Wall Street Journal (August 2)
“Bearish investors aren’t buying into hopes that July’s rapid advance for stocks heralds the start of a new bull market. If anything, they say the worst might be yet to come as inflation remains high, the Federal Reserve plans more interest-rate increases and stocks trade at valuations that still don’t look cheap.”
Tags: Bearish, Bull market, Fed, Hopes, Increases, Inflation, Interest rate, Investors, July Stocks, Valuations
Investment Week (June 16)
“The industry has labelled the Bank of England a ‘timid cat’ following its interest rate rise of 0.25% in its bid to tackle inflation on Thursday (16 May), with many stating it was simply prolonging the time till they take the necessary action.” Following the 25-basis-point hike, UK interest rates stand at 1.25%, with the BoE expecting inflation “to peak at 11% in October.”
Tags: 0.25%, 1.25%, Action, BOE, Inflation, Interest rate, Necessary, October, Peak, Prolonging, Rise, Timid cat, UK
Wall Street Journal (June 16)
The Federal Reserve Board’s 75-point increase “was supposed to signal shock and awe, and it was the Fed’s first move of that magnitude since 1994.” Though the Fed is “front-loading its rate increases,” it does not realize the need to “go all that high to beat inflation.” The current forecast calls for a fed-funds interest rate of only 3.4% by year end. “That means increases will taper off through the rest of the year, and the Fed predicts a peak of only 3.8% in 2023.”
Tags: 1994, 2023, 3.8%, 75-point, Awe, Fed, Forecast, Front-loading, Inflation, Interest rate, Peak, Rate increases, Shock, Signal, Taper
Bloomberg (May 16)
“Never before has the Bank of Japan done so much to achieve so little. Even after arranging a record stimulus program and reducing a key interest rate to less than zero, the central bank has failed to boost inflation to its goal of 2 percent…. A central bank using up its policy tools doesn’t bode well for a nation with the world’s largest debt burden.”
Tags: BOJ, Central bank, Debt burden, Goal, Inflation, Interest rate, Policy tools, Stimulus
The Economist (September 12)
“The last time the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate, there was no one to tweet about it.” That was in June 2006 before Twitter’s IPO. “Nine years on, as the Fed readies itself to raise rates again, the public debate between hawks and doves is much noisier.” Even though markets are counting on least one rate rise this year, “it does not pay to go early: a rise now would needlessly risk America’s recovery.”
Bloomberg (March 8)
“China’s second interest-rate cut in three months has raised fears that the government is trying to devalue the yuan to give its exports an unfair boost — an understandable suspicion.” In this case, however, “lower interest rates and a moderately weaker yuan make sense not just for China but for the rest of the world as well.” These factors should help Chinese leaders achieve their “soft landing” growth target of 7%. “The rest of the world no less than China needs this soft landing to be smoothly accomplished.”
Tags: China, Devalue, Exports, Government, Growth, Interest rate, Soft landing, Yuan
