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??

More On Fed’s Bullard’s “Consumers Healthy” Remark (Consumer Sentiment At Lowest Level Since 1977 While Unemployment Rate At Only 3.6%)

St. Louis Fed President Bullard made a remark the other day that consumers are healthy so a recession is unlikely.

Consumers are healthy? It is true that the US U-3 uemployment rate is low (3.6% versus 14.70% in April 2020 thanks to government shutdowns over Covid). But even though unemployment is low, consumer sentiment is at its lowest point since 1977.

Generally, consumer sentiment is high when unemployment is low, but not this time around. Currently, inflation is at the highest level since March 1980 even though consumer sentiment bottomed-out in April 1980.

Here is my chart showing that REAL average hourly earnings growth YoY is negative and getting worse, hardly a sign of “healthy consumers.”

Of course, rising gasoline and diesel prices have risen dramatically since 2021, but are declining slightly thanks to the global economic slowdown (read “lower demand”).

And a M2 Money Stock (green line) declined, US rents (blue line) declined as well.

We are truly living in Birdland. As in bird-brain land.

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.

Weekend Update! Fed Quantitative Frightening, Growing Recession Likelihood, Mortgage Rates And Gasoline Prices Drop Slightly (Out Of Time?)

The US economy is out of time.

As a recession approaches, we are seeing the WIRP implied Fed o/n rate (green line) declining. And with The Fed chickening-out, we saw a surge in equities (NASDAQ composite index in blue).

Gasoline prices are falling too (orange line), but due to rising global economic slowdown. But notice that The Fed’s balance sheet (yellow line) is still growing despite repeated signals that Covid stimulus would be removed (I call this Quantitative Frightening).

As I mentioned above, The Fed has stopped trimming their balance sheet despite signals to the market of getting rid of the Covid stimulus. As Billy Preston sang, “Nothing From Nothing.”

The Atlanta Fed GDPNow Q2 forecast is for … 0% GDP growth despite the massive monetary stimulus and fiscal stimulus from Biden/Pelosi/Schumer.

And yes, the S&P 500 has officially entered a bear market under the leadership of Joe “The Bear” Biden.

So, Biden’s economic agenda (read, just spend more money and inflation declines?) is failing. Hence, The Fed is backing off a bit helping to drive up stock prices.

US markets are addicted to gov.

Four Horsemen! US Consumer Sentiment Plunges To Lowest Level In History (Home Buying Sentiment Falls To Lowest Since 1982) As Inflation And Home Price Growth Rage

What a legacy for Biden/Pelosi/Schumer/Powell, the four horsemen of the inflation apocalypse.

As inflation soars, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index plunged to its lowest level in history.

None of the contributions to consumer sentiment are positive.

The good news? The University of Michigan Buying Conditions for housing only fell to its lowest level since 1982.

Speaking of housing, more than 8 million Americans are late on rent as prices increase.

The four horsemen of the inflation apocalypse.

The DC Stomp! New Home Sales Decline -5.9% YoY, Median Price Rises +42% YoY As Fed Stimulypto Still In Place

The kids running Washington DC are not as sharp as pistols (which they want to take away) when they do the DC stomp.

Thanks to massive Fed monetary stimulus still stalking the housing market, US new home sales rose +10.7% MoM (from April to May), but were down -5.9% YoY (from May 2021 to May 2022) as mortgage rates rose.

Median price of new home sales rose 42% since May 2021, thanks to Fed stimulypto. And Federal government stimulus spending.

Yes, like the predators from the movies, The Fed’s balance sheet is still stalking markets.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

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?

Hot, Hot, Hot! Mortgage Purchase Applications UP 6% WoW, Refi Applications DOWN -3.1% WoW As Fed Keeps Massive Covid Stimulus In Place (AEI Home Price Index UP 17% YoY In May)

Although mortgage rates have been rising quite fast, The Fed’s balance sheet is only being reduced quite slowly, leading to a continuation of the hot, hot, hot housing market.

But the expectation of Fed rate hikes is causing mortgage rates to soar and borrowers are trying to get buy housing before The Fed chokes off rates.

Mortgage applications increased 4.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 17, 2022.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 8 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 6 percent compared with the previous week and was 10 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index decreased 3 percent from the previous week and was 77 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) national home price index for May 2022 averaged 17.0%, down from 17.5% a month ago but up from 15.3% a year ago.

So, the housing market remains hot, hot, hot but not mortgage refi applications. But Powell and Company will likely choke-off purchase applications as well.

Mr Freeze! Existing Home Sales Drop -3.39% MoM In May, Median Price Growth At 14.8% YoY, Inventory Rises Slightly As Fed Stimulus Continues

Rising energy prices, rising home prices, rising mortgage rates, declining hope.

But as The Federal Reserve begins to withdraw it Covid stimulus, existing home sales declined -3.39% in May from April.

But like Covid itself, The Fed’s outrageous monetary stimulus is still in place, helping caused median home prices to rise 14.8% YoY. And inventory for sale is rising, but still remains low.

Jointly, Treasury Secretary Yellen and Fed Chair Powell are “Mr Freeze.”

Cleveland Ohio? 5 Of The Top 10 Foreclosure Zip Codes As Home Prices Rise 31.5% Since Covid Stimulypto (Q2 Real GDP Falls To 0% Growth)

How crazy was The Federal Reserve’s overreaction to the government shutdowns surrounding the Covid epidemic? While most analysts talk about California, I am going to discuss … Cleveland Ohio as an example of how The Fed can destroy markets.

The Case-Shiller home price index for Cleveland rose 31.5% since January 2020 just before The Fed unleashed its massive monetary stimulus on an unsuspecting city.

But as The Fed starts to tighten monetary policy after Yellen’s too loose for too long policies followed by Powell, foreclosure rates are soaring in Cleveland. In fact, according to Attom Data, 5 of the top 10 zip codes with the worst foreclosure rates in May 2022 were in Cleveland.

Of course, Cleveland is much like much of the rust belt (except Columbus Ohio). The rust belt is losing population along with heavy tax states like New York and Illinois. Destination states? Texas, Florida, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

Then at the national level, Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow real-time tracker fell to 0% growth.