Platinum Wealth Partners Insights
For the record just over two weeks ago the Fed warned of two rate hikes, now we are down to one. Our bet is that by the time all the other issues in China, Greece, Brazil , Puerto Rico and elsewhere get worse they will be no rate hikes and "QEnth" are going to be effected. Any rate hike is bound to be immaterial regardless, and purely symbolic - while posturing against the IMF's creeping authority - the real invisible issue here.
So don't leave yet, there is much more to come....
Good luck; Be careful out there
Yellen says a rate hike likely needed this year
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Friday said she saw signs the economy was improving and said she expects a rate hike to be needed this year.
“I expect that it will be appropriate at some point later this year to take the first step to raise the federal-funds rate and thus begin normalizing monetary policy,” she said.
Stocks SPX, +1.23% trimmed gains after Yellen’s comments were released. Treasury yields rose after the remarks and the dollar edged higher.
Though the Yellen comments aren’t out of line with previous pronouncements, traders have priced in a dovish view of when and how fast U.S. interest rates will be hiked.
Fear and uncertainty on Wall Street: investors, buckle up for a bumpy ride
Are we heading for another stock market crash? The signs are ominous. The New York stock exchange – the world’s largest stock market – shut down for three and a half hours due to a mysterious “technical issue” on Wednesday; China’s speculative stock market plunged still further, despite tens of billions of dollars of spending on the part of the government in a futile attempt to halt the carnage; Greece is sailing into uncharted territory and teetering on the brink of leaving the Eurozone; and meanwhile Puerto Rico is mired in its own debt crisis.
Euripides and Sophocles couldn’t have asked for better material for a financial markets melodrama. Little wonder, therefore, that yesterday turned into a day of carnage on Wall Street, from the moment that US stocks prepared to open for trading early in the morning. There may be more to come.
Five Things Everyone Will Be Talking About Today
What we've been reading
This is what's caught our eye over the last 24 hours.
- Don't panic - global growth is accelerating.
- The Chinese bear market by the (astonishing) numbers.
- Japan's 17,000 tons of nuclear waste in need of a new home.
- How a Greek business owner survives the economic meltdown.
- Greek newspapers are running out of ... paper.
- Kansas City Fed paper - Weighing the Costs of Waiting.
- The NYSE floor shutdown was bad, but it wasn't 1914 bad.
IMF Sees 2015 Global Growth at Weakest Rate Since Financial Crisis
IMF trims U.S. forecast as it says world to weather Greece, China
-
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The bank holiday in Greece and the meltdown in the Chinese stock market "have not changed the broad outlook" of moderate growth for the global economy in 2015, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday. The IMF trimmed its outlook for global growth by two-tenths, to 3.3%, slightly slower than the 3.4% growth rate seen in 2014. Most of the decline was due to slower growth in the first quarter in North America, which led the IMF to
downgrade its outlook for U.S. economic growth by six-tenths to 2.5%, just above last year's 2.4% growth rate. But the first-quarter weakness was expected to be only a "temporary setback," the international financial agency said. The recovery in the eurozone seems broadly on track, the IMF said. Risks to the outlook remained slightly tilted to the downside, notably from asset price shifts and financial market volatility.
- More Leading Global HeadlinesIS EXISTENTIAL REALITYScience or Archaic Fabrications?