With consumer inflation at a 40-year-high, most shoppers — rich or poor — will seek out the best prices, CEO Doug McMillon explained.
“During periods of inflation like this, middle-income families, lower middle-income families, even wealthier families become more price sensitive. And that’s to our advantage,” McMillon said during the company’s earnings call Thursday.
“So we’ve been through this before. And we run with inflation around the world all the time. Inflation is a different environment in the U.S. right now than it has been in recent times for sure, but we’ve been dealing with inflation in South America and Mexico and other places.”
In January, consumer prices surged 7.5%, the highest since 1982, and producer prices rose by 9.6%, the highest on record.
www.foxbusiness.com/markets/walmart-shoppers-inflation-rollbacks
The remarks on Friday by Governor Lael Brainard and New York Fed President John Williams, as well as Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans, showed officials eager to get tightening under way, without seeking a supersized interest-rate hike or a move before the next scheduled meeting.
“Given we have seen quite strong data, I do anticipate it will be appropriate at our next meeting to initiate a series of rate increases,” Brainard told a panel discussion at a conference in New York hosted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “We have a recovery today that is much stronger and faster than in the last cycle. So I do believe it will be appropriate to commence that runoff in the next few meetings.”
Speaking separately, Williams said that while raising rates will be “appropriate” in March, he doesn’t see a compelling argument for taking “a big step at the beginning,” amid speculation the Fed might increase rates by a half percentage point instead of a quarter point.
finance.yahoo.com/news/top-fed-officials-back-march-223055762.html