Volatility created jitters in both the equity and bond markets throughout the first quarter of the year and there are no signs of it abating. Speculation on Federal Reserve activity, inflation concerns, strong economic indicators, tariffs and increased oversight, particularly…
I. FOMC Meeting Hawkish sentiments emanated from the new Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, last week as he presided over his first FOMC meeting. As widely expected, the Federal Reserve unanimously hiked the federal funds upper limit rate from 1.5% to 1.75%,…
After the U.S. elections and Brexit rocked 2016, 2017 was a relatively calmer year for the markets across the board. Tides will likely turn as disruptive forces, a year of “unknowns” and increased volatility will keep market practitioners on their…
Despite the House of Representatives passing tax legislation, that would lower corporate taxes to levels not seen since 1939, major stock indices and the greenback were on their way to end the week lower, at the time of this writing.…
While the Houston Astros won their first World Series last week, a number of other “firsts” regarding the markets occurred as well: 1) President Trump tapped his first nomination for Federal Reserve chairperson, Jerome Powell. Powell is viewed to continue…
While the market was inundated with market news and economic data last week, this upcoming week will be a pivotal one: President Trump is expected to announce his nomination for Fed Chair; his pick will have obvious implications on the…
While Central Bank murmurs both at home and abroad commanded much of the market’s attention last week, lower-than-expected core inflation data stole the spotlight on Friday. Both equities and bonds rallied on the 0.1% September gain in CPI, leaving the…
Signs of an economic pick up within the US economy generally supported demand for stocks and the U.S. dollar as treasuries continued to selloff last week. Ten-year yields touched a recent high of 2.40% at the time of this write-up. Two-year…
Moves in higher treasury yields grabbed the market’s attention last week as the selloff resulted in 10-year yields rising above its 200-day moving average of nearly 2.33% (2.37% in the overnight market). A number of factors contributed to the move, including:…
As expected the Fed kept rates unchanged and more importantly, announced that its balance sheet normalization will kick off next month. The Fed also shared its economic projections including rate hikes expected: once more in 2017, three and two hikes…
