UPRO - July Rate Cut? Wait For The Fed's Complete Capitulation To Get Aggressive
Financial markets now anticipate that the Federal Reserve will begin ratcheting down rates from the 2.25%-2.50% range in July. Remarkably, the "de facto stimulus" associated with the Fed flip from rate raising to rate neutrality only lasted for six months.
Reasonable criticism of the Fed's "way-too-low-for-way-too-long" rate policies notwithstanding, weak economic data may support easing. Imports (-2.7%) as well as exports (-4.2%) contracted. And global manufacturing is the weakest that it has been since 2012.
In a similar vein, corporate profits are downbeat. First quarter earnings came in at -0.4%. Equally disconcerting, analysts are forecasting