US Federal Reserve

Over the past week we have shown on several occasions that there once again appears to be a sharp, sudden dollar-funding liquidity strain in global markets, manifesting itself in a dramatic widening in FX basis swaps, which - in this particular case - has flowed through in the forward discount for USDJPY spiking from around 0.04 yen to around 0.23 yen overnight. As Bloomberg speculated, this discount for buying yen at future dates widened sharply as non-U.S.

After selecting Fed governor Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen as Fed Chair when her term expires in February, the Trump White House has now moved on to interviewing a series of candidates for the Vice Chair position.  As the Wall Street Journal notes this morning, two of the more likely candidates for that role are a pair of economists who served in senior positions in the George W. Bush administration.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Note that widening wealth and income inequality is a non-partisan trend.

The last time the yield on a 2-Year TSY auction was as high as it was today - 1.922% to be specific, tailing the When Issued 1.899% by 0.3bps - was just a few days after Lehman Brothers failed, with one difference: back then it was sliding, while now the rate on 2Y paper is surging, up from just 1.21% at the start of the year, and up from 1.765% just last month thanks to the latest Fed rate hike.

The Bid to Cover was only 2.515, a steep drop from last month's 2.725% and well below the 2.88 6-auction average; it was the lowst BTC since last December's 2.436%.

The Fed raised rates another 0.25% the week before last.

This marks the 5th rate hike since the Fed embarked on its policy tightening in December 2015 and the fourth rate hike in the last 12 months. The Fed’s latest statement also indicates it plans on raising rates three more times in 2018.