For The First Time In 13 Years, The Fed Is Cutting Workers As It Books $100 Billion In Losses
The FED has booked $100 billion in losses in recent months on operations that currently involve paying more in interest to banks on reserve deposits at the Fed than the central bank earns from its roughly $7.5 trillion portfolio of bonds and mortgage-backed securities. Source: www.zerohedge.com, Bloomberg
The S&P 500 is now down 340 points, or 7.5%, since the Fed removed a recession from their forecast
On July 26th, the Fed raised rates and said they were not longer expecting a recession. The Fed marked the EXACT high in the S&P 500 which just hit its lowest levels since June. Since then, rate cut expectations were pushed out by a year and corporate bankruptcies hit their highest levels since the pandemic. Is the market losing faith in the Fed again? Source: The Kobeissi Letter
Treasury notes, bonds, and mortgage-back securities account for over 80% of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet
Last week, the Fed's balance sheet plunged by almost $75BN last week, its biggest weekly drop since July 2020. The Fed's balance sheet is now over 10% below its April 2022 peak. But this is WITHOUT taking into account the current drop in value of the bonds held on the balance sheet. Indeed, if they were to be re-evaluated using a mark-to-market methodology, the Fed's assets could be reduced by another $1 trillion. To provide some context, he recent decline in market value would likely exceed the entirety of their QT policy thus far, which accounted for $939B. This would essentially revert their balance sheet size back to 2020 levels. Source: Bloomberg, Tavi Costa
Do you remember what Larry Summers said last year about soft landing?
This story of second marriage and the triumph of hope vs. experience seems to find an echo at the FED level...
According to Bloomberg chief economist Anna Wong, online betting markets see a 69% chance of a federal government shutdown starting Oct. 1st
So what could be the effects on the US economy and job market? Below chart shows the effects on GDP depending on the duration of the shutdown. - According to Goldman, a government-wide shutdown would reduce quarterly annualized growth by around 0.2% for each week it lasted after accounting for modest private sector effects. Goldman's baseline is that a shutdown could last for 2-3 weeks (the Trump government shutdown, the longest in history, lasted 35 days, from Dec 22, 2018 to Jan 25, 2019). - Meanwhile, Bloomberg also speculates that in an extreme tail event, the maximum hit to 4Q GDP would be a drag of 2.8% if the shutdown lasts for the entire quarter. Source: Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, www.zerohedge.com
How to trade equity markets following the LAST FED rate hike?
BofA Harnett says it depends whether the economy is in inflationary or an inflationary period. When monetary policy needs to work harder to slow economy in inflationary era (e.g. 1970s/1980s), Dow Jones returns were most of the time negative in the 3 months and 6 months that followed the last Fed hike... However, in disinflationary period, markets returns were quite strong. So do you believe we are in an inflationary or disinflationary period? Source: BofA Global Research
The Fed's balance sheet hit its lowest level since June 2021 this week, down $941 billion from the peak in April 2022
Changes in the Fed's balance sheet since 2002... Source: Charlie Bilello
In case you missed it: now that the Fed's blackout window is over, everyone said the same thing in the days that follow the FOMC meeting: "higher for longer":
*FED'S COLLINS: FURTHER FED HIKES 'CERTAINLY NOT OFF THE TABLE', EXPECT RATES MAY HAVE TO STAY HIGHER FOR LONGER *FED's BOWMAN: MORE RATE HIKES LIKELY NEEDED TO GET INFLATION TO 2%, NEED TO REPEAT MONETARY POLICY ISN'T ON PRESET COURSE *FED'S DALY: I DON'T GET TO A POINT WHERE I'M READY TO DECLARE VICTORY, UNLIKELY INFLATION WILL REACH 2% GOAL IN 2024
