(Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve signaled it will start raising interest rates “soon” and shrink its bond holdings after liftoff has begun, moving toward ending ultra-easy pandemic support to fight the hottest inflation in a generation. “With inflation well above 2% and a strong labor market, the committee expects it will soon be appropriate to […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — When stocks plunged in 2018, Jerome Powell was there, buoying sentiment. Two years later as shares careened into the fastest bear market ever, he stepped up again, flooding the system with support. After the Nasdaq 100’s worst week since March 2020, investors are wondering what it would take for the Federal Reserve chairman […]
Read MoreThe president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve said the central bank should move soon to reduce its enormous $8.5 trillion pile of bond holdings to help curb the highest U.S. inflation in almost 40 years. Esther George on Tuesday said the Fed’s effort to reduce inflation would be more effective if the bank drew […]
Read MoreMarkets will see the latest minutes from the Fed’s monetary policy committee Wednesday. Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images Stocks fell Wednesday after the minutes from the last FOMC meeting confirmed that the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates soon to combat inflation. The release of the Fed minutes is usually a dull affair, as they usually […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve officials said a strengthening economy and higher inflation could lead to earlier and faster interest-rate increases than previously expected, with some policy makers also favoring starting to shrink the balance sheet soon after. “Participants generally noted that, given their individual outlooks for the economy, the labor market, and inflation, it may […]
Read MoreFederal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during Wednesday’s live-streamed news conference. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg Inflation will ease markedly while interest rates remain historically low and negative in real terms, even as the labor market returns to full employment, according to the latest economic projections from the Federal Reserve. This would be the best of all economic […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve officials intensified their battle against the hottest inflation in a generation by shifting to an earlier end of their asset-buying program and signaling they favor raising interest rates in 2022 at a faster pace than economists were expecting. Heralding one of the most hawkish policy pivots in years, the central bank […]
Read MoreA pivot is defined as a turn or a twist. Its safe to say there will be twists and turns on Wednesday as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is widely expected to adopt a more hawkish stance in his postmeeting news conference Wednesday. On display will be “the limits of Fed hawkishness,” said David Kelly, chief […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — The U.S. went on a borrowing binge last year and the hangover could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to fight inflation without crashing the economy. Corporate debt has surged $1.3 trillion since the start of 2020 as borrowers took advantage of emergency Fed action as the pandemic spread, slashing interest rates […]
Read MoreFederal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at a U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington. Al Drago/Bloomberg Was Jerome Powell channeling Paul Volcker this past week by admitting that inflation has ceased being transitory? Or will he wind up being more like Alan Greenspan, facing a conundrum if the bond market fails to follow the […]
Read MoreFederal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Al Drago/AFP via Getty Images Just a week after he was nominated for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell sounded unfamiliar. He said it was time to retire the word “transitory” that he and many other officials have long used to describe building inflation, signaling in testimony […]
Read MoreThe Biden administration looks set to soon announce its pick for who will lead the nation’s economic steward: the Federal Reserve. The White House appears to be weighing two options: keeping Jerome Powell as Fed chair or replacing him with current Fed Governor Lael Brainard. Both reportedly met with President Joe Biden earlier in the […]
Read MoreForget a ‘taper tantrum’ — ‘inflation indignation’ is here After Thursday’s bad news that consumer prices in October ran hotter — at over 6%, the hottest they’ve been since the first Bush administration, to be exact — than Wall Street expected, most of the emphasis has been on the reaction in stock markets, where frothy […]
Read MorePreparation pays dividends. Stock-market investors took the Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to begin tapering its monthly bond purchases without a hitch. “This taper was probably the best telegraphed or advertised move in monetary policy history,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley-National, in a phone interview. That’s in contrast to 2013, when the Fed’s […]
Read MoreAs investors awaits details of when and how the Federal Reserve plans to taper its massive monetary stimulus — and with inflation running as hot as ever — at least one investor thinks the market is likely to pull back from records as the central bank confronts price pressures that are throttling businesses and consumers. […]
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