by Mark Chandik | Apr 4, 2023
Weekly Market Commentary Inflation was uppermost on the minds of investors, Fed officials, and policymakers until the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) forced price stability to play second fiddle to banking stability. The banking crisis has eased amid tentative...
by Mark Chandik | Mar 27, 2023
Weekly Market Commentary The Federal