Fed May Be Dialing Back On Hawkish Squawking

The S&P 500 rallied 2.37% to 3,752.75 on Friday as the 2-year US Treasury note yield fell to 4.50% from 4.61% on Thursday (chart). The happy day's performance was sparked by Friday's WSJ article titled "Fed Set to Raise Rates by 0.75 Point and Debate Size of Future Hikes." It was written by the Journal's ace Fed watcher, Nick Timiraos.

Once the blackout period ended one day after  the FOMC's September 20-21 meeting, numerous Fed officials depressed investors by repeating the Fed's latest party line: "We are going to raise interest rates until we see the inflation is clearly coming down."