Everyone is waiting on the Fed before trading stocks
Stock market activity ahead of the Federal Reserve decision can be best described by the famous Caddyshack line: Well. We’re waiiiiiiiiiiting. Volumes traded in the biggest exchange-traded funds that ...
Stocks hit record in intraday trading
Solid numbers on retail spending and hopes that a half-point cut from the Fed will put additional wind in America’s economic sails has propelled the S&P 500 to a fresh intraday record in early trading...
Rate cuts and record-high stocks are as American as apple pie
The S&P 500 ended less than 1% below its July 16 record closing high on Monday with the Federal Reserve poised to kick off an easing cycle this Wednesday . Surely, US stock markets near all-time highs...
Housing stocks are going straight up with interest rates about to go down
After spending nearly two years in a deep downturn, the US housing market is about to be jolted to life by a half-percentage point rate cut from the Federal Reserve later this week. At least that’s th...
The market is listening to the media
The pen is mightier than the trading floor’d. Articles published by prominent journalists who cover the Federal Reserve last week, most notably the Wall Street Journal’s Nick Timiraos, are continuing ...
Why it matters whether the Federal Reserve delivers a small or large rate cut
The Federal Reserve is universally expected to begin cutting rates at its policy meeting next week. The only question is, by how much? After a slightly hotter than expected inflation report on Wednesd...
Home loans are getting cheaper
Growing certainty that the Federal Reserve will begin a substantial rate-cutting cycle later this month have helped pull mortgage rates down to their lowest level in over a year, potentially throwing ...
Upturn in core inflation tilts Fed towards smaller rate cut
August’s reading of the core consumer price index came in above expectations, up 0.28% month-on-month. Economists expected a print of about 0.20%. Two-year US Treasury yields, which are very sensitive...
Inflation expectations fall to lowest levels since 2020
The meh jobs report , coupled with the slump in oil prices — down about 5% this week to ~$70 a barrel — has helped push expectations for inflation back below 2%, at least according to one key gauge. T...
The Federal Reserve is going back to the 1990s
Coming off an unexpectedly soft jobs report, US monetary policymakers engage in fierce debate over whether to kick off an easing cycle with an interest rate cut of 25 or 50 basis points. The year is 2...
Market wrap: S&P 500 slips; Treasuries gain following lackluster job data
The S&P 500 closed down 0.2% on Wednesday after oscillating between positive and negative territory, as did the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000. Earlier in the day, the July Job Openings and Labor Turnove...
Why you shouldn’t freak out about the yield curve “uninverting”
The spread between the 2 and 10-year US Treasury yields briefly flipped back into positive territory on Wednesday for the second time since 2022 after some mildly concerning data on the US job market ...
With the Fed about to cut, is the soft landing on track?
Did they pull it off? Or did they pull a fast one? If the Federal Reserve cuts short-term interest rates next month, as Wall Street thinks is almost certain, it will mark an important milestone in the...
The Fed has pulled $2 trillion from the financial system over the last two years.
All magicians rely on misdirection, the power to focus an observer’s attention on something, while simultaneously steering that onlooker’s gaze away from something else. In a sense, the recent will-th...
Market wrap: S&P 500 soars after the Fed green-lights an easing cycle
Major indexes rose on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell said that it was time for a rate cut . Both S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 gained 1.2%. Small caps took the lead in the market boom, with th...
Your job is now Fed Chair Jay Powell's full-time job
Two Federal Reserve officials laid out wildly competing visions for the US job market in the mountains of Wyoming over the past two days. And we should probably be glad that the more pro-labor view is...
Powell leaves no doubt rate cuts are on the way
Over the past 18 months, there have been major market head-fakes where traders thought a rate-cutting cycle was right around the corner only to be proven wrong. The US regional bank crisis. The long s...
Market wrap: Tech-centric selloff sends S&P 500 down
The S&P 500 was down 0.9%. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.7%, its biggest decline since Aug. 7. Russell 2000 slid 1%. Markets slumped ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at th...
Jackson Hole has not been friendly to the stock market in recent years
The week’s main event is still ahead of us: Fed Chair Jay Powell will give his speech on Friday at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at Interactive Brokers, f...
With the Fed about to cut, it might be time to buy a CD
High interest rates attracted a mountain of cash to high-yield savings accounts and money market mutual funds over the last couple years. But the salad days of depositors free-riding on high short-ter...