The Fed finally start reducing rates…   The long anticipated, and highly debated, initial interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve finally arrived. After the Fed’s mid-September meeting, Chair Jerome Powell announced a 50-basis point rate cut (bps or 0.50 percentage points) – the first rate cut in what is expected to be a succession...Read More

Is it time for the Fed to act? After months of looking for signs that inflation has sufficiently cooled, the Federal Reserve may be on the cusp of finally seeing what it needs to start reducing interest rates. Following the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) mid-June meeting, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced that the...Read More

HIGHER FOR LONGER, BUT DOES IT MATTER? Stubbornly persistent inflation pressures continued in March, likely derailing the case for the Fed to begin reducing rates in June and also raising questions as to whether rate cuts can be implemented this year without sign of an economic slowdown. The last mile, or in this case, the...Read More

‘VICTORY’ OVER INFLATION OR PREMATURE CELEBRATION? After more than a year of disconnect between bullish broad market sentiment and overtly hawkish Federal Reserve commentary and policy, the December FOMC meeting appears to have been an inflection point in the central bank’s inflationary fight. While Chair Powell and other officials had repeatedly and steadfastly pointed to...Read More

Higher-for-Longer… To date, 2023 has been a year marked by a series of crises and varied uncertainties in both the economy and in the markets. The year started with large-scale tech layoffs and the first quarter closed amidst a banking crisis as several large US banks failed in succession. Concerns about persistently high core inflation...Read More

Fed’s Fable? Untangling a Tale of Diverging Perspectives… In the aftermath of a first quarter marked by persistent inflation, unsettling economic data, narrowly generated market returns, and an abrupt and destabilizing banking crisis, the second quarter proved to be more positive, at least on the surface. While the banking system is by no means out...Read More

Between a Rock and a Hard Place… After a year of extraordinary volatility in stock markets and historic losses in bond markets, investors might have had reason to hope for a calmer start to 2023. Unfortunately, the opposite proved to be the case as the first quarter was marked by both continued market turbulence and...Read More

2022: A Series of Unfortunate Events… The year was one of tumult for most economies as growth concerns, geopolitical conflicts, and inflationary pressures weighed heavily across the globe. 2022 opened with ongoing supply chain and production disruptions from the Covid pandemic which were sharply worsened by the February invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The Ukrainian...Read More

A Difficult Year for The Economy Even with Enormous Jobs Growth 2022 has been an extremely challenging year for both the U.S. and the global economy as the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have disrupted global production. The OECD is currently estimating that Russia’s invasion will cost the global economy $2.8 trillion...Read More

Why Does 2022 Seem So Awful? After a mixed but relatively flat first quarter, the market’s wheels fully fell off the bus in the second quarter and the markets have since sharply weakened with a broad selloff in stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. Following three consecutive years of appreciable stock gains, the market closed out the...Read More