As mortgage rates hit a 22-year high and existing homeowners continue to stay in their homes, new single family home sales hit a 17-month high in July, according to HUD and U.S. Census Bureau data. Last month’s data recorded a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 714,000 new single-family home sales, up 4.4% from the revised … Read More
As the market was expecting, the Fed raised interest rates another quarter point Wednesday afternoon, bringing the federal-funds rate to a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, a 22 year high. There will be eight weeks until the next Fed meeting. Chairman Jay Powell said there is “uncertainty in the next meeting let alone next year.” Powell also said he believed they “have a shot” at a soft … Read More
Amidst somewhat surprising signs of resilience this year in the U.S. economy, Fed watchers expect two more rate hikes this year to combat stubbornly high core inflation rates. Goldman Sachs Research’s chief U.S. economist believes a healthy labor market rebalancing that includes a large decline in job openings without an increase in unemployment is a positive sign for the potential for the U.S. to … Read More
Fed Chairman Jay Powell is on the Hill delivering the Fed’s semiannual report on monetary policy to the Senate and House. He told the House Committee the Fed is likely to raise interest rates in the coming months but at a slower pace than they have moved over the past year, weighing the risk that the combination of their 10 … Read More
Both Warren Buffet and Jamie Dimon said in the days following the JPMorgan take-over of First Republic that the banking crisis is over, two pretty good sources on banking stress. It doesn’t mean there won’t be more bank failures—it seems inevitable there will be in the months ahead with the Fed tightening another quarter point last week putting … Read More
Activity at the Fed’s discount window and the Bank Term Lending Program rose in the past week, with banks borrowing $73 billion from the window and $82 billion from the program, up slightly and continuing to stay at high levels. With the seizure of First Republic Bank over the weekend and JPMorgan picking it up early … Read More
There continues to be a conundrum in US markets: Q1 was very strong for consumer spending, above pre-pandemic levels, substantially. There has been decent, though slowing, payroll data — the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that total non-farm payroll employment rose by 236,000 in March. It was the smallest increase in more than two years, but it … Read More
