Confounded Interest – Anthony B. Sanders
Financial Markets And Real Estate
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.”
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.
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?
We’ve got a line on The Federal Reserve. They don’t seem to care about housing and the mortgage market.
Monthly mortgage payments are soaring as home prices soar AND mortgage rates soar.
Mortgage rates have soared with Fed noose tightening.
Something has to give. Otherwise, winter is coming.
The theme song of The Federal Reserve thinking that rising prices can be tamed by raising rates is “Dear Mr Fantasy.”
As The Federal Reserve tightens the monetary noose (Fed Chair Powell said Fed ‘acutely focused’ on returning inflation to 2%), the US economy is slowing. In fact, May’s Industrial Production report is half of what was expected. Industrial production declined to 0.20% MoM versus the expected 0.4%. At the same time, capacity utilization rose slightly to 79%., but still below expectations.
Mortgage rates are rising rapidly, but the growth has cooled slightly as the economy cools.
Bitcoin is getting demolished by The Fed’s reaction to inflation.
And “It’s Not Always Sunny In Philadelphia.” Since the Philadelphia Fed’s Business General Conditions has dropped into negative territory with, among other things, The Fed’s monetary tightening. And they’ve only just begun (no Carpenters’ songs!).
Here is Phil Hall’s article on housing and The Federal Reserve’s noose tightening. US housing starts dove -14.4% MoM as mortgage rates soared.
If the Biden Administration and Federal Reserve jointly produced a dating site …
But its most central banks too. Look at German home prices against the ECB’s balance sheet
Like in the movie The Poseidon Adventure, we can all sing “The Morning After.”
On the heels of The Fed’s 75 basis point surge in the target rate, the US Treasury yield jumped +11.5 BPS as of 8:30 AM EST. The S&P 500 E-mini futures contract is down -1.8%.
As investors brace for a recession, mortgage rates dropped to 6.03%.
Gasoline prices remain near $5 per gallon, diesel prices are near $6 per gallon and The Fed’s massive balance sheet is still in force.
On the housing front, US housing starts plunged -14.4% MoM in May, the biggest decline under Biden.
While housing starts were down -14.4% MoM in May, single-family detached home were down only -9.16%. It was 5+ unit (multifamily) starts that were down -26.83% MoM.
Good morning peeps! Reality is dawning after the market surge yesterday after investors celebrated that The Fed could have raised rates even more.
Sometimes I wonder if The Federal Reserve Board of Governors pays attention to economic news. For example, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast for Q2 was released today at -0.002%. So what does The Fed do? They raised their target rate by 75 basis points to 1.75%.
Apparently, The Fed has chosen to fight inflation rather than help the economy.
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.
The US Treasury 10Y-5Y yield curve has gone into negative territory (which usually occurs before a recession). At the same time, US mortgage rates are climbing like Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick” to 5.87% as The Fed tightens its choke hold on markets.
The 10Y-5Y Treasury curve typically goes negative before a recession.
And then we have today’s PPI report (Producer Price Index), rising 10.8% YoY as M2 Money stock starts to decline a bit.
Here is a better view of mortgage rates under Biden/Powell.
I hate this chart from John Burns.
Biden/Powell/Pelosi/Schumer are collectively “Mr Freeze.”
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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