Why are food input prices falling but grocery prices rising?

Inflation: Why Are Food Input Prices Falling But Grocery Prices Rising?

Vegetable oil prices have halved. Cereal prices are down 20%. Dairy similar. Sugar is one of the few food ingredients that is up (and Ukraine/Russia are not even major producers), but meat is down.

At the same time, international shipping rates have plummeted. The Baltic Dry Index is about 75% lower than its peak in 2022.

So, why are grocery prices still rising?

In this week’s podcast, Nucleus Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen, and Senior Financial Adviser, Samuel Kerr discuss what is really going on with inflation.

Watch the episode here.

The End of Cycle Shock is Here!

JP Morgan bought First Republic Bank, the USA’s second-biggest bank failure in history.

The Federal Reserve hiked rates another 25 bps to their highest level in 16 years, along with Tuesday’s surprise increase from the RBA.

Jenny Craig is reportedly closing its operations after 40 years, as it struggles to secure financing, and the Californian lender PacWest’s future looks uncertain. Our team have been talking about this for a long time and today we discuss if this is the end-of-cycle shock we’ve been waiting for?

In this week’s podcast Nucleus Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer Damien Klassen, Chief Strategist David Llewellyn-Smith and Senior Financial Adviser Samuel Kerr discuss this hot topic.

Agenda: The Fed has finally broken something

Watch the episode here.

Is The Commodity Goose Cooked?

In November, China issued a sweeping directive to rescue its property sector. At face value, it was a major recalibration of its property crackdown.

There are two ways to read the string of announcements:

• China is starting down the “whatever it takes” path. The current policies may not be enough, but they are a sign that China will keep adding more stimulus until the problem is fixed.
• The plan does not change the fundamental demand for new construction. For the most part, you can categorise the elements as either (a) directives to various banks to lend more to developers, mostly focussed on completing existing projects (b) reduced debt constraints or rules on individuals buying houses. The plan is to avert catastrophe rather than return to the old normal.

The stock market/commodity traders assumed the first was true. We suspected the second.

Nothing is more important in commodity markets than getting this call right.

In this investment podcast, Nucleus Wealth Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen, Chief Strategist, David Llewellyn-Smith and Senior Financial Adviser, Samuel Kerr look deeper.

Watch the episode here.

The Transparency Warrior VS Vested Interests W/ Ex-Senator Rex Patrick

From an investment perspective, betting on vested interests to win the issue of the day has been an easy bet for the last few decades.

While Nucleus admits this is no way to run a country, it is hard to invest for a different outcome when vested interests keep winning at the expense of the broader population.

Our guest has been in the thick of the transparency battle in parliament and continues the battle in his post-senate career.

Former Senator Rex Patrick was known as the Transparency Warrior during his time in the Federal Parliament. He is also well known for his attempts to fix the gas market.

In this investment podcast, Nucleus Wealth Chief Investment Officer Damien Klassen, Chief Strategist David Llewellyn-Smith and Senior Financial Adviser Samuel Kerr as we get Rex on to discuss the state of the energy market, electric vehicles, transparency in government, PwC/consultant conflicts and more.

Watch the episode here.