US

The quantity of cash parked in money market funds has been at the forefront of investors’ minds for some time now. The surge of inflows for these short term risk-free instruments as rates rose was no surprise considering they now yield more than a single-B rated high yield corporate was offering just a few years ago.

Uncertainty is over, it was a 50 basis points (bps) move. As we mentioned in our previous blog, the most important take away from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting would be their assessment of the economy.

While the majority of headlines have concerned whether the Fed will do 25bp or 50bp to kick off its cutting cycle, we think this is only one part of the discussion – and not necessarily the most important one.

With the Federal Reserve (Fed) set to begin its long-awaited interest rate easing cycle at next week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation report for August was the last big economic release investors could comb for clues as to the size of the first cut.

We struggle to recall a more eagerly awaited US labour market report than that published last week. Stakes were high given the previous report showed a steep rise in unemployment and caused market mayhem in early August, but anyone hoping for a conclusive picture was left disappointed as a mixed set of figures left the strength of the US economy open to interpretation.

Any market participants hoping for a quiet few days to ease back into “work mode” after the summer break have had to rapidly adjust their expectations.

Given almost half of the world’s population resides in a country staging an election this year, 2024 was always likely to throw up a series of political headlines.

In his headlining speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell’s message to the market was clear.

It feels as though market news hasn’t taken a holiday so far this summer. From the US on Wednesday we got the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) July 30-31 policy meeting, and revisions to a whole year of non-farm payrolls (NFP) data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS).

The title of this year’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium – essentially a short holiday camp for the world’s economists and central bankers – is “Reassessing the effectiveness and transmission of monetary policy”, an important question given the remarkable resilience developed market economies have shown to the sharpest interest rate hiking cycle we have seen in four decades.

Recent US Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data brought good news for investors and central banks.

With US economic data driving very large moves in the last few days, we think it is worth highlighting two data releases that were published yesterday. The Institute of Supply Management (ISM) Services and the Senior Loan Officer Survey spoke of an economy that is stronger than some of the recent price action might suggest.