Yield Curve, Futures, Suggest No Rate Hike Until December; GDP Forecast
Mike (Mish) Shedlock | Mar 22, 2015 01:49AM ET
Curve Watcher's Anonymous is investigating the yield curve following Janet Yellen's exceptionally dovish FOMC announcement on Wednesday.
Yield Curve 2-Year, 3-Year, 5-Year, 10-Year, 30-Year
click on chart for sharper image
- 30-year in black and red
- 10-year in orange
- 5-year in blue
- 3-year in green
- 2-year in purple
Change From Year Ago
Above rate table from Bloomberg.
Futures Suggest No Rate Hike Until December
Please consider Fed Drops Word "Patient"; Door Open, But For What?
Although the Fed removed the word "patient", the rest of Yellen's yap could not possibly have been any more dovish.
The panel said it will be appropriate to tighten “when it has seen further improvement in the labor market and is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term.”
That statement can mean virtually anything, prompting me to ask "How much more improvement does the Fed want? Or does the Fed not believe all these glowing labor reports either?"
And of course no one has any clues about the true meaning of "medium term".
Weak Data
For four months nearly all data except lagging jobs data has been weak.
- March 19: Philly Fed Growth Trends Lower 4th Month: Prices, Shipments, Workweek Negative
- March 10: Wholesale Trade: Sales Down, Inventories Up; GDP Estimate Revised Lower Again; Sticking With Recession Call
- March 5: Factory Orders Unexpectedly Decline 6th Month; Five Excuses; Orders vs. Shipments
- January 31: Diving Into the GDP Report - Some Ominous Trends - Yellen Yap - Decoupling or Not?
That's just a sampling. Nearly every economic report except for jobs has been weaker than expected.
GDP Forecast Halved Again
On March 13 I noted Atlanta Fed Halves GDP Forecast to 0.6%; Blue Chip Consensus Eight Miles High
Today we see the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow Forecast has been halved again.
Get The News You Want
The forecast for GDP growth is now down to 0.3%.
I doubt the Fed will hike in a recession, and I do think a recession is on the way. If the Fed does hike, it will be to prick the asset bubble in stocks.
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