Displaying items by tag: fed

(New York)

Don’t be fooled by the “prophets of boom”, or the many Wall Street and economic leaders who are saying that the US economy is in great shape and will deliver strong growth for years to come. One well known strategist, David Rosenberg, who called the Great Recession before the Crisis, says that a recession is imminent and will arrive within the next 12 months. Rosenberg believes the January 26th high for the S&P 500 will be the peak of this bull market, and that it will ultimately be the Fed that sparks the recession. “Cycles die, and you know how they die? … Because the Fed puts a bullet in its forehead”.

FINSUM: There are a lot of late cycle indicators flashing in the US economy right now. A recession in the next year does seem plausible, if not overly likely.

(New York)

Investors look out! After years of booming asset prices on the back of extraordinarily loose monetary policy, everything looks like it is about to implode. Not only is the Fed hiking and looking hawkish, but the ECB is in the middle of a covert meeting likely about how to end QE. China also looks close to reigning in its economy. Altogether, the economy on which current markets have been built looks set for change, which might cause big problems for equity investors.

FINSUM: So far “normalization” of interest rates has been quite slow, which has let investors sort of ignore the process. If things start accelerating quickly, then markets may react very sharply.

(Washington)

In a widely expected move yesterday, Jerome Powell announced the first hike of his stint as the head of the Fed. The move was a quarter point higher to between 1.75% and 2%. Powell promised to be more open and transparent about the Fed’s outlook than in former times. Powell presented the rosiest outlook on the US economy in memory, repeatedly expressing strong optimism. He indicated that there were two more hikes planned for this year.

FINSUM: All the optimism comes across as quite hawkish despite Powell’s intentions to seem gradual. We appear to be on definite course higher.

(Washington)

All eyes on the Fed. Not only is the winding down of the Fed’s balance sheet a potentially major issue to Dollar liquidity and emerging markets, but the market has rate worries to deal with. The big question is how low the US jobless rate can go before it sparks big inflation. Currently sitting at 3.8%, the Fed needs to decide how long it can tolerate the hot market before hiking rates quickly. The US jobless rate has only twice been so low. Once in the 1960s, which led to a decade of high inflation, and once in 2000, which was followed by a recession.

FINSUM: There is currently a big disconnect between the rate rises the market is pricing in versus what the Fed is forecasting. The market may lose that gamble very badly.

(Washington)

Investors, be worried about the Fed, and not for the reasons you think. While all the market’s focus has been on how quickly the Fed will raise rates, what could really cause problems is the Fed’s unwinding of its balance sheet. According to the Indian central bank, this unwinding is sucking Dollars out of the system and causing a Dollar liquidity squeeze. According to Urjit Patel, the governor of India’s central bank, this Dollar-squeeze means “a crisis in the rest of the dollar bond markets is inevitable”, with a growing “possibility . . . a ‘sudden stop’ for the global economic recovery”.

FINSUM: It sounds like emerging markets are going to have increasing trouble issuing Dollar bonds, which could definitely throw a wrench into the recovery. Maybe this is how the Fed sparks a global recession and not just an American one.