FLGV News and Press, Franklin Liberty U.S. Treasury Bond From 12/13/22

Summary Recession is foretold, in our view, as central banks crush demand to bring down inflation. We think markets are wrong to expect them to later come to the rescue. U.S. stocks fell and the Treasury yield curve inverted its most since the early 1980s. We see recent moves as reflect...

Summary The Fed’s mandate is stable prices and maximum employment. For now, employment, wages and inflation momentum are still too strong to warrant a Fed pivot. If Powell and the Fed fail to tame inflation, then their heads are on the chopping block. They know this and they will...

Summary Why are bonds taking a big hit? As the rate hike cycle moves closer to the end, could a generational opportunity in fixed income be emerging? How do long term capital market expectations look? Are GICs recommended? Rising interest rates have inflicted m...

Summary While it’s been a tough year, the Federal Reserve has done investors an enormous favor in terms of the attractiveness of a wide swath of fixed-income asset classes that today look a lot more attractive than a year ago. Jay Powell and the FOMC did raise the Fed funds rate ...

Summary Amid the crosscurrents, two themes have prevailed during the post-pandemic years, which lend some perspective to the macroeconomic roadmap ahead: namely, the bipolar swings in macro policy and the forces of economic normalization. After one of the worst years for fixed income as...

Summary Today, the yield curve is more inverted than at any time since the early 1980s, so many are saying that means the chances of a recession are pretty high. Yes, today the curve is very inverted, but real yields are not particularly high. Low spreads suggest the market is relat...

Summary At least one of two things should happen to warn that an official US recession is about to begin. One is a decline in the ISM Manufacturing New Orders Index (NOI) to below 48 and the other is a reversal of the yield curve’s trend from flattening/inverting to steepening. ...

Summary The 3-month/10-year Treasury curve inverted last Thursday on better-than-expected CPI news. If the 10-year note can stay below 4% until the end of 2022, we could see the stock market rally extend into Christmas. Powell can announce a pause in rate hikes at the December...

Summary The average spread between the 10-year Treasury and the 30-year mortgage rate has averaged 1.7% since 1990 and now stands at 2.9%. Small and mid-cap stocks continue to look better technically than US large cap. The Russell 2000, S&P 600 and S&P 400 (midcap) index E...

Summary Almost half of the option contracts being traded on the S&P 500, to the tune of $300 billion of notional each day, have one-day expiries or less. Across all listed ETFs and indices, an astounding $1 trillion of notional value in put options (bets that an index or ETF w...