(Bloomberg) — Sign up for the New Economy Daily newsletter, follow us @economics and subscribe to our podcast. The end of easy money is upon us. Two years after the pandemic sent the global economy into a deep but short recession, central bankers are withdrawing their emergency support — and they’re moving faster than they […]
Read More(Bloomberg) –Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell fired the starting gun for potentially the biggest and fastest tightening of global monetary policy in years. His hawkish shift included not ruling out U.S. rate hikes at every meeting for the rest of 2022. Over the next week, about a half dozen other central banks, including the Bank […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — How much further is the Federal Reserve willing to let stocks slide? That’s the burning question of the moment for financial markets, and Greg Jensen, co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates, has an answer: as much as 20% more. That’d put the S&P 500 below 3,500, or close to where it was before […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — While the financial world waits for the Federal Reserve’s announcement on monetary policy Wednesday afternoon in Washington, some of the biggest bond-fund managers have already made their moves. They anticipate Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will confirm their expectations, based on his determined signaling that rates will rise for the first time since 2018, […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — U.S. equity futures and Asian stocks retreated Thursday as investors digested Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s signal of a March interest-rate liftoff and the possibility of unexpectedly aggressive tightening. Equities fell in Japan and South Korea — where Samsung Electronics Co. missed profit estimates — while Australian shares declined 10% from an August […]
Read More(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 More(Bloomberg) — The process by which the Federal Reserve ultimately shrinks its balance sheet in the coming months or years will be different from the last time officials embarked on so-called quantitative tightening and could include outright sales from its bond portfolio. That’s the view of Credit Suisse Group AG strategist Zoltan Pozsar, who said that […]
Read MoreFederal Reserve Jerome Powell after testifying at a Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 11. Samuel Corum/Bloomberg Watch what they say, not what they do, at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this coming week. The obverse of the famous advice from Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, is what economists and market participants will be […]
Read MoreInvestors should buckle up as it could get hairy this year with the Federal Reserve poised to begin lifting interest rates from rock bottom levels. “I definitely think we will experience more volatility in 2022 than what we have seen certainly over the last year, but even going back over the last decade. We started […]
Read MoreAn earlier version of this article misstated the average annual return of a 60%/40% portfolio mix. The article has been corrected. The traditional portfolio mix of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, historically seen as the safest allocation for investors of moderate-risk tolerance, “is in danger” as the Federal Reserve gears up for its first interest […]
Read MoreFederal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at his confirmation hearing this week. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Bloomberg Now, in the winter of our discontent, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Misery Index has made a comeback. Those of a certain age will recall it was a measure conceived in the 1960s by the economist Arthur Okun, then an adviser […]
Read MoreU.S. home prices roared almost 20% higher in the past year, giving families who own properties a major boost to their finances during the pandemic. But Wall Street, a key source of home mortgage finance, sees important questions ahead for the red-hot housing market, now that the Federal Reserve has shifted its focus to tackle […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Henry Kaufman is one of the rare Wall Street veterans who can authoritatively draw parallels between the inflation scare of the 1970s and today’s alarming run-up in prices. And he has zero confidence Chair Jerome Powell’s Federal Reserve is ready for the battle it now faces. Kaufman decades ago was the celebrated chief […]
Read More(Bloomberg) — Jeffrey Gundlach said “recessionary pressure is building” in the U.S. economy with persistent inflation spurring Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to roll back easy-money policies. The Fed “seems pretty far behind the curve when you consider wage growth,” the billionaire money manager of the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund said Tuesday during a […]
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