Tag: inflation

My Latest "Prediction" For 2023

Posted on by George Yacik

Back in March I posited the notion that the S&P 500 would need to fall to about 2,900 before all of the froth that the Federal Reserve had injected into the market through its various monetary stimulus programs dating back to the Great Recession had finally burned off.

On Christmas Eve the S&P closed at 3844, which would put it 19% below its all-time high of 4,766 on December 27, 2021, or about a year to the day.

In recent days some market prognosticators have been warning that the market is poised to fall another 20%, which would put the index at about 3,000, or slightly above my guesstimate.

So do I feel vindicated, if that is the right word? No, and I hope I’m wrong anyway.

First, my guess was not a prediction, just a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation based on my assumption that the Fed was responsible for about half of the stock market’s 600% gain between the March 2009 bottom of 683 and the time I made my comment.

So, if we cut that 600% gain in half, that would reduce the S&P’s gain to a still respectable 300%, or a little below 3,000.

Not an educated estimate, maybe, but I thought a reasonable guess—a worst case scenario, if you will.

Second, we don’t know if these bears will turn out to be right. I hope they’ll be wrong.

I now believe the Fed won’t have to drive the economy into the tank in order to get inflation down to where it wants it to be, probably in the 2.5% to 3% range.

Remember, about two years, in what was considered to be a major policy shift, the Fed said it was willing to let inflation “overshoot” its long-term target of 2% for a time, as it indeed it did.

Now it looks like inflation is dropping a lot faster than most people thought, and the Fed itself is now forecasting that inflation will fall to 3.1% next year before declining in 2024 to 2.5% and 2.1% in 2025, i.e., putting it at its long-term target. Continue reading "My Latest "Prediction" For 2023" →

Reasons to be Optimistic

Posted on by George Yacik

As expected, the Federal Reserve raised the target for its benchmark federal funds interest rate by 50 basis points at its mid-December meeting, to a range between 4.25% and 4.5%.

That was down from the 75 basis-point hikes at its four previous meetings, yet the market’s immediate reaction to the move was an immediate selloff.

Was that a classic “buy on the rumor, sell on the news” reaction — i.e., the Fed delivered exactly what Chair Powell had earlier indicated it would do?

Or was there some element of disappointment that the Fed, despite the more modest rate increase, included in its updated economic projections that most officials expect to raise rates by another 100 basis points, to about 5.1%, next year?

But was that really a surprise, given earlier comments from Powell and other Fed officials?

On a positive note, according to the Fed’s revised economic projections, it now expects inflation to fall to 3.1% next year before declining in 2024 to 2.5% and 2.1% in 2025, putting it at its long-term target.

In November, the year-on-year increase in the consumer price index fell to 7.1% from 7.7% a month earlier, down sharply from June’s 9.1% peak. So it looks like the Fed is optimistic about where inflation is headed, whether its rate-rising regimen deserves the credit or not.

It's also now calling for U.S. GDP to grow by 0.5% next year, unchanged from this year’s pace, before climbing to 1.6% in 2024.

By way of comparison, the economy rebounded at an annual rate of 2.9% in the third quarter following two straight quarters of negative growth.

The Fed projects the unemployment rate to jump to about 4.5% over the next three years, up from 3.7% currently, due to its rate increases. Continue reading "Reasons to be Optimistic" →

The Fed Needs To Practice Patience

Posted on by George Yacik

It’s beginning to look a lot like 50 basis points.

OK, that’s not as catchy as that more famous Christmas tune. But that’s shaping up to be the likely outcome at the Federal Reserve’s next two-day monetary policy meeting December 13-14.

While inflation has slowed only a little bit since the Fed’s last rate hike on November 2 — its fourth 75-basis point increase in a row – the consensus seems to be that the Fed will moderate the size of its next hike to 50 bps, for no other reason perhaps than to see what effect its rate-raising process has had on the economy.

Indeed, the minutes of the Fed’s previous meeting at the beginning of November signaled such an outcome. “A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would soon be appropriate,” the minutes said.

The Fed has now raised its benchmark federal funds rate by a cumulative 375 bps since it started hiking rates back in March, when the rate was at zero. A 50-bp hike in December would put the fed funds’ rate at an upper range of 4.25%.

While a slight moderation in the next increase will be welcomed by just about everyone, from Christmas shoppers to homebuyers to investors, it’s not likely to be the last, and possibly for a while yet.

