Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
This past week, the big news for the market was the release of the April 27th FOMC minutes which once again suggested the Federal Reserve may be on a path to hike rates sooner rather than later. The reality is simple, with the markets hovering on critical support, a Presidential election just around the corner and no real evidence of economic recovery, the likelihood of a rate hike in June is approaching zero.
Here are some key highlights from the meeting minutes:
“Participants generally agreed that the risks to the economic outlook posed by global economic and financial developments had receded over the inter-meeting period.
Participants also raised concerns about “unanticipated developments” associated with how China manages its exchange rate.
Still, Fed officials signaled they weren’t overly worried about the apparent [Q1 GDP] slump, judging it was temporary and “could partly reflect measurement problems and, if so, would likely be following by stronger [gross domestic product] growth in subsequent quarters.”
The view wasn’t unanimous. Some officials worried that softness in consumer spending and declines in business investment may be a sign of a more persistent slowdown in economic activity.”
There is a tremendous amount of “hope” built into those statements. And despite the continuing call of economic growth which has remained terminally elusive, the Federal Reserve is faced with numerous challenges ahead.
The central bank already missed the “window of opportunity” for normalizing rates in a manner that doesn’t hamper the recovery. This is evident when you look at Janet Yellen’s proprietary index that Yellen herself has stated as critical for Fed movement.
As I have repeated discussed in the past, since payrolls tend to track corporate profits by about six months AND the small business confidence gauges are in decline, there will be weakening, not strengthening, in employment as the year progresses.
Such a slowing in payrolls will put the Fed in a difficult position since their entire premise on hiking rates has been a rise in inflation to 2% and a fall to 5% in unemployment. Both have now been achieved. This is why, when combined with a forthcoming Presidential election, the Fed will likely remain quite permanently on hold.
As Rick Reider at Blackrock recently summed up:
“To be sure, we live in a world that always has risks and headwinds. But given the many headwinds to Fed movement today, the central bank could have taken the opportunity to move earlier in the year when the headwinds weren’t as strong and it was being aided by historically easy global monetary policy in Europe and Japan.
Now, the central bank is left with a more difficult set of decisions going forward, as it weighs the costs and benefits of maintaining interest rates at ’emergency conditions.’”
For Yellen, it is critical the market holds the current level of support. A break below that level will certainly send markets lower looking to retest February lows once again while completely derailing the Fed’s plans for hiking rates.
Anyway, here is your reading list for the weekend.
CENTRAL BANKING & CHINA
- Is The Fed Running An Equity Test by Joseph Trevisani via Worldwidemarkets
- No, Lower Rates Don’t Boost Investment by Yves Smith via Naked Capitalism
- Manna From Helicopters by Michael Biggs via Proj. Syndicate
- China’s Economy Past Point Of No Return by Gordon Chang via The National Interest
- The Fed’s China Problem by David Lubin via BeyondBrics
- China Hits Debt Limit by Ambrose-Evans Pritchard via The Telegraph
- Fed Keeps Wall Street Guessing by John Crudele via New York Post
- 5 Takeaways From Fed Minutes by Mohamed El-Erian via Bloomberg
- Fed Should Take June Hike Of The Table by Ron Insana via CNBC
- 2 Questions For Clinton On The Fed by Narayana Kocherlakota via Bloomberg
THE MARKET & ECONOMY
- Scariest Chart Ever by Dr. Thorton via HedgEye
- Bull Market Losing Biggest Ally by Lu Wang via Bloomberg
- What Stock Market’s Pause Is Telling Us by Rob Isbitts via MarketWatch
- Media Sentiment To Time The Markets by Ky Trang Ho via Forbes
- Soros, Icahn, Nelson Hedge For Market Fall by Brian Nelson via Tumbler
- Investors Paying Historically High Multiples by Eric Bush via Gavekal
- Economic Slowdown Or Resurgence by Joseph Calhoun via Alhambra Partners
- “Cash Stashed” Overseas Is A Myth! by Wolf Richter via Naked Capitalism
- Even Economists Hate Economics by Michael Strain via The Washington Post
- Yes, The IMF and 200+ Economists Can Be Wrong by Roger Bootle via The Telegraph
- Here’s How Investors Are Duped Each Earning’s Season by Ciara Linnane via MarketWatch
- Jim Cramer Doesn’t Beat The Market by Jennifer Booton via MarketWatch
INTERESTING READS
- Americans Who Pay 80% Of The Taxes by Kelly Phillips via Forbes
- New Overtime Rules Causes Triple Damage by Diana Furchtgott-Roth via E21
- Harsh Reality Of Regulating Overtime Pay by Andy Puzder via Forbes
- Hillary Love’s The 90’s! But She Can’t Bring Them Back by James Pethokoukis via The Week
- Clinton’s “Vaunted” Prosperity In 90’s Was A Myth by David Stockman via Stockman’s Corner
- World’s Smartest Investors Have Failed by Morgan Housel via Motley Fool
- QE And The “Iron Laws” by John Hussman via Hussman Funds
- #1 Regret Of Older Americans by Catey Hill via Marketwatch
- Inventor Of 401k Plans Says He Created A Monster by Jeremy Olshan via Market Watch
- What Is Risk by David Merkel via Aleph Blog
- Will Aging Baby Boomers Doom The Market by Lawrence Hamtil via ValueWalk
- Gundlach: “Something Changed” At Fed by Tyler Durden via Zero Hedge
- Oil Rally Getting Clogged Up? by Dana Lyons via Tumblr
- Not The Most Hated Bull Market by Jesse Felder via The Felder Report
- 16 Months & Counting by Michael Lebowitz via RIA
“The increase in the assets of the Federal Reserve Banks from 143 million dollars in 1913 to 45 billion dollars in 1949 went directly to the private stockholders of the [Federal Reserve] banks.” – Eustace Mullins
Some things never change.