Blitzkrieg Bop! ECB to Activate First Line of Defense in Bond Market July 1 (Lagarde Calls For Monetary Maginot Line) WIRP Forecasts US Rate Hikes Until March 2023, Then Declining Rates

The ECB is planning on a Blitzkrieg Bop, monetary style.

When Lagarde talks about the first line of defense, all I can picture is The Maginot Line in France, a failed defensive line that was easily bypassed by the German Wehrmacht (army).

The European Central Bank will activate the bond-purchasing firepower it’s earmarked as a first line of defense against a possible debt-market crisis on Friday, according to President Christine Lagarde.

Applying “flexibility” to how reinvestments from the ECB’s 1.7 trillion-euro ($1.8 trillion) pandemic bond-buying portfolio are allocated is aimed at curbing unwarranted turmoil in government bonds as interest rates are lifted from record lows to curb unprecedented inflation.

Net buying under a separate asset-purchase program is also set to end on Friday.

In other words, Euro-area inflation has exploded in 2021, just like the USA.

But the US also has an inflation problem caused in part by Covid and the government’s reaction to Covid: economic shutdown and massive Federal monetary and fiscal stimulus. The stimulus is still in play.

The bond market is already anticipating an about-face by The Federal Reserve (implied overnight rate peaking at the March 2023 FOMC meeting, then receding.

Again, nothing has been the same since the Covid outbreak of 2020 and Fed monetary blitz. Here is the US Dollar Swaps curve before Covid (yellow line) and today’s Fed-enhanced curve (green).

Mortgage rates in the US have climbed to 6% then backed-off slightly. The good ole Back-off Boogaloo as The Fed attempts to unwind its monetary stimulypto.

The French Maginot Line, easily bypassed by German tanks. The Federal Reserve is the US’s Maginot Line. The Yellenot Line??

Alarm! Fed’s Bullard Says US Recession Fears Overblown With Consumers Healthy (My Response In One Chart: REAL Average Wage Growth At -3.34% YoY, Real GDP Growth At … 0%)

Alarm!

No problemo, says James “Bully” Bullard, President of the St Louis Federal Reserve. Bullard said that US recession fears are overblown with consumers “healthy.”

Really Jim?

Inflation is so bad they REAL average hourly earnings growth keeps falling and is now -3.34% YoY.

Apparently, real GDP growth of ZERO doesn’t bother Bullard either.

Apparently, we are still Under The Thumb of The Federal Reserve.

Sign Of The Times! US Gasoline Prices Decline To $4.94, Diesel Prices Rise To $5.80 As Recession Fears Mount (Reverse Repos At Fed Hit All-time High)

The talk of a gasoline tax “holiday” out of Washington DC is pure Kabuki theater. It is purely a sign of the times with Biden still trying to blame Putin for rising gasoline prices and inflation and ignoring his anti-fossil fuel policies that helped drive energy prices AND inflation through the roof.

Daily regular gasoline prices have dipped below $5.00 to $4.94 while diesel fuel, the lifeline of the shipping industry, rose slightly to $5.80. I guess the folks shipping food and other goods don’t get a holiday.

Note that the implied Fed target rate has fallen a bit as the probability of a recession increases.

And why are banks stashing so much money at The Fed in the form of reverse repos? Fear of recession, perhaps?

The Biden Administration is settling all kinds of records, and none are good.

Slippin’ Into Darkness! US Mortgage Rates Decline Slightly As Recession Probability Spikes (Will Fed U-turn From Inflation Fighting To Recession Fighting?)

Slippin’ Into Darkness!

Despite what Biden and his muppets say, there is a good chance that the US will slip into recession over the next 24 months. And with that, we are seeing a slight drop in US mortgage rates.

Inflation is surging, and The Fed seems intent on “inflation fighting” but may have to pause that fight the impending recession. This is called a “U-turn” although Powell didn’t mention that is his testimony yesterday.

According to Mortgage News Daily, the 30-year fixed dropped below 6% to 5.88%.

Europe is signaling their u-turn to recession fighting as 10-year sovereign yield have dropped over 10 basis points this morning. Australia and New Zealand are dropping hard as well.

Here is the Federal Reserve’s open market committee deciding on the direction of interest rates … inflation fighting or recession fighting?

WTI Crude Oil Futures Breaks $110 Barrier As Crack Spread UP 535% Under Biden (Diesel Fuel UP 121%)

The US is a movin’ on up to the high side … of energy prices.

Today, WTI crude oil futures broke through the $110 barrier.

The WTI Crude crack spread, the differential between the price of crude oil and petroleum products extracted from it, is up 535% under President “I HATE OIL!” Biden and diesel fuel is up 121%.

WTI crude is up 1% today.

