As expected, the FOMC left the Federal Funds target rate between 1% and 1.25%. The FOMC statement was very upbeat citing solid job gains, low unemployment rates, a moderate expansion of household spending, and a pickup in business investment growth.…
Last week, headline inflation increased 0.4%, while core CPI (excluding food and energy) rose 0.2%. The 0.2% increase ends a five-month streak of weaker-than-expected readings. The inflation report could alleviate concerns among some Fed officials regarding previous low readings, and…
The US Dollar and global equities are edging higher this morning after no news of a missile launch this past Saturday by North Korea. Hurricane Irma is also now reduced from having hurricane winds to that of a tropical storm,…
The market couldn’t kiss the summer goodbye without creating some butterflies as Wall Street gets ready to get back in the thrust of things this week. Payroll data surprised to the downside, rising by 156k versus the market’s expectations of…
Jittery markets dominated most of the last week as geopolitical risks between the U.S. and North Korea rattled participants, who then flocked towards risk averse assets. Gold rose about 2.7%, as major U.S. stock indices all ended the week lower,…
Strong US employment data for the month of July, has given the Federal Reserve a greater reason to continue on its path of tighter monetary policy. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 209,000 jobs in July beating market expectations of an 180,000 jobs…
After being wrought with scandal for too many years now, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority that regulates LIBOR finally announced last week the phase out of the index by the end of 2021. LIBOR which stands for the London interbank offered rate…
Politics is in the air. The increased scrutiny surrounding President Trumps’ business transactions, the 2016 campaign and alleged ties to Russia have caused some practitioners to believe that Trump’s economic agenda may be placed on the back burner. This belief…
Federal Reserve Chairwoman’s relatively upbeat testimony earlier in the week seemed to indicate that the Fed will remain on course in hiking interest rates and slowly shrink its balance sheet in the fall. Yellen remained positive on economic prospects including…
Strong payrolls data for June, beating market expectations, caused stock markets to rebound and Treasury yields to edge higher last week. Employment rose 222k vs market expectations of 178k in June, bolstering confidence amongst investors. U.S. treasury yields climbed with…
