Posts Tagged ‘Fed Chairman’

Notes From Underground: It’s All About the Narrative

August 27, 2017

The Kansas City Fed Symposium was steeped in boredom as all the hype failed to live up to the expectations of the media. The excitement centered around Mario Draghi potentially dropping hints about the beginning of quantitative tightening (QT). Rick Santelli spoke with former FOMC Governor Mark Olson, who rightfully predicted Chair Yellen would not reveal any sense of Fed intentions but he was dead wrong about Draghi. Olson opined that Yellen put the spotlight on President Draghi, but the ECB President must have suffered stage fright as he very bland when speaking to concerns about the Trump administration’s move to economic nationalism. There was not a single word about ECB policy.

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Notes From Underground: Its Was a Great Week for S&Ps

August 20, 2017

The news was extremely positive for the equity markets last week. FOUR key points:

  1. Retail Sales proved to be much stronger than consensus;
  2. The FOMC minutes were very DOVISH as the FED was concerned about the inability of upward inflation to gain traction;
  3. The demise of anti-globalist Steve Bannon was greeted with cheers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. News of the removal resulted in a rally in the S&Ps on Friday, but it was short-lived; and
  4. The bobble heads of the access media reported the dismissal as an elevation of the Davos-inspired crowd, represented by the Gary Cohn wing of the Trump administration.

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