Federal Reserve's Reverse Repo Facility is plummeting
QE & money printing might start aggressively when this drains to 0 Source: Quinten | 048.ethm@QuintenFrancois, Bloomberg
Cut cut cut...
ECB’s Wage Tracker Points to Steep Slowdown This Year - Bloomberg Source: Bloomberg
BOC (Bank of Canada) ANNOUNCES AN END OF QUANTITATIVE TIGHTENING
AND WILL GRADUALLY RESTART ASSET PURCHASES IN EARLY MARCH. Who will be next?
As expected, the ECB just cut interest rates by 0.25% to 2.75% as inflation nears 2% and growth stays weak.
Indeed, with Germany and France shrinking, the pressure was on. The eurozone economy is barely moving with Q4 GDP flat for the eurozone, with Germany (-0.2%) and France (-0.1%) dragging things down while Portugal (+1.5%) and Spain (+0.8%) showed some life. The ECB is playing it cautious, adjusting rates based on data. They reiterated that the disinflation process is well under way and that they see inflation converging towards 2%. The ECB says it’s not locking into a rate path—just watching inflation and economic data closely. The bond market is taking it quite positively with 10y Bond yield down 7bps at the time of our writing. With growth slowing, more cuts might be on the table. Let see what Mrs. Lagarde have to say during the conference call - especially with regards to wages and tariffs. Baring a major positive surprise coming from Germany on the fiscal side, the Eurozone growth outlook remains bleak - this opens the door to at least 1 rate cut every quarter.
The Fed held rates steady as widely expected.
The FOMC statement contains only minor changes that mark to market recent economic developments: 👉 "Labor market conditions remain solid" = Hawkish❗ 👉 "Inflation remains somewhat elevated." (The central bank notably removed reference to inflation making progress towards the goal) = Hawkish❗ The Fed will continue its QT program at an unchanged pace of $60 billion a month. The market does not expect rate cuts at least until June 2025. Source: Nick Timiraos, The Kobeissi Letter
Czech Central Bank Plans Bitcoin Reserve
Source: Bloomberg thru Willem Middelkoop
Central Bank Gold Reserves
Interesting thing on this is how even after their big buy-up, Russia & China lag far behind USA + Eurozone holdings of gold. Source: Callum Thomas, Visual Capitalist
*TRUMP: I WILL DEMAND THAT INTEREST RATES DROP IMMEDIATELY
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would seek to bring interest rates lower, speaking remotely to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately," he said, in a signal that he might pressure US Federal Reserve officials on the matter. "Likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. Interest rates should follow us all over." Source: Barron's, www.investing.com
