The big event for today turned out to be a speech given by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to the International Monetary Congress in Cape Town, South Africa via satellite before the market open this morning. This speech somehow reaffirmed the…
So the big event of the week, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcement released today at 2:15pm EST, turns out to be a non-event. As if we didn’t already know it: THE FED IS ON HOLD. “There is no…
The three phases of a bull market: “Phase one is the rebound from the depressed conditions of the previous bear market. Here stocks return to known values. In the second and longest phase, shares advance in recognition of improving business and…
” … They can’t say what they really think. The Fed knows how important confidence is, and they do not want to do anything to discourage consumer sentiment or spook the psychology of the markets.” – Barry Ritholtz, “FOMC Statement,…
Sanskrit n. : 1. An Indo-European, indic language, in use since c1200 b.c. as the religious and classical literary language of India. To the casual observer, today’s market action is sure not to make any sense. The Fed left the…
The Fed decided today to leave the federal funds rate at 5.25%. The interesting thing is that the bond market is pricing in rate cuts in the next year or so. Justin Lahart, author of the Wall Street Journal’s daily…
A few weeks after each Fed meeting, the minutes for that meeting are released. The minutes are not an actual transcript of what was said but a shamelessly doctored summary. As I tried to explain a couple weeks ago the…
After 17 straight quarter point rate hikes going back to June 2004 the Fed paused on Tuesday leaving the federal funds rate at 5.25% (from 1% back in June of 2004). In this post I want to try and explain…