Category: U.S. Federal Reserve

Goldman Warns It May Slow Hiring, Cut Expenses as Deals Slump

Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Monday warned it may slow hiring and cut expenses, as the economic outlook worsens, after reporting a 48 percent slump in quarterly profit which beat forecasts due to gains in fixed-income and commodities trading. U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, aimed at taming runaway inflation, have rattled global financial markets,…


4 Big US Banks Raise Dividends After Stress Tests

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON—Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo hiked their dividends on Monday after the U.S. banks cleared their annual stress test exercise last week. The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Thursday the country’s largest lenders could easily weather a severe economic downturn, giving them a clean bill of health and paving…


Federal Reserve May Raise Interest Rate by 75 Points, Says Official

The U.S. central bank may hike interest rates by up to 75 points due to the high rate of inflation, according to James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank who also added that he does not expect such an increase to occur right away. Bullard pointed to Fed’s 75-point interest rate hike…


Recession Warnings Rise, Limiting The Fed’s Inflation Fight

Commentary  Recession warnings are clearly on the rise. Much of the initial media fervor focuses on the inversion of the yield curve. “The 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields inverted for the first time since 2019 on Thursday, sending a possible warning signal that a recession could be on the horizon.” – CNBC Of course, investors,…


Gold Prices Flat as Firmer Dollar, Yields Dim Safe-Haven Demand

Gold prices were flat on Wednesday as hawkish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials bolstered the dollar and Treasury yields to multi-year highs, denting bullion’s safe-haven demand and offsetting support from uncertainty around the Ukraine war. Spot gold was flat at $1,922.59 per ounce, as of 3:20 a.m. GMT, after declining 0.4 percent earlier in…


Fade the Post Rate Hike Rally

Commentary  The recent stock market rally is a trap. This is because Wall Street is vastly underestimating how hawkish the Federal Reserve will have to get in order to fight inflation, and how much weaker earnings and GDP growth will become as a result. The fact is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has finally become…


Bank of England Set to Raise Rates Again as Uncertainty Swirls

LONDON—The Bank of England looks set to press on with raising interest rates on Thursday as it tries to stop soaring inflation from becoming engrained in the British economy. All but five of 49 economists recently polled by Reuters thought the BoE will raise Bank Rate for a third meeting running, back to its pre-pandemic…


‘This Was Coming’: Former State Leader Lambasts Wrong Messaging on Surging Inflation

Former Queensland premier and now-Senate candidate Campbell Newman said it was no surprise that Australia’s official inflation rate released last week was at 3.5 percent and warned lower-to-middle income households would bear the brunt of the increased cost of living. “This was coming. It was quite apparent in February-March last year. The U.S. Federal Reserve…


Canadian Economy Ripe for Persistent High Inflation

Commentary Across the developed world, central bank officials continue to reassure the public that the global spike in inflation over the past nine months is transitory and that inflation should return to pre-pandemic rates sometime in 2022. At the same time, the U.S. Federal Reserve has begun to taper its purchases of government debt (which…


Accelerate Tapering of Asset Purchases and Tighten Monetary Policy: IMF

The U.S. Federal Reserve should speed up the elimination of its bond-buying program and tighten its monetary policy to rein in the inflationary pressures facing the country, said the International Monetary Fund on Friday. “We see grounds for monetary policy in the United States—with gross domestic product close to pre-pandemic trends, tight labor markets, and…