ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
This past week was an important one for monetary policy. The Bank of England (BoE) made clear it is willing to put off rate hikes as long as necessary. Despite its words that suggest otherwise, the Bank is NOT biased for action. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made it clear that, all else being … Read more
The market is once gain gearing up for a December rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Today’s nudge came from Janet Yellen her first public commentary since last week’s decision on monetary policy. At that time, a simple and clever change in language convinced the market to pull in the month for a first … Read more
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced its November decision for monetary policy with a very familiar template. The most important part of the statement came at the end where the RBA made it clear rate cuts are on its collective mind (emphasis mine): “At today’s meeting the Board judged that the prospects for an … Read more
Australia’s persistently weak inflation data has now convinced the market that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is much more likely than not to cut interest rates at its November 3, 2015 meeting on monetary policy. Source: The ASX RBA Rate Indicator Combine this flip in market sentiment with the mirror image of the market … Read more
The U.S. Federal Reserve released its latest decision on monetary policy and left interest rates unchanged. There was of course no surprise there. However, the very mention of a future rate hike was treated like new news: Fed holds rates near zero, but signals possible hike "at its next meeting" https://t.co/vF4pOxlo9p — WSJ Breaking News … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 26, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) Almost two weeks ago, markets appeared ready to price in a first Fed rate cut way out into June, 2016 (essentially neverland). The U.S. dollar index (UUP) sat at one of … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 25, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) On October 21st, the Bank of Canada issued its latest statement on monetary policy. While the Bank of Canada (BoC) left interest rates unchanged, it slightly lowered its growth forecast over … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 7, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Bank of Japan put on a brave face as it announced its latest decision on monetary policy (October 7, 2015) with a big miss on its inflation target looming in … Read more
“…I expect that inflation will return to 2 percent over the next few years as the temporary factors that are currently weighing on inflation wane, provided that economic growth continues to be strong enough to complete the return to maximum employment and long-run inflation expectations remain well anchored. Most FOMC participants, including myself, currently anticipate … Read more
(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 24, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} After reading the actual speech by Andrew Haldane, titled ominously “How low can you go?,” I realized that the BBC had overly focused Haldane’s concluding remarks. I can understand the … Read more