The Fed told us many times "tapering is not tightening". By that same logic, yesterday's "not to tapering" is "no easing". But the resulting market response certainly felt like an easing. And it will continue to do so for a while.
The Fed decision to maintain $85 bn in monthly asset purchases is the latest manifestation of fiscal policy interfering with the central bank's adjustment of monetary policy. The risk of a government shutdown next month and the resulting failure to raise the debt limit could exacerbate the nascent recovery if $10bn or $15 bn were removed.
Today's release of US August existing home sales hitting 5-year highs and the Philly Fed index at 2-year highs appear a valuable set of evidence in markets' data watch, but it is the labour market data, which command supremacy for the Fed.
What if Yields Rose Again?
Here's the Fed's upcoming trick, likely to be added into the forward guidance. So fat, the guidance has primarily focused on a threshold for the unemployment rate, but yesterday's comments from Bernanke suggested setting an "inflation floor" as a "sensible modification to the guidance". If attained, this could be a successful means of slowing down rising yields as long as falling unemployment is not accompanied by a recovery in inflation. The Fed's preferred inflation figure, core PEC price index, is at 2 ½ year low of 1.2%. Further declines nearing 1.1% could render the inflation forward guidance to become a carte blanche for further awaiting that 6.5% unemployment rate without fretting about the need for higher interest rates.
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I broke down the video below intoTime Stampsfor easier subject selection.
The widely anticipated Fed decision to hold rates unchanged means that December 2025 was the final rate cut under the Fed chairmanship of Jerome Powell. He has two FOMC meetings left to chair (March and May with no meeting shcheduled for April). Most notable about yesterday is that the FOMC statement was less dovish than Powell's press conference. The evidence lies in the 10-15 mins charts, showing EURUSD and gold dropping a bit after the FOMC statement, which noted improvements in growth and employment. Once Powell struck a dovish tone in his press conference, gold stabilized, and took off rapidly after Powell wrapped it up. تم تقسيم الفيديو الى أجزاء زمنية
The other point helping metals was the lack of any substantial comments from US Treasury Secretary Bessent about supporting the US dollar. The fact that there was no explicit remarks favouring the USD strenbth, extended the status quo. Saying the US did not interevene in capping USDJPY was not enough.
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