The first 23 days of 2014 were about as boring as any three-week period in recent memory. By the close of business on Thursday the 23rd of January, the year-to-date moves for most of the active developed asset markets were minuscule: Spoos -1% Q's +1% EURUSD unch...
The December payroll report does NOT suggest that labor market momentum is increasing. The modest 78k increase in payrolls, plus the 34k in positive revisions barely gets us half of what was expected. But the most concerning part of the report comes from the household...
Catchy title huh? But I'm sorry to disappoint all the haters out there, I will not be referring to a crash in risk assets. I will leave that exercise in futility for the doomsayers and goldbugs who have been calling for Armegeddon since 900 on the spoo! Instead I'm...
We just saw one of the "easiest" Fed removals of accommodation in history. And as mentioned previously, this meeting was one of the closest calls in recent memory. Here is what I wrote on Dec 10th in a commentary entitled "Smaller or Later Redux" - "As for the market...
The news of Stan Fischer's appointment to the Federal Reserve Board as vice chairman for monetary affairs did not seem to generate any market cheer last week. After the announcement many folks quickly scanned the recent press to obtain a better handle on his views....
The employment data last week was certainly strong enough for the Fed to move ahead with a taper at the upcoming FOMC meeting. A 7% unemployment rate with a RISING participation rate and a 200K handle on payrolls is about as good as we could have wished for. And the...
"The economy cannot on its own generate enough steam to provide our full potential of growth" - Alvin Hansen, "The Stagnation Thesis" (1954) The first economist to use the term "secular stagnation" was Harvard Professor Alvin Hansen in his 1938 work entitled "Full...
With Janet's hearings out of the way, there is little to focus on with regards to Fed policy into year-end. The next major event will be November payrolls, but even a big print will not likely catalyze a taper. With all the talk of lower unemployment thresholds,...
Days like yesterday are simply magical – spoos +14 and EDZ6 +16; it just doesn’t get any better. The risk market and the risk-free markets were both strong to start the day, on rumors that the Fed might lower the IOER in conjunction with an initial taper. What a...
A 2.8% GDP print and 200k+ on payrolls are poison for the hater community. For those who thought QE is just pushing on a string, or the government shutdown would destroy growth, or the business cycle is dead, or Rob Ford did not have a substance abuse problem.....I'm...
A 2.8% GDP print and 200k+ on payrolls are poison for the hater community. For those who thought QE is just pushing on a string, or the government shutdown would destroy growth, or the business cycle is dead, or Rob Ford did not have a substance abuse problem.....I'm sorry to inform you, the data (and […]
