Fed

What Is Powell Thinking?

Jan 17, 2024 3 min read paid

This question was partially answered yesterday in a speech by Fed Governor Christopher Waller: "This cycle, however, with economic activity and labor markets in good shape and inflation coming down gradually to 2 percent, I see no reason to move as quickly or cut as rapidly as in the past. The healthy state of the economy provides the flexibility to lower the (nominal) policy rate to keep the real

Ed Yardeni

Bad Apple?

Jan 3, 2024 2 min read paid

The MegaCap-8 stocks led the S&P 500 down during the first two days of trading in 2024 (chart). The moves came after Barclays downgraded Apple on Tuesday and lowered its price target for shares of the company on fears of slowing iPhone 15 sales in China. We warned you about companies with exposure to the weak Chinese economy on December 26 in our QT titled "Prepare For

Ed Yardeni

Bond & Stock Prices In Mini Meltup Over Soft Landing

Dec 14, 2023 2 min read

Investors are obviously relieved that the economy may be on a sustainable soft-landing path and might avoid a recession (again) in 2024. They are especially relieved that Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently implied that he and his colleagues are relieved about this too and are talking more dovish now: (1) Waller. For example, two weeks ago, Fed Governor Christopher Waller, in a November 28 speech titled, "Something Appears to

Ed Yardeni

A Christmas Market For The Bull? S&P 500 At 6000 In 2025?

Dec 10, 2023 3 min read paid

Christmas is in two weeks. This year's Santa Claus rally started early, i.e., on October 27. Will it last through Christmas? Will the rally continue through the end of this year, and maybe through the end of 2024 or even 2025? We think so. In our November 3, 2022 Morning Briefing, we wrote that “we think the S&P 500 bottomed on October 12 and see

Ed Yardeni

The Economic Week Ahead: December 11 - 15

Dec 10, 2023 2 min read paid

The big event of the week will be the FOMC meeting (Tue & Wed) followed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's presser (Wed @ 2:30 pm). December's Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) will be released along with the Dot Plot after the meeting. The markets have most likely fully discounted what Powell will say and what the SEP and Dot Plot will show. Powell will say that

Ed Yardeni

Loose Fed Lips Sink Yields

Nov 28, 2023 2 min read paid

Not much happened in the stock market today even though the 10-year bond yield fell to 4.34% from a high of 4.98% on October 19 (chart). The 2-year yield sank to 4.73%, the lowest since July 17. This morning, Fed Governor Christopher Waller warned that inflation is still too high. But he also said that if inflation continues to cool “for several more months—I don’t

Ed Yardeni

Fed Not Even Thinking About Thinking About Cutting Rates

Nov 21, 2023 2 min read paid

That's the basic message of the FOMC's minutes released today. The word "restrictive" was mentioned seven times mostly in the following context: "In discussing the policy outlook, participants continued to judge that it was critical that the stance of monetary policy be kept sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to the Committee’s 2 percent objective over time." The core PCED was up

Ed Yardeni

Taking A Well-Deserved Break

Nov 15, 2023 2 min read paid

Today was a day of rest in the bond and stock markets. They didn't do much. Perhaps the markets will consolidate their gains since the start of the month through the end of Thanksgiving week. Then we expect that the stock market's Santa Claus rally will resume through the end of the year. In our opinion, the consensus outlook has turned much less pessimistic so far

Ed Yardeni

Another Happy Day For Bond & Stock Investors

Nov 14, 2023 2 min read paid

As inflation continues to descend, bond and stock prices are ascending. Today's lower-than-expected CPI inflation report confirms that inflation is continuing to moderate. So the 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 4.44%, boosting the valuation multiples of stocks. The S&P 500 is now up 9.2% above its recent correction low on October 27 (chart). Our yearend target of 4600 for the index could be

Ed Yardeni

Powell Is Still Calling The Shots

Nov 9, 2023 2 min read paid

The bid-to-cover ratio is the dollar value of bids compared with the dollar value of debt offered. Falling bid-to-cover ratios indicate less robust interest from investors. Yields climbed today after a weak auction of $24 billion in 30-year Treasuries with demand for the debt at 2.24 times the bonds on sale (chart). That helped to push stock prices lower today, snapping the longest winning streaks for the Nasdaq and

Ed Yardeni

SLOOS Shows Looser Credit Conditions

Nov 6, 2023 1 min read

The Fed may not be as almighty as Fed officials believe. The FOMC has raised the federal funds rate aggressively by 525bps since March 2022. Their goal was to slow economic growth to subdue inflation. Yet the economy grew rapidly during Q3 and the unemployment rate has remained below 4.0% since February 2022. Nevertheless, inflation has moderated significantly since last summer (chart). Inflation seems to be to be mostly

Ed Yardeni

Powell Remains Hawkish

Oct 19, 2023 2 min read

Fed Chair Jerome Powell should be very concerned about the rapid disinversion of the yield curve since early July as the bond yield soared from around 4.00% to nearly 5.00% today. If he is, he didn't show it during his interview today. Instead, he noted that the economy remains strong and monetary policy might have to be tightened some more: "We are attentive to recent

Ed Yardeni

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