The year 2021 was a mixed bag of innovation, value vs. growth debates, equity recalibrations, high supply side inflation (stagflation), structurally challenged employment data, new virus variants and projected rate hikes. Going into the end of the year, the highly transmissible Omicron variant is roiling markets, overshadowing the Federal Reserve’s (“Fed”) policy guidance of rate hike to rein in inflation.
The year 2021 was a mixed bag of innovation, value vs. growth debates, equity recalibrations, high supply side inflation (stagflation), structurally challenged employment data, new virus variants and projected rate hikes. Going into the end of the year, the highly transmissible Omicron variant is roiling markets, overshadowing the Federal Reserve’s (“Fed”) policy guidance of rate hike to rein in inflation.
Last week Fed chair Jay Powell pivoted away from “transitory”, and adopted a tone more in keeping with the market’s newly revised interest rate forecast. As a result, today’s yield curve is far away from the September FOMC projections, even though they’ll be revised at this month’s meeting.
Last week Fed chair Jay Powell pivoted away from “transitory”, and adopted a tone more in keeping with the market’s newly revised interest rate forecast. As a result, today’s yield curve is far away from the September FOMC projections, even though they’ll be revised at this month’s meeting.
Could the Fed trigger the next "financial crisis" as they begin to hike interest rates? Such is certainly a question worth asking as we look back at the Fed's history of previous monetary actions. Such was a topic I discussed in "Investors Push Risk Bets."
It’s easy to criticize the Fed. They’ve maintained their uber-accommodative monetary policy for probably a year longer than needed. Once the vaccine breakthrough was announced last November, prudence dictated that they anticipate an economic rebound and begin normalizing rates.
For months, investors have been scaling what feels like an endless wall of worry. Each concern that gets resolved seems to spawn new uncertainties, yet the market has continued its relentless climb higher.
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