Investors in treasury bonds are raising their bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s steady stream of interest rate increases will tip the economy into recession this year, even though the stock prices stay high and a growing number of economists doubt the economy will shrink, the Financial Times reported.
Tag: U.S. economy
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
In identifying, analyzing and forecasting trends, it is essential to understand that all things are connected. As Chief Seattle said in 1855, “All things are connected, like the blood which unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
TOP TREND 2023, OFFICE BUILDING BUST: INVESTORS BACK AWAY FROM DOWNTOWN PROJECTS
Remote workers have moved out of city centers. Now investors are following them.
Real estate trusts focused on investment in downtown areas are trading at less than half their pre-COVID levels, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lenders are demanding extra interest to make loans against office buildings; bonds to support New York City’s bus and subway system have a hard time finding buyers.
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
As we had long forecast, the higher central banks raise interest rates, the lower the Merger and Acquisition trend... which hit record highs during the COVID war when interest rates sank and governments pumped in countless trillions to artificially prop up sinking economies.
ONCE AGAIN, TRADES BY FED’S BOSTIC BREAK THE RULES
A money manager acting on behalf of Rafael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, bought and sold shares in 19 exchange-traded funds on May 2 this year, a date that fell within the Fed’s “blackout period” during which Fed officials are forbidden to make trades.
BANKS WILL STRUGGLE FOR YEARS
Small and regional U.S. banks have survived the collapse of Signature and Silicon Valley banks and their stock values have largely stabilized—only to face a future of tighter regulations, lower stock values, and demands from depositors for higher interest rates, Wall Street Journal analyst James Mackintosh wrote in a 14 June essay.
THE “GREAT RESIGNATION” IS OVER, ECONOMISTS SAY
During the COVID War in 2021, 47.7 million people quit their jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most since the bureau began tracking the number in 2001.
AGAIN IN MAY, CONSUMERS SPENT MORE TO BUY LESS
U.S. consumers spent 0.3 percent more on retail purchases in May than in April, the U.S. commerce department reported, besting economists’ expectations of a 0.2-percent decline.
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT REACHES $32 TRILLION
The U.S. national debt reached a record $32 trillion after Congress agreed to lift the debt ceiling once again after a months-long standoff over spending cuts.
FED “PAUSES,” NOT “ENDS,” RATE INCREASES
After 10 interest-rate increases in as many meetings, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee held the central bank’s key federal funds rate steady at 5.0 percent on deposits and 5.25 percent on loans at its meeting last week.