FTSD News and Press, Franklin Liberty Short Duration U.S. Government From 02/02/23

Summary The Federal Open Market Committee decided to raise the Federal Funds interest rate this week by 25 basis points. In response to the inflation, the Federal Reserve increased the Federal Funds rate from a range of 0.00 to 0.25 percent to 4.00 to 4.25 percent in 2022. While inf...

Summary The 2021-2022 episode turned out to be very different from the economic turmoil that bedeviled the U.S. economy from the 1960s into the early 1980s. Changes in relative prices can be either the result of changes in the average price level, or the cause of such changes. The o...

Summary A big contributing factor to the surge in inflation was the spike in consumer spending. Healthy GDP growth, generationally low unemployment, and relatively stable earnings all point to a stable economy. While the future always remains unclear, nobody knows for certain whethe...

Summary The Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates, but markets are increasingly of the view that the Fed will reverse course and rates will end the year where they started. The Fed continues to fret about inflation, arguing that a tight jobs market leaves open the risk that p...

Summary How many more Fed rate hikes to come? What the U.S. bond market is saying about the economy. Outlook for the US dollar. The U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a quarter-point hike in an effort to tamp down on inflation and signaled further increases at upco...

Summary We appear to be finally reaching the endgame for rate hikes. Signs reveal that inflation has not only peaked but could be cooling quicker than policy makers expected. Whether the Fed delivers another quarter-point rate hike or even an additional increase after that, the more...

Summary The JNK ETF did not make another leg higher when the S&P attacked the 4100 level last week, which in my book is an indication that the stock market is a little ahead of itself. As we come up to the FOMC meeting tomorrow, the Fed needs to be reminded that the bigger part of t...

Summary Inflation appears to be on the decline. The decline in inflation does not mean that prices are falling. The 12-month inflation rate is high, in part, because prices rose rapidly from December 2021 to October 2022. By William J. Luther Inflation appears to b...

Summary We don’t see major central bank rate cuts this year, so we prefer to earn income in short-term bonds, high-grade credit and agency mortgage-backed securities. U.S. stocks rose and Treasury yields were mostly steady. U.S. Q4 GDP was resilient but declining consumer spendin...

Summary The idea of a “soft landing” is only a reality if you exclude, in most cases, rather devasting financial consequences. So far, the economy seems to be holding up well despite an aggressive rate hiking campaign providing the cover for the “soft landing”...