FTSD News and Press, Franklin Liberty Short Duration U.S. Government From 02/06/23

Summary We see central banks stumbling into a more nuanced phase of the inflation fight and nearing a pause on hikes. We like short-term bonds and credit for income. U.S. stocks rose but trimmed gains and Treasury yields jumped after U.S. jobs data showed a tight labor market, reviving ...

Summary With inflation deeply ingrained, it took Volcker's punishing tightening measures to finally quash pricing pressures and inflationary psychology. Central bank-induced distortions have unleashed historic borrowing, both in the public and private sectors, along with unprecedented s...

Summary The question as to whether nominal spreads today are properly priced or not ultimately comes down to one thing, and that one thing is inflation. Year-on-year core inflation has been trending down since it hit a peak of 6.6 percent last September. Our expectation is that the ...

Summary Money supply growth fell again in December, falling even further into negative territory after turning negative in November for the first time in twenty-eight years. During December 2022, YOY growth in the money supply was at –2.4 percent. That's down from November's rate...

Summary As expected, the FOMC raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%–4.75%. Chairman Powell focused on the Committee’s commitment to getting inflation down to its 2% target and pushed back on any questions about when a pause might be ...

Summary US recession fears linger on as softening activity spreads throughout the economy. There are also tentative signs that the labour market is cooling with increasing layoff announcements and slowing wage growth. Inflation pressures are subsiding and offer hope that the Fed wil...

Summary Market and policy trends continue to support fixed income assets. As widely expected, US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points at its latest meeting on Feb. 1. It appears that the Fed is not going to be so dogmatic as to force the economy into a major rece...

Summary The Federal Open Market Committee raised its federal funds rate target by 25 basis points on Wednesday. In December, the median FOMC member projected the target would exceed 5 percent in 2023, but some think the Fed has already done enough to bring down inflation. The estima...

Summary Markets think the war against inflation has been won—and the Fed seems to believe it too—but has it? The press conference following the Fed’s January 31-February 1 policy meeting seems to have turned back the clock to at least pre-Jackson Hole, if not all th...

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...