Last Week: In early November 2016 the Fed Funds Rate was 0.25% and the yield on the Ten-Year Treasury was just under 2%. The consensus opinion was that rates had been artificially low since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but that it was time to normalize those rates. Turn the clock forward to this past Wednesday, the Ten-Year Treasury briefly traded below a 2% yield, while the Fed left short-term rates unchanged [...]
Last Week: The market opened modestly higher Monday morning in response to the shift away from imposing tariffs on Mexico over the weekend and then treaded water the rest of the week to register 0.47% gain by the closing bell on Friday. The Ten Year-Treasury rate was also steady, ticking up one basis point to 2.09%. There was no discernible progress on the U.S./China Trade talks, and the economic indicators (CPI, [...]
Last Week: Since the end of September, Federal Reserve and Trade policies have been the two storylines that have influenced the mood on Wall Street. Simply stated, the market wants the Fed to lower interest rates and for tariffs to go away. As a result, slightly cold porridge is in favor, as soft economic numbers improve the chances of both of those outcomes. In this twisted reality show, the economic headwinds [...]
Last Week: The focus was clearly on trade issues, with bad news bookends from China and Mexico. Early in the week China indicated that it would retaliate to recent U.S. actions by using its 80% dominance of rare-earth metals used in high tech gear. Technology shares suffered further losses, with the sector declining 8.43% in the month of May, while the Telecommunications sector lost 6.73% during the week. Expectations of a [...]