1. U.S. Inflation Expectations at the Peak of 8 Years
2. Fed / Evans: Achieving Targets in the Economy will Take Time
3. Colonial Pipeline Cyber Attackers: ” Our Goal is to Make Money and Not Creating Problems for Society.”

U.S. Inflation Expectations at the Peak of 8 Years

More Americans expect inflation to rise in the coming years as the economy recovers from the coronavirus crisis.

The survey conducted by the Federal Reserve (Fed) New York branch, which was based on about 1,300 households, revealed that consumer expectations for inflation in the U.S. for the next 12 months have risen to the highest level seen since September 2013.

For the next 12 months, consumers’ inflation expectations increased from 3.2% in March to 3.4% in April. Inflation expectations for the next three years were 3.1%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for April.

“Perceptions about households’ current financial situations compared to a year ago improved in April, with fewer respondents reporting to be worse off now,” The New York Fed report said.

“Expectations about households’ financial situations in the year ahead were largely stable.”

Consumers’ expectations for potential earnings and spending have decreased. In April, income growth forecasts fell to a median of 2.4% across all age groups and educational levels. In addition, spending growth expectations fell marginally in April, from a six-year high of 4.7% in March to a median of 4.6% in April.

Officials at the Federal Reserve, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, expect near-term pricing pressures to ease as supply blockages are resolved and effects from severe price drops at the start of the pandemic last year disappear from inflation calculations. However, according to the New York Fed’s monthly survey results, some people also believe that the inflation increase would be temporary.

Fed / Evans: Achieving Targets in the Economy will Take Time

On Monday, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans told CNBC that jobs and inflation should significantly improve before changing his monetary policy stance.

The central bank official said he still believes the employment picture is solid, despite substantial areas of weakness, after Friday’s hugely disappointing jobs report.

“It’s a little more complicated. We’re restarting the economy. A lot of sectors are experiencing growing pains,” Evans said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Hopefully, it’s just a one-month kind of thing, and we’re going to get better employment. I certainly think so.”

It was stated that the economy added 266,000 jobs in April, well below market expectations that exceeded one million. However, Chicago Fed President said he expects the labor market to continue to expand at a healthy pace for the rest of the year.

Besides, the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to purchase bonds of 120 billion dollars per month and keep interest rates close to 0% to support the economy. The bank stated that asset purchases would continue until significant progress is made in inflation and employment targets.

Evans indicated that the key measures the Fed watches – employment and inflation – remain a good deal from levels that would persuade him to tighten.

“I think it’s going to take quite some time for us actually to see it in the data, assess it,” he said. “I can’t give you a time frame.”

Colonial Pipeline Cyber Attackers: ” Our Goal is to Make Money and Not Creating Problems for Society.”

Oil prices fell on fears of a prolonged outage of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline system, and OPEC focused on publishing the new global supply-demand analysis.

Colonial Pipeline (COLPI.UL), the country’s largest fuel pipeline, said on Monday that it plans to “substantially” restore operational service by the end of the week. Colonial’s entire network was shut down last week due to a cyber attack. The pipeline carries 2.5 million barrels a day – 45% of the East Coast’s supply of diesel, petrol, and jet fuel.

To be mentioned, a cyber-criminal gang that took a major US fuel pipeline offline over the weekend has acknowledged the incident in a public statement.

“Our goal is to make money and not creating problems for society,” DarkSide wrote on its website.

In addition, North Carolina declared a state of emergency as some of the gas stations on the east coast of the USA were coming to the point of running out of fuel due to cuts.

“After taking into account the fact that the Colonial Pipeline is expecting to resume full services by the end of the week, the market appears to have set aside the incident as a temporary disruption,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights. “Oil market attention is shifting back to the global dichotomy between countries emerging out of the Covid storm and some still in its grip.”

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 0.69% to $64.47, while Brent crude futures dropped 0.63% to $67.89 a barrel.