Fed cuts, signals limited rate reductions to come in 2025
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate by 25 basis points to a range of 4.25% to 4.5% at its December meeting, as was universally expected. However, the market isn’t loving all that it’s hearing from...
Stocks surge as tech roars back
The S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Russell 2000 was up 0.5% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 soared 1.8% to hit a record high. Stocks benefited from an in-line November CPI inflation report that calcified t...
Stocks rally as traders lock in bets on lower rates
November’s reading of the consumer-price index matched Wall Street’s expectations, helping spark a stock-market rally. The and are on the rise in the premarket, with the outperforming and gaining a...
Bonds’ rally on Bessent pick for Treasury shows there’s big tension between Trump and the markets
The market reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent to be the next US Treasury secretary is affirming investors’ fervent hope for the incoming administ...
Fed Chair Powell says he wouldn’t step aside if Trump asked him to
“No.” That was Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s response when asked if he would willingly leave the US central bank if President-elect Donald Trump asked him to step down. He repeated that answer when asked ...
Fed cuts in-line with expectations
The Federal Reserve trimmed its policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.5% to 4.75% at its November meeting on the heels of its 50-basis point cut in September. A reduction of this size was expected by n...
Is the bond market throwing a Trump tantrum?
There’s something unusual going on in the US bond market. The Fed delivered a jumbo rate cut in September — but the 10-year Treasury yield is up to a three-month high, breaking above 4.3% on Tuesday. ...
Market wrap: S&P 500 pulls back from record after inflation data
The S&P 500 slid 0.2% after rallying to another record high on Wednesday. The Nasdaq 100 was down 0.1%, while the Russell 2000 was down 0.6%. Economic data released on Thursday morning showed higher-t...
Inflation declines, but slower than expected
It’s a touch hotter than expected, but inflation continues to fall. Wall Street analysts had called for today’s consumer price index report to show prices 2.3% higher than September 2023 levels. In th...
A blockbuster US jobs report deflates recession worries — and rate cut expectations
The September non-farm payrolls report showed job growth of 254,000 for the month, while economists had expected employment to rise by 150,000. That’s the most jobs added relative to expectations sinc...
The US and China finally agree on what to do about the economy
For the first time since Covid turned everything upside down, policymakers in the world’s two largest economies finally have a common cause. Actions from US monetary officials last week and Beijing th...
The high interest rate environment has been brutal for US banks
An analysis from the Financial Times suggests that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate-hiking campaign that started in March 2022 was a $1 trillion “windfall” for US banks, bolstering profit margins...
The housing market is finally responding to lower interest rates
The sharp drop in mortgage rates over the last six months — when the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dove from more than 7% to nearly 6% — is finally generating a reaction. Refinancing activity has picked...
The battle against inflation is essentially over, but it might not feel that way
This week, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by 0.5% , the first cut since the pandemic, signaling a major turning point in the battle against America’s least-favorite word of recent years: i...
Market wrap: S&P 500 closes at record high
The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Thursday, up 1.7% to 5713.6, the session following the Federal Reserve’s half-point rate cut. The Nasdaq 100 advanced 2.6%. The Russell 2000 Index of small cap s...
The “keep it there” economy
If Fed Chair Jay Powell had his druthers, not much about the economy would change over the next couple years — except for the level of short-term interest rates. A common theme during the press confer...
Market wrap: S&P 500 wavers to end lower after Fed's big rate cut
In a rollercoaster day for the stock market, the S&P 500 closed down 0.3% after briefly setting a new intraday record high following the Federal Reserve’s half-percentage-point rate cut. The Nasdaq 10...
Fed decision subtext: This was Jay’s way or the highway
To adapt the hackneyed expression, personnel is monetary policy. That was on full display with today’s 50 basis point rate cut from the Fed in a decision that was hotly debated and not everyone in the...
One chart that shows why the Federal Reserve went for a big cut
The Federal Reserve is worried about the labor market . The median monetary policymaker thinks the unemployment rate (currently 4.2%) will be at 4.4% at the end of this year and the next, a worse outc...
Federal Reserve delivers jumbo rate cut
The Federal Reserve acted decisively in starting its easing cycle with a 50 basis point cut, taking its policy rate down to a range of 4.75 to 5%. Monetary policymakers expect to deliver 100 basis poi...