November 3, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
In normal times, the November 7 meeting of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting body, the Open Market Committee would be the big event of the week. But these aren’t normal times in case you haven’t noticed. The country faces a stark choice on Tuesday and the polls show essentially a dead heat. And then add in fears that Donald Trump and/or his followers won’t accept the election results if he loses. Traders and portfolio managers have been adding hedges to protect against market volatility in the days around the election.
November 1, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The U.S. economy added 12,000 jobs in October. The unemployment rate, which uses a different survey method, held steady at 4.1%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the August and September reports to take a total of 112,000 jobs off earlier estimates. The average job growth over the past three months is now 104,000, down from 189,000 over the six months before that. The revised data and the October estimate are both more in line, in my opinion, with what is likely to have been happening in the economy as the result of high interest rates from the Federal Reserve. I thought hugh interest rates should have been slowing the economy more than the initial data suggested. And now it it looks like those high rates were working much more in line with past history of the economy. Of course, the big question today is should we believe the October report
October 31, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of U.S. inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, fell to a 2.1% annual rate in September.
October 29, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The Conference Board’s gauge of confidence jumped 9.5 points to 108.7, the highest level since the start of the year, data released Tuesday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a reading of 99.5. The month to month increase was the biggest since March 2021.
October 22, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
Two-year Treasury yields have climbed 34 basis points since the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates on September 18 for the first time since 2020. Rising yields “reflect the reduced probability of recession risks,” Steven Zeng, an interest rate strategist at Deutsche Bank told Bloomberg. “Data has come in pretty strong. The Fed may slow the pace of rate cuts.” We’ve read this story before
October 10, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Today, both the headline and the core CPI, which excludes food and energy, came in 0.1 percentage point higher than forecast for the month, with a month to month 0.2% increase in the headline index and a 0.3% rise for the core.On an annual basis, the headline index rose 2.4% in September, slightly less than the 2.5% in August. The core inflation rate, the more important number to the Federal Reserve, accelerated for the first time in one and a half years, to 3.3% from 3.2%. Weekly initial claims for unemployment also came out today, Thursday, October 10, and showed a much-bigger-than-expected increase of 258,000, against the median forecast for 230,000. Together the two reports almost cemented the odds of a 25 basis point cut in interest rates when the Fed meets on November 7.
October 7, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
It’s not surprising that stocks fell Monday, October 7. But it is surprising that they fell so little. The Standard & Poor’s 500 was off 0.96% on the day. The NASDAQ Composite dropped 1.18%. Wall Street’s favorite volatility gauge–the VIX–jumped to “just” a two-month high. Look at the negatives arrayed against stocks
October 7, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
It’s back! Fear that the economy is so strong that the Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates as sharply or as quickly as expected. In the last few days, following on a surprisingly strong September jobs report, the market has gone from giving 50/50 odds to a second large 50 basis point interest rate cut at its November 7 meeting to pricing in doubts that the central bank will deliver even a 25 basis point cut.
October 4, 2024 | Daily JAM |
Odds on a 50 basis point cut from the Federal Reserve at its November 7 meeting plunged to 0% today on the CME FedWatch tool after a strong jobs report for September showed a tick down in the unemployment rate.
October 3, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
Total assets under management in U.S. money-market funds rose by $38.7 billion in the week week ended October 2, according to the latest Investment Company Institute data released on Thursday. The increase puts total assets at a record $6.46 trillion, and caps the biggest quarter of inflows since the March 2023 banking crisis. The old record was set when the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other lenders sent a flood of cash into money-market funds as the Federal Reserve raised rates. What’s odd now is that the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates and the financial system doesn’t seem particularly stressed.
September 30, 2024 | Daily JAM, Mid Term, Special Reports, Top 50 Stocks, TSLA, TSM |
I don’t know which candidate will win the election. Right now the polls are within the margin of error on the national level–and even tighter in the seven battleground states that will likely decide the electionm. But I do know the results on November 5 will move stocks. Some right off the bat even before the results are certified. Ans more significantly as a new administration clarifies its policy views and takes office.The results will move the stock market in general
And they will move individual stocks and sectors in particular.
September 27, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, rose at a slower pace than expected on a monthly basis in August. The core PCE, which strips out the cost of food and energy, rose 0.1% from the prior month during August, below Wall Street’s expectations for 0.2% and the 0.2% reading seen in July.
