Confounded Interest – Anthony B. Sanders
Financial Markets And Real Estate
While expected, it is still unwelcome news.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow real-time GDP forecast for Q2 just sank into negative territory at -0.002%.
Let’s see how Real GDP does if The Fed actually withdraws its stimulus needle.
And consumer purchasing power keeps diving as The Fed keeps printing money.
I just read that President Biden has never been more optimistic about the US economy than he is now.
Well, today’s closing bell is not optimistic and is downright bearish.
The US Treasury 10-year yield rose … ANOTHER … 11.3 basis points as rumors circulate that The Fed might actually raise their target rate by 75 basis points.
And the venerable Dow (DJIA) is down -152 points today.
Markets are anticipating an increase of The Fed Funds target rate from 1% to 1.568%, less than the rumored 75 basis point increase being bandied about.
At least Columbus Ohio home prices are growing slower than the national average.
If Biden is wildly optimistic about the economy, then he needs to get out of The White House and talk to average Americans and not people like Robert De Niro.
US home prices are still skyrocketing as The Federal Reserve kept its massive foot on the monetary accelerator pedal.
CoreLogic’s home price index grew at a 20.9% YoY pace in April, but is expected to slow to 5.6% YoY in late 2022.
Remember peeps, The Fed still have its staggering monetary stimulypto in place.
The Fed is signaling its withdrawal of stimulus, causing mortgage rates to soar.
Given the slowdown of the US and global economy, we shall see if The Fed keeps to its tightening plans. As of today, the market is expecting The Fed to raise its target rate from 1% to 3.819% by February 2023. That is a 291% increase in The Fed’s target rate.ng
The Fed trying to tame inflation (caused by The Fed and Biden’s energy policies and Congressional spending) is like Curly trying to eat oyster stew.
It was closing hell for a terrible day in markets as investors struggle to process the dreadful and seemingly endless inflation report on Friday.
What happened today? The NASDAQ tanked -4.58% and the 10-year Treasury yield jumped 22.2 basis points. Gulp.
The 22.2 bps jump in the 10-year Treasury yield has led to Agency MBS prices pulling a Titanic and sank.
Somehow, I don’t think that Biden and Congress are going to help the middle class and low-wage workers.
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.”
The Federal Reserve is making up for Bernanke and Yellen’s “too slow to remove” Fed stimulus policies (QE1 – QE3) and Powell’s Covid-related QE4. Now The Fed is trying to remove the stimulus in a (misguided) attempt to cool inflation. Remember, the dramatic rise in prices was caused by more than Fed stimulypto, it was also caused by Biden’s executive orders driving up oil, gasoline and natural gas prices and the massive Federal spending bills signed by Biden.
The result of The Fed’s jawboning about undoing Fed stimulypto is take away the punch bowl. But the results are troubling. Both the total return indices for US Treasuries and Agency Mortgage-backed Securities (MBS) have declined dramatically since inflation has been rising (highest in 40 years) and The Fed is expected to crank their target rate by February 2023 to 3.448% (The Fed Funds Target Rate currently stands at 1%). That is almost a 250 basis point rise in the target rate in 8 months.
While the 10-year rate is rising rapidly, the 2-year Treasury yield is REALLY rising fast.
And the yield curve (10Y-2Y) is down to +8.819 basis points as The Fed signals tightening.
And with rising 10 and 2Y Treasury yields, we are seeing the fastest rise in mortgage rates since 1981.
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.
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.
Inflation, the bane of the middle class and working families, just rose to 8.6%.
Core inflation, that excludes energy and food, actually declined slightly to 6% from 6.2% in April. But since most families are concerned with gas prices and food, (not to mention home prices growing at 21.17% YoY), core inflation really underestimates the suffering.
Under Biden’s leadership in cooperation with eternal Fed stimulus (until now), inflation started at 1.4% YoY and has increased to 8.6% YoY. The Fed’s balance sheet has increased by 20.27% (more monetary Stimulypto!), Case-Shiller home prices started at 10.44% YoY and has now doubled to 20.55% YoY. Regular gasoline started at $2.57 and is now at $5.42, up 102%. Food is up 61%.
The Fed is expecting two half-point hikes followed by quarter-point increases.
And mortgage rates keep rising as The Fed fights the inflation fire.
Here is a video of Milton Friedman speaking on inflation.
On the hotter than expected inflation news, the US Treasury 10Y-2Y curve flattened to 12 bps.
Pennies from Heaven. That is what the bottom 50% received from The Federal Reserve’s massive doses of monetary stimulus (or stimulypto).
There was one big dose of monetary stimulus in late 2008 surrounding the financial crisis and housing bubble burst, another doses (aka, QE 2 and QE3) then the biggest dose of all with the outbreak of Covid in early 2020.
President Biden should have mentioned on Jimmy Dimmel last night that The Federal Reserve has helped the bottom 50% with its endless monetary stimulus.
But if you were fortunate enough to own a home (the top 1% are likely homeowners), then you benefited from The Fed’s monetary stimulypto.
And I noticed that Biden didn’t mention plunging REAL average weekly earnings YoY.
The Federal Reserve’s monetary “policies” have benefited the top 1% and homeowners relative to the bottom 50% (who often rent and got clobbered with 20% growth in rents).
Great job, Fed! Making housing more unaffordable for rents (combine rising rents and declining REAL wages and we have a real affordability problem).
Home affordability for first time homebuyers?
And what is with Biden’s ear lobes? As inflation is rising, his ear lobes are shrinking.
The inflation numbers are out tomorrow. I noticed that Biden and Jimmy Dimmel only discussed gun control, not the sad state of the economy under Biden.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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