Powell Backs A Quarter-point Rate Hike In March Meeting, 10Y Treasury Yield Rise By 11 BPS, UK Natural Gas UP 35% (Taylor Rule Suggests A Target Rate Of 13.40%)

Like the old E.F. Hutton ads, when Fed Chair Jerome Powell talks, people listen.

Stocks rose, while bonds fell after Jerome Powell said he was inclined to back a quarter-point U.S. rate hike in March to combat inflation that is “too high.”

In a broad-based equity rally, financial and industrial companies led gains in the S&P 500. The two-year Treasury yield — which is more sensitive to imminent Federal Reserve policy moves — was near 1.5%. The Fed chief also noted that the central bank is prepared to be more aggressive if inflation is more persistent than expected, while adding that he’s open to “series of rate increases” in 2022. Investors also assessed the latest geopolitical developments, with oil paring gains after earlier topping $110 a barrel.

WTI Crude futures are up to $107.05 a barrel.

Natural Gas (UK) rose 34.58% to 100.28. Wheat is 7.62% to $1,059.

The 10-year Treasury yield jumped 11 Basis Points on Powell’s comments. And Eurozone yield are up nearly the same amount.

Powell signalling a more moderate rate expansion led to the Dow rising over 500 points (up 1.65%).

Based on core PCE growth of 5.21%, the Mankiw specification of the Taylor Rule model infers that The Fed Funds Target rate should be … 13.40%. Since The Fed’s target rate is only 25 basis points, a 25 basis point increase is modest indeed.

Mortgage rates are down slightly today, but you can see the separation between The Fed’s target rate and the 30-year mortgage rate.

My State Of The Union Rebuttal: WTI Crude UP 126% Since Jan 1, Gasoline Prices UP 61% (GDP Near Zero, Inflation Still Rising)

President Biden is giving his first State of the Union address tonight with rebuttals from Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and The Squad’s Rashida Talib (yes, a Republican is giving the rebuttal to Biden’s SOTU speech, and a Democrat is rebutting a Democrat President??)

Let’s look at a short list of Biden’s economic triumphs. I will ignore Biden’s catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal and his weak response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

If you want higher oil and gasoline prices, Biden is a tremendous success.

If you like rampant government spending, then Biden is your man. Home price growth is up to 18.84%, making housing unaffordable for millions of American families.

Wages? They are up, but declining after 7.5% YoY inflation. And GDP is almost zero.

Biden can only point to rising average hourly wages, but not REAL average hourly wages.

Inflation? Highest in 40 years, due to excessive Federal spending, The Fed’s crazy printing and Biden’s energy mandates.

I am scratching my head to think of accomplishments for Biden to mention in the SOTU. But I am sure that he will say something positive. Otherwise, Biden’s SOTU speech should be the Billy Preston song “Nothing from Nothing.“

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot! US Home Prices Grew At 19.1% YoY In January (Is US Housing Market Addicted To Gov?)

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

Corelogic released their January housing report and its a doozy.

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased year over year by 19.1% in January 2022 compared with January 2021. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 1.4% in January 2022 compared with December 2021 (revisions with public records data are standard, and to ensure accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates the newly released public data to provide updated results).

But Corelogic is still forecasting only 3.8% YoY growth in 2022.

Home prices are hot, hot, hot in all states except North Dakota and New York. The fastest growing states are lower taxes, higher growth states.

Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego are booming. But Chicago and Washington DC are growing at near 9% YoY.

Case-Shiller’s December report show home prices growing at 18.84% YoY thanks to Fed stimulypto and historic low inventory of homes available for sale.

Is the US housing market addicted to gov?

Let’s see if the five expected rate hikes from The Fed materialize.

Oh Atlanta! Atlanta Fed GDPNow Q1 Forecast Drops To 0.631% With REAL Wage Growth At -2.38% (Coal Is SOARING!)

Oh Atlanta! Fed, that is.

The Atlanta Fed GDPNow Q1 real-time GDP index fell to 0.631%. And the Atlanta Fed REAL wage tracker fell to -2.38 growth.

Volatility reigns supreme on the energy front (look at NYM Dubai crude AVAT!) And coal is up 18.68% this morning.

Here is a map of gas and oil pipelines in Europe.

Weekend Update: US Q1 GDP Falls To 0.6%, Treasury 10Y-2Y Curve Flattens and Commodity Prices UP 52% Under Biden (Ports Still Clogged)

Russia is still attacking Ukraine and I am still seeing stories about actor/comedian Bob Saget’s cause of death. So now for something completely different.

After last week’s Personal Consumption Expenditures, GDP and new home sales reports, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow real GDP estimate for Q1 shriveled to 0.6%.

The US Treasury yield curve? It is flattening rapidly as it typically does prior to a recession.

Commodities? Commodity prices are UP 52% under Biden. And that includes prices dropping slightly from 2/24 to 2/25.

And then there is average port delays in US ports. Hey, I thought Mayor Pete the port Czar was supposed to unclog the ports!

Hopefully this coming week will be better! Particularly for the Ukrainian people.

Elmer Fed? US PCE Price Growth Hits 5.2%, Highest Since Mid-1983 (Taylor Rule Suggests Target Rate of 13.35%)

And this doesn’t include the inflation in prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet.

US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose by 5.2% in January, the fastest rate since mid-1983.

With CPI inflation at 7.5% YoY, the Taylor Rule suggests a Fed Funds target rate of 13.35%, higher than the current rate of 0.25%. Overstimulated much??

