The Minutes from January’s FOMC meeting was released today. On balance, it confirmed that the Fed is on hold but still leaning toward lowering the federal funds rate some more if and when inflation falls closer to 2%. It’s a dovish

A late-day rally sent the S&P 500 up 0.24% to a new record high of 6,130. But gold had a much better day, jumping 1.8% to a record $2,952 per ounce. This “safe haven” asset is now up 10.6%

US stocks haven’t been exceptional since Donald Trump won the presidential election on November 5, 2024. That’s if the performances on the major country MSCI stock market indexes are measured in local currencies (chart). So far, Trump’s tariff turmoil

The shortened economic week ahead is an important one for our rolling recovery forecast in the manufacturing sector. January’s data suggested that industrial production may be starting a cyclical rebound (chart). This week’s early look at February’s regional business

The 10-year Treasury bond yield jumped by 10bps on Wednesday’s hotter-than-expected January CPI report (chart). In his congressional testimony on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that the Fed has more work to do to get inflation down. Today,

Today’s hotter-than-expected January CPI inflation did some damage to bonds, raising long-term Treasury yields roughly 10bps. Headline and core CPI rose 0.5% and 0.4% m/m, respectively, as many companies set their annual price increases. But this wasn’t a start-of-the-year

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony today confirmed that the Fed remains in a dovish pause mode. The FOMC is in no hurry to lower the federal funds rate (FFR). That’s even though many of the committee’s participants believe

Bearish stock market narratives have been pervasive since early 2022. They are becoming more so now with each headline coming out of Washington. Duties, deportations, duties, and de-bureaucratization (the four “Ds”) can have a shock-and-awe effect. But financial markets broadly have been

The focus of the economic week ahead will be inflation. Businesses tend to raise prices at the beginning of the year; that could result in January CPI and PPI releases (Wed and Thu) that are hotter than expected even though both are seasonally adjusted. A few Fed officials

The major stock market indexes are still up since Election Day despite recent turbulence caused by DeepSeek and Trump Tariffs 2.0 (chart). The former is weighing on the shares of AI companies. However, cloud giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Google

Trump 2.0 is borrowing a page from the Clinton administration’s playbook, specifically the one in which Robert Rubin and James Carville warned Clinton that he had to respect the power of the Bond Vigilantes and maintain fiscal discipline. US

The bond market relaxed today after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s debut Quarterly Refunding Announcement (QRA) proved to be a non-event. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 9bps to 4.43%, its lowest level since the Federal Reserve’s last rate cut, in

Google-parent Alphabet’s stock sank 7% after the closing bell today following its Q1 earnings report. That was partly because the company announced much higher 2025 capital expenditures than analysts anticipated. After spending $14.28 billion on CapEx in Q4-2024 (above the consensus

Markets were abuzz with headlines from Washington today. The S&P 500 opened 1.7% lower on the weekend’s news that President Donald Trump announced that he would slap 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Tuesday. But losses were pared

Aside from plenty of news about tariffs, the economic week ahead is jampacked with economic indicators that might be affected by tariffs in coming months. Capped off by January’s monthly employment report on Friday, the week will also include releases on

We are sure that Forbes magazine has had plenty of cover stories about successful entrepreneurs who survived the front-cover curse and remained successful. However, the magazine has also featured a few rising stars who subsequently crashed and burned. The latest Forbes front cover features

Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s basic message during his press conference yesterday was that the Fed is in no hurry to lower interest rates, but the Fed still intends to lower them over time. So it’s a dovish pause. That

The FOMC left the federal funds rate (FFR) unchanged today at 4.25%-4.50%, as widely expected. At his presser today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that the Fed might pause cutting rates for a while. He mentioned five times that

Today, the US stock market quickly confirmed our view that DeepSeek is a positive for the proliferation of AI, which should boost productivity and economic growth, especially in the US. The Nasdaq added 2% as Nvidia rose 9%. Both

DeepSeek took a bite out of semiconductor, other tech, as well as nuclear power stocks today. Many of these AI plays dropped by double-digit percentage points, and Nvidia fell 17%. Other than the impact of the largest US stock nearly entering

The week ahead is packed full of important economic data releases, big tech earnings reports, and central bank meetings. Economic updates will include consumer sentiment, manufacturing, economic growth, and inflation. We’re broadly expecting strong growth, including the first estimate

The Q4-2024 earnings reporting season is going well so far. It started out two weeks ago with better-than-expected big bank earnings. As a result, industry analysts increased their consensus expected Q4 earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 companies

President Donald Trump invoked his inner President Ronald Reagan today in a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But his asks amounted to a taller order than just “tear down this wall.” During his address,

Stock price indexes are back at record highs. Yet the stock market’s sentiment indicators have turned stubbornly bearish over the past couple of weeks. We noted this development a week ago and concluded that it might be a bullish

The stock market rose today, buoyed by the fact that President Donald Trump didn’t raise tariffs on Day #1 of his second term as was widely expected. Instead, he will be raising them on Canada and Mexico on Day #13

The bond and stock markets were closed today for MLK Day. When they reopen tomorrow, we will all be able to assess their initial reactions to Trump 2.0 following today’s Inauguration ceremony. The major stock market futures indexes were

The week ahead will be light on economic indicators and heavy on executive orders (EOs). While the markets are closed on Monday for MLK Day, President Donald Trump will be inaugurated into office for his second term. Out of the gate,

Today’s batch of December economic indicators in the US has mostly eased any downside concerns about the labor market, consumers, and the economy overall. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow tracking model is now showing Q4-2024 real GDP growth of 3.0%

Both stocks and bonds benefitted from good news across the earnings, macroeconomic, and geopolitical fronts today. Financial stocks jumped as big banks kicked off Q4 earnings season with better-than-expected results, and the S&P 500 rose 1.8%. Treasuries rallied, as December’s CPI

On the economic data front, today was mostly a Goldilocks day. December’s PPI was lower than expected. The NFIB survey of small business owners showed rising optimism and animal spirits. However, the Treasury reported that the federal budget deficit