Stocks gain on Fed’s lack of clarity

Last Thursday’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate decision seemed to be good on U.S. equity markets and asset markets in General. The NASDAQ Composite Index added 0.7% to its value following the announcement and the Dow Jones added 0.6%. This is somewhat surprising given the announcement of an expected, yet non-trivial, 10 billion dollars reduction of the Fed’s asset purchase program. Further digging into press release accompanying the decision, one would note that the Fed is quite content with growth in economic activity, saying it had rebounded in recent months, and that business fixed investment, which is considered pro-cyclical, has resumed its advance. So one has to wonder, if the economic data is suggesting a more hawkish monetary policy, why are equity markets gaining? QE3's tapering had been quite consistent since it started in December of 2013. In that sense, last week's 10 billion addition was not a surprise. That leaves us with the future path of the Federal funds rate. Regarding this, there is the fact that the announcement saw the Fed’s longer term rate projection sliced from 4% to 3.75%. Regarding rate expectations, last week's announcement had very dull content. Investors could have been concerned of Yellen following BoE Governor Carney’s path, by suggesting that a rate hike could occur sooner than markets currently price. Additionally, Yellen's comment from March, that the gap between the end of QE3 and the Fed raising rates should amount to about six months, was still her most recent guidance. Regarding financial stability, the recent month's rally in equity markets, amid historically high valuations, is another reason to question the current monetary policy. Join Anyoption and take advantage of the volatility of the markets ..Start Trading TODAY!

Normalizing global monetary policy

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Carney’s support of a more hawkish Bank of England policy quickly translated to the local sovereign bond market. The 2-year Britain Government Bond traded at levels reflecting around 0.82%-0.83% yield during the start of Friday’s session, versus 0.72% at the end of the previous day. The idea of less Sterling infused into the markets has also strengthened it against the dollar by an approximate 0.6%, to a level of 1.694. When this will translate to an actual policy change is a broad question. The Bank of England’s Official Bank Rate has been fixed at 0.5% for more than five years. All analysts currently surveyed on Bloomberg expect the BoE to keep rates unchanged at its upcoming rate announcement, on June 10th. On the other hand, the aforementioned rise in BoE rates means that investors see that taking place sooner or later. Economic conditions in the U.K. are generally more upbeat than those of other developed economies. For instance, the local Consumer Price Index was last published to indicate a 1.7% year over year increase of prices, after being just shy of 2% in recent months. The same cannot be said regarding many countries in the rest of the Eurozone, with a Eurozone aggregate print indicating a 0.5% annual increase of prices. The bottom line is that the path to normalizing global monetary policy goes through at least one central banker declaring economic settings as reasonable. Mark Carney may just be that central banker. Join Anyoption and take advantage of the volatility of the markets ..Start Trading TODAY!