What we’re reading (6/5)
“Economists Raise Questions About Quality Of U.S. Inflation Data” (Wall Street Journal). “Some economists are beginning to question the accuracy of recent U.S. inflation data after the federal government said staffing shortages hampered its ability to conduct a massive monthly survey. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office that publishes the inflation rate, told outside economists this week that a hiring freeze at the agency was forcing the survey to cut back on the number of businesses where it checks prices. In last month’s inflation report, which examined prices in April, government statisticians had to use a less precise method for guessing price changes more extensively than they did in the past.”
“Citadel Securities’ Esposito Says US Deficit Is A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’” (Reuters). “The U.S. government's growing debt pile is a ‘ticking time bomb’ and how the Trump administration reacts to this crisis is going to be "super important", Citadel Securities President Jim Esposito said on Thursday. Several other leaders of the financial services industry have issued similar warnings about the current U.S. deficit in recent weeks. Earlier in June, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the U.S. national debt is a ‘big deal’ that could create a "tough time" for the bond market that causes spreads to widen.”
“Lululemon Shares Tumble 23% As It Cuts Full-Year Earnings Guidance, Citing ‘Dynamic Macroenvironment’” (CNBC). “Lululemon’s report comes after a string of retailers reduced or withdrew their guidance and said they would hike prices because of uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s tariff regime. Retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch and Macy’s slashed their profit outlooks, while others, including American Eagle Outfitters pulled their full-year guidance altogether.”
“Circle Stock Soars Over 160% After IPO As Stablecoin Giant Makes Market Debut” (Yahoo! Finance). “Circle stock (CRCL) exploded higher in its first day of trading on Thursday, rising as much as 200% at session highs after the stablecoin issuer made its long-anticipated public market debut. At market close, shares settled at $83.23, up 168% from their IPO price of $31.”
“Can AI Master Econometrics? Evidence From Econometrics AI Agent On Expert-Level Tasks” (Qiang Chen, et al.). “Can AI effectively perform complex econometric analysis traditionally requiring human expertise? This paper evaluates an agentic AI's capability to master econometrics, focusing on empirical analysis performance. We develop an ``Econometrics AI Agent'' built on the open-source MetaGPT framework. This agent exhibits outstanding performance in: (1) planning econometric tasks strategically, (2) generating and executing code, (3) employing error-based reflection for improved robustness, and (4) allowing iterative refinement through multi-round conversations. We construct two datasets from academic coursework materials and published research papers to evaluate performance against real-world challenges. Comparative testing shows our domain-specialized agent significantly outperforms both benchmark large language models (LLMs) and general-purpose AI agents.”