Let’s see if The Fed actually goes hunting inflation.

Let’s see if inflation makes The Fed dance!

Russian Stock Market Drops Over 30% As Their 10-year Yield Rises To 15.23%, Ruble Crashes And UK Natural Gas Rises 51% (As Biden Throws The Booklet At Russia)

We now know that Russia has invaded Ukraine and President Biden really threw the booklet at Putin in a speech today. Rather than removing Russia from the SWIFT banking system which would have really hurt Russia’s trade with Europe, he gave a surprisingly cogent speech about the US and NATO agreeing to do … not much. He did warn us that energy prices would rise (which he helped do when he took office) and told energy companies not to gauge consumers.

The reaction in Russia? Their stock market tanked over 30% (not because of Biden’s speech, but because of negative costs of war).

Russia’s 10-year sovereign yield rose to 15.23%.

The Russian Ruble crashed and burned.

UK natural gas prices rose 51% today.

And while 17 Euro nations have negative 2 year sovereign yields, Russia has 2-year sovereign yield of 28.65% which is nothing compared to Ukraine’s 75% 2-year yield (in US Dollars).

The SWIFT system, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, facilitates financial transactions and money transfers for banks located around the world. The system is overseen by the National Bank of Belgium and enables transactions between more than 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries around the world. Removing Russia from the SWIFT system would really hurt Russian trade with Europe. I assume that Europe is scared of soaring energy costs, so probably doesn’t want Russia removed from SWIFT.

Queue Creedence Clearwater singing “Lookin’ Out My … Limo Window.”

Putinesca! European Markets Tank, Energy Prices Explode, US 10Y Treasury Yields Plunge 13.3 BPS After Russia Invades Ukraine (Russian 5Y CDS Soars To 917)

I admit, I follow market data to get a signal of what is happening to mortgage rates and I got one. With Putin and Russia invading Ukraine, markets are in turmoil

WTI Crude is up 8.14% this morning, Brent Crude is up 8.45% and NBP (UK) Natural gas is up 40%.

Europe is having a bad day equity market-wise. Eurostoxx 50 was down 4.92%. The US Dow is braced for a 2.5% opening.

Now to bonds. The 10-year Treasury yield is down 13.3 bps this morning. Sweden and UK are down 10 bps as well.

How about the new Russian front? Ukraine’s 10y yield rose 691.0 bps while Russia’s 10Y yield rose 435 bps.

Russian 5Y Credit Default Swaps (CDS) leaped to a Greek-like 917.

Well, it looks like the sanctions imposed by Winken (US VP Harris), Blinken (US Secretary of State) and Nod (US President Biden because he always looks half-asleep) apparently didn’t work as intended.

Putin finally made up his mind.

My Kuroda! Japan’s Inflation “Miracle” (0.5% Inflation) Despite $5 Trillion BOJ Balance Sheet And -0.10 Policy Rate

My Kuroda!

Forbes has an interesting article on the Japanese “miracle” entitled “The $5 Trillion Inflation Time Bomb No One’s Talking About.”

It’s taken nine years and the Bank of Japan supersizing its balance sheet to the $5 trillion mark, but Asia’s second-biggest economy finally has some inflation.

Officials in Tokyo are realizing the hard way, though, that it’s best to be careful what you wish for as bond yields spike.

Granted, the gains in consumer prices Japan is reporting are negligible compared to those in the U.S. and China. And inflation is still a good distance from the BOJ’s 2% target. Still, the 0.5% rise in consumer prices in January year-on-year is already unnerving the bond market. It followed a 0.8% jump in December and marks the fifth straight month of increases.

The worry is that Japan’s inflation is the “bad” kind. Haruhiko Kuroda was hired as BOJ governor in March 2013 to end deflation. Kuroda unleashed tidal waves of liquidity. That drove the yen down 30%, generated record corporate profits and sent Nikkei 225 Average stocks to 31-year highs.

Despite a staggering balance sheet with a -0.10 bps policy rate, Japan has only 0.5% inflation.

And Japan’s yield curve is negative at 3 year tenor and less.

How is it that Japan has virtually no inflation with negative rates but the USA has 7.5% inflation with a 0.25% target rate? Could it be the USA undertook massive fiscal spending related to COVID and reduced energy sources in an effort to go “green” that led to 7.5% inflation??

My Kuroda!

Good governments don’t go on wild, wasteful spending sprees and shut off energy sources like the Biden Administration and Congress.

Whip It! US Misery Index Highest In Modern History As Energy, Food And Building Material Prices SOAR (Flexible CPI Overwhelms Declining Unemployment Rate)

It is truly a miserable time for many Americans as demonstrated by the Misery Index (inflation rate + unemployment rate). But rather than using the CPI YoY measure at 7.5%, I am using the FLEXIBLE CPI YoY to compute the misery index. And is it ever miserable!

In January, the CORE flexible CPI YoY + U-3 unemployment rate hit a modern high at 22.99%. Or at least since 1967.

Like the movie “50 Shades of Gray,” we have 50 shades of inflation. Examples?

How about hardwood? Producer Price Index for hardwood is up 30.8% YoY.

How about diesel fuel prices? They are UP 40% since January 1, 2021.

How about housing? UP 20% YoY according to Zillow’s home value index.

Global food prices? UP 20% YoY.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Rising energy, food and construction materials are soaring making many Americans miserable.

But Powell and The Fed have promised to whip inflation. Whip it good … with interest rate increases.