Transcript:
Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
Investors took a victory lap on Thursday - pushing the Dow and the S&P 500 to fresh record closing highs. New data show the economy continues to grow, while inflation cools, and the labor market adjusts to a slower pace. Along those lines, there are layoffs at Walt Disney The company let go of roughly 300 employees in another round of job cuts.
On Friday, Wall Street will get big news on the inflation front when the closely watched Personal Consumption Expenditures index is released. It is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.
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Turning now to other headlines - the price of a stamp is about to go up….again and again.
The Post Office is planning to hike the cost of a first-class stamp five times between now and 2027. The first hike will happen in July 2025, in order to give inflation more time to decline, the Post Office said. After that, there will be two more increases in 2026, followed by another two in 2027.
In a regulatory filing, the Post Office said it needs to raise rates “given our legal obligation to be financially self-sufficient.”
Few things have experienced the level of inflation seen by a postage stamp. In 1974 it only cost 10 cents, by 2002 it jumped to 34 cents, and now it stands at 73 cents. That’s an eye-popping 630 percent rise over a 50 year period.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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