Bryan Perry
Fed Priming the Liquidity Pump Again
A number of reasons are being touted for the market’s rebound last week, the primary one being the release of the Personal Consumption Index (PCE) that came in fractionally lower than forecast. Using this index for February, inflation is running at an annual pace of 5.0% versus 5.3% in January. The lower reading shows inflation […]
Lots of Blame to Go Around for Banking Turmoil
Yields on Treasuries have nosedived in a full-scale rebuke of Fed Chair Jerome Powell claiming that rate cuts in 2023 were not a consideration. The quarter-point hike, the ninth in a string of increases, was hardly a cherry on the sundae. Bond traders see it as the straw that could potentially break the economic camel’s […]
A Crisis of Clarity Rippling Through Regional Banks
The past week of volatility exhibited in the banking sector was epic. It was along the lines of a redux of 2008, when some high-profile mortgage lenders and investment banks dealing in risky practices went bankrupt, filed for Chapter 11 or were acquired for pennies on the dollar. To say the recent events in the […]
Banking Crisis Will Likely Trigger a Fed Pivot
The failure of SVB Financial Group (SIVB) is epic in terms of the size of deposits lost to so many fledging companies, the payrolls it won’t be able to meet, the mismanagement of the balance sheet, the job losses it will likely trigger and the damage to investor sentiment that was evident when the 15th-largest […]
Fight Over Federal Budget Looms Large
What a difference a data point makes. Last Friday’s ISM report came in as forecast on a numerical basis, but underneath the hood revealed further stubborn inflationary pressures at work. But the market gave the benefit of the doubt to the notion that, just maybe, inflation might be starting to flatten. There is a raging […]
The Fed’s 2% Target Rate for Inflation is Not Realistic
Based on the recent string of economic data that includes January employment, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Producer Price Index (PPI), Producer Consumption Expenditures (PCE), weekly initial jobless claims, personal spending and consumer confidence, it appears as if the domestic economy is functioning fairly well. This performance is occurring amid a backdrop of some very stubborn […]