“Crack? I thought crack was something that Hunter did!” – Joe Biden

Bitcoin Rallies To $20k As Yellen Confesses That Inflation Will Remain High For 2022 (So, Monetary Tightening ISN’T The Answer??)

US Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chain, Janet Yellen, admitted on ABC’s This Week that US inflation is “unacceptably high”and prices are likely to stick with consumers through 2022, and that the US economy is likely to slow down.

“We’ve had high inflation so far this year, and that locks in higher inflation for the rest of the year,” she said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I expect the economy to slow,” she said, adding: “But I don’t think a recession at all inevitable.”

US inflation accelerated to 8.6% in May, a fresh 40-year high that signals price pressures are becoming entrenched in the economy. Those figures dashed any hope that inflation was starting to ebb, prompting the Federal Reserve to unleash its biggest interest-rate increase since 1994.

Hey, I thought strangling the US mortgage market and housing markets was supposed to cool the inflation rate, Janet.

On the good news/bad news front, cryptocurrency Bitcoin fell to $17,600 earlier today before rebounding to above $20,000 as the expectation of further Fed rate increases diminished (Yellen admitted the economy is slowing).

Yellen ignored rising mortgage rates which is putting a chokehold on the US housing market.

Hey Janet! So you are admitting that Biden’s energy policies AND massive Congressional spending bills ARE helping to drive prices through the roof and that Fed rate increases won’t tame the savage inflation beast?

Opening Hell! Markets In Sea Of Red Thanks To Global Slowdown And Fed Signals Of Tightening (Global Markets In Sea Of Red)

Today’s opening bell is “Opening Hell!”

US Treasury 10Y yields are up +12.1 basis points as of 9:40am EST. And rising across the globe.

Equity markets? Dow is down -621.93 points and the NASDAQ is down almost -3%. But equity markets are down across the globe.

Commodities? Once again, all commodities in the red except corn (which I don’t eat) and natural gas.

Speaking of opening hell. The US Treasury 10Y-2Y yield flattened to 7 basis points.

And then we have Markit’s Credit Default Swaps index rising to the highest level since Covid (April 2020).

Markets are in a “Sea of Red.”

Weekend Update! US Gasoline Tops $5 (Highest In History), 2Y Treasury Yields Soaring, Mortgage Rates Highest Since 2008 (Inflation Tax Costing Households $5,200 More YoY)

Up, up and away in our inflationary balloon!

Regular gasoline prices have breached the $5 a gallon barrier, the highest in recorded history. And it is even worse in states like California where regular gas prices have been above $7 per gallon.

Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate is now 5.78%, the highest since 2008. And rising really fast as The Fed tightens the monetary noose.

Speaking of noose tightening, the 2-year US Treasury Note yield is rising awfully fast.

The US Treasury 10Y-2Y curve slope just flattened to 8.819 bps and challenging the 0% grade awfully fast.

The US Dollar is soaring as US inflation soars, consumer purchasing power (green line) collapses along with M2 Money Velocity.

There is little doubt that soaring inflation, gasoline and food prices have hurt Biden’s popularity as well as the Democrats popularity ahead of the upcoming mid-year elections. People for the most part vote with their wallets.

According to estimates by Bloomberg Economics, US households will spend $5,200 more this year than they did last year on the same consumption basket.

That breaks down to $433 extra in expenditures every single month. That is what is called “the inflation tax.” And it hurts.

Call this The Inflation Tax Blues.

UMich Buying Condition Plunges To 43, Lowest Since 1982 As Fed Goes Crazy (Consumer Sentiment Drops To Lowest Level EVER)

The Federal Reserve is going crazy on inflation news!

The Fed is expected to raise their target rate to 2.875% by February 2023. With that expectation, mortgage rates (yellow line) are soaring. And with that, University of Michigan’s Buying Conditions for housing has plunged to 43, the lowest levels since 1982 as the US was trying to recover from high inflation.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index just plunged to the LOWEST LEVEL in history on inflation and Fed’s reaction.

Average REAL wage growth has now declined to -2.11% YoY.

Do Washington DC politicians and bureaucrats feel like we do? I doubt it.

Run For Cover! Banks Park Near Record Amount With Fed As Global Inflation Soars, Overnight Reverse Repo Operations Above $2 Trillion (Gasoline Prices Rise To Highest In History)

Run for cover!

Markets opened after a long (and expensive) Memorial Day weekend, with the 10-year Treasury yield up 8.1 basis points (to

Meanwhile, banks continue to park funds at The Federal Reserve in the form of reverse repos as global inflation soars.

And then we have US gasoline prices rising to the highest in history.

Its like banks know something that the rest of us don’t. Although we do know about the highest gasoline prices in history.