That was the word handed down this week by New York Fed President John Williams. While he “did nothing to push back against expectations” of a half-point rate rise at the December meeting, the Wall Street Journal’s headline was more hawkish, quoting Williams as saying that “inflation fight could last into 2024,” meaning more rate hikes over a longer period of time than the market expects.

“Mr. Williams said he expected that rates would have to rise in 2023 to somewhat higher levels” than he had estimated back in September, the Journal said.

If the whole point of the Fed’s rate-raising regime is to try to slow the economy and thus reduce the heat under inflation, you don’t have to be a Harvard-trained economist to see that it hasn’t made that much of a dent so far and that it’s a long way from ending its restrictive cycle. Continue reading "The Fed Needs To Practice Patience" →

The Thanksgiving Rally Should Not Be Trusted

Posted on by Matt Thalman

The market rally during the shortened holiday trading week of November 21st-25th should not be trusted just yet.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.78% during the week, the S&P 500 increased by 1.53%, and the technology-heavy NASDAQ grew by 0.72%.

The move higher came for several reasons, but none materially changed the economy's outlook over the coming six to twelve months.

The biggest news was from the Federal Reserve. The Fed's meeting minutes from their November 1st and 2nd meeting pushed prices higher after several Fed members expressed interest in slowing the pace of rate hikes during future meetings.

Just the fact that the Fed is talking about reducing the amount of their rate increases is significant, and many economists applaud this move. Economists are happy with this because the Feds policy changes have a lag, meaning it takes time for rate increases to show in economic data reports.

The concern has been the Fed is raising rates too quickly, and by the time the lag sets in, the economy will be in the dumps. So, slowing the pace today is a possible way the Fed can avoid running the economy into the ground. Not running the economy into the ground is the "soft landing" we often hear about when people refer to the Fed and its current policies.

Another catalyst for the recent move higher was the Consumer Price Index in October, which was up 7.7% from a year ago. This was the lowest CPI reading increase since January of this year. But, let's be honest, a 7.7% increase year-over-year is still ridiculously high inflation.

However, many economists are actually saying they are seeing inflation leveling out. We aren't yet seeing that happen with the CPI numbers because we are still looking at year-over-year comparables before inflation got out of control.

The true sign that inflation has slowed, or is still climbing, will be in 2023 when we see year-over-year comps comparing current inflation measures with the elevated inflation we began seeing in early 2022. Continue reading "The Thanksgiving Rally Should Not Be Trusted" →

Is Inflation Truly Whipped?

Posted on by George Yacik

Last week’s consumer price index report showing inflation — at least by some measures — had slowed in October to its lowest level since the beginning of the year set off a massive rally in stocks and bonds.

But is the market overreacting, and does the report necessarily imply that inflation has finally and truly peaked and that the Federal Reserve is just about done tightening? It may be a little too early to declare victory.

The report was at least encouraging, certainly, but whether we’re home free or not remains to be seen. The headline CPI rose 7.7% compared to a year earlier, down from September’s 8.2% pace and the smallest year-on-year increase since January.

The core index — which excludes food and energy prices — rose by 6.3%, down from the prior month’s 6.6% pace. But the monthly increase in headline inflation was 0.4%, unchanged from September.

Did all that justify a 5% jump in the NASDAQ last Thursday and the sharpest one-day drop in bond yields in more than 10 years, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note falling to 3.83% from 4.15%? (The bond market was closed Friday for Veterans Day.)

If you believe Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel, who has been saying for months that the Fed is seriously overcounting inflation, then last Thursday’s massive rally was justified.

Not only did he tell CNBC that "inflation is basically over,” but that "we're in negative inflation mode if the Fed uses the right statistics, not the faulty statistics that they've been using."

Siegel specifically cited the cost of housing and rent, which he says are overinflated in the data the Fed uses to set interest rate policy. Once the Fed sees the light, he says, the markets are poised for a “good year-end rally," but if it doesn’t, we could be headed for a rate-driven recession.

There’s certainly reason to doubt the Fed’s competence to measure and assess home price inflation, which it has failed to accomplish the past several years and other times before that.

Despite blatant evidence that the housing market was overheating during and after the pandemic, the Fed continued to suppress interest rates, allowing home prices to skyrocket — and keep homeownership out of reach for more people. Continue reading "Is Inflation Truly Whipped?" →