Let's start with the Fed's thoughts on interest policy for 2020. This is from the latest meeting minutes (emphasis added): In their consideration of monetary policy at this meeting, participants judged that it would be appropriate to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at...
Last year, during the fourth quarter, all hell was breaking loose in markets across all asset classes. The price of oil was collapsing from $76.90 to $42.36 per barrel. Stock prices plunged, and a general environment of risk-off gripped investors and traders. The selling came from a fear that ...
Last year at this time, the US Fed was still on a path of increasing short-term interest rates and reducing its swollen balance sheet. The period of tightening began in December 2015 when the Fed Funds rate lifted off from zero percent. The Fed then rolled out a rote program to reduce the lega...
It is somewhat hard to believe that it is once again the first Friday of the month. This means that it is time for yet another jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In this case, the report was rather disappointing as job creation numbers greatly missed the expectations of analyst...
Firth Ratings has issued a warning - a general one, not about any specific fund or provider of them - concerning open-ended bond funds. The essential and basic idea of such funds leaves them potentially vulnerable to the same problems banking is. That of a bank run where withdrawals outpace th...
To liquefy the bond market, the financial risk management profession thinks to introduce the innovations to bond trading that led to the stock market liquidity/volume explosion of the early 21st Century. Various financial firms have introduced four principal innovations: Index funds Futu...