interest rates Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Runnymede Capital Management

Taylor rule could spike interest rates higher

President Trump is said to be considering tapping Stanford economist John Taylor as the next Fed Chairman. If Taylor gets the nod, it is possible that the Fed adopts the Taylor rule to set the Fed funds rates. The so-called Taylor rule is a formula that he proposed in 1993 for setting the federal funds rate — the overnight bank lending rate used by the Fed to fight inflation or stimulate the economy. It challenges the Fed’s traditional reliance on the Federal Open Market Committee’s ad hoc judgment.

Are stocks expensive? Is this a bubble?

Yesterday the S&P 500 closed at a record high so it is unsurprising that you see headlines asking if the market is overvalued or is this a bubble? Many pundits are calling this stock market a bubble and predicting doom. In Bank of America Merrill Lynch's August fund manager survey of global investors, a record 46 percent of fund managers said that U.S. stocks are overvalued. In July, Goldman Sachs research highlighted “elevated valuation on almost every metric” in its weekly report on markets.

Will interest rates rise sharply as the Fed shrinks its balance sheet?

I usually reserve Friday blog posts for lighter topics but with the FOMC meeting this week, I think it is important to touch on the Fed‘s plan to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. While the announcement was widely expected, it spelled out in greater detail plans to slowly unwind the Fed's sizable bond holdings. We believe that this step is very positive alongside interest rate hikes. The economy is doing well enough that the Fed can step back from its emergency measures, thus saving ammo for the next recession. We do not believe that this will cause a spike in long term rates but will monitor the situation closely.

Economic Data Says Market Can Go Higher

Stocks continued to move up last week as all major U.S. indices hit new highs. Investor optimism rose as expectations for deregulation, possible tax cuts and fiscal stimulus under the new administration accelerated. These same factors put upward pressure on bond yields and the U.S. dollar. A strong Dollar has historically been good for the stock market. The reasoning is simple. If you are a European or Japanese, would you leave your money in a bank which takes a piece of your money given negative interest rate policies; or would you rather send your money to the US where we have positive interest rates and a rising stock market?

QE side effect: Corporations are getting paid to borrow

We have all seen pharmaceutical commercials on TV where a listing of common side effects may include diarrhea, nausea and drowsiness. In today's financial markets, central banks are expanding their balance sheets by trillions of dollars annually and new side effects are on the way. This week saw a new milestone in the world of negative interest rates, when Henkel and Sanofi became the first public companies to sell new Euro bonds for more than the buyers will get back.

The Deflationary Impact of Negative Interest Rates

The Japanese and European central banks have taken extraordinary measures to resuscitate their economies. Instead, they may be sending them further into a deflationary spiral. If you take a quick look at the major stock markets around the world, you will observe a clear pattern that is likely to surprise you. Zero/negative rates are highly correlated to poor stock market returns this year; while higher central bank rates correlate with high market returns. It is the economies that are in the worst shape that are having to test negative rates.