Sunday, September 22, 2019
Investors have finally cracked under the pressure of the trade war with China. Stocks, which were at all-time highs just two weeks ago, are now 6% off those highs as of this writing. Although the S&P 500 is still up 13% year-to-date, Monday’s 3% drop set the alert level to red. Meanwhile, safe-haven investments like […]
The stock market got a nasty surprise on Monday. The Chinese government allowed their currency, the yuan, to sink below seven to the dollar (meaning higher than seven). The Chinese Fed, known as the PBOC, had been defending that level vigilantly for a long time. That’s over with, and it’s a big deal. Let me […]
We’re living in a low-rate world. Get used to it. At the start of the year, the Federal Reserve had plans to raise interest rates a few times. Well, you can forget about that. Over the past few months, the Fed has made it clear that it’s shelved any rate hike plans. In fact, some […]
After a decade of zero percent short term rates, in 2016 the Federal Reserve Board started to increase its Fed Funds Rate, which is the rate that drives all short term interest rates. That rate is now effectively 2.5%. Over the same period, rates at the longer end of the yield curve have not risen […]
It was only six months ago that Fed Chairman Jay Powell said that the Fed was “a long way from neutral,” meaning that they were going to keep raising rates. How times have changed! In December, the central bank hiked rates and the market threw a fit, and the stock market plunged. Still, the Fed’s […]
The Government surprised the world in 2008 when the Fed bailed out the banks at the expense of seniors and savers. The Fed dropped interest rates to historic lows while buying U.S. treasuries and bad loans through their Quantitative Easing (QE) program. Seniors and savers lost over $4 trillion in interest income they would have […]
Mike Maloney’s video, “If You Don’t Think QE4 & QE5 Are Coming, You’re Smoking Something”, raised a red flag. The Fed did not raise rates and didn’t rule out more Quantitative Easing (QE) in the future. Mike fears QE may include bailing out companies that can’t pay their debts. QE was different Unlike historical fed interest […]
Later this week the Federal Reserve Board is expected to announce another interest rate hike. The Fed will likely its target short term interest rate by 0.25% to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. The new Fed Funds rate is up from 0.50% two years ago. While many investor fears concerning higher interest rates and […]
I don’t currently believe the higher level of stock market volatility is a sign that the next economic recession is right around the corner. Yet, I could be wrong, and the market could also plunge into a bear market without the drop being triggered by the economy going to negative growth. My income investing strategy […]
With the Fed announcement behind us, it’s time to start thinking about how to trade the expected slow increase in interest rates. The next small rate increase is expected in December, and then there could be two or three more incremental increases in 2019. Of course, we can’t predict definitively what will happen. A change […]
