It has been a very quiet weekend for financial market-moving news. Egypt and Syria brought nothing positive and even the European press was quiet. Reuters reported that the Spanish recession is deemed to be over but that is a highly debatable issue. The market is waiting to see if China makes its 7.7% GDP number, though why the market cares about massaged data is beyond my comprehension. Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said in Washington July 11 that the Chinese GDP may show growth below 7%. The official Chinese news agency walked back that number and claimed that the finance minister misspoke, probably due to travel fatigue. The consensus is for 7.7% so let’s see what the Chinese statistics delivers.
Posts Tagged ‘banking union’
Notes From Underground: Draghi Lit the Torch; Now Let the Games Begin
July 31, 2012Wednesday brings the FOMC announcement on interest rates. Can the FED really ease more at this juncture? It seems that the financial world has come to believe that Draghi’s comments from last week were intended to prod the Bernanke-led FED to promote a greater monetary response to a drastically imploding debt crisis in Europe. I don’t believe that Chairman Bernanke will be pushed into further monetary action–outside of some kind of extended language–for the FED wants to keep the onus where it belongs … the POLITICAL POLICY ARENA. If Bernanke were to get aggressive at this juncture, the controllers of fiscal policy would get an election pass and the REPUBLIC WOULD BE ILL SERVED. The pundits are all opining that the FED’S non-action will result in a dramatic sell off of RISK. I think that is a wrong read as a passive statement will put pressure on Congress and the White House to actually take the lead and find some compromise to the FISCAL CLIFF SYNDROME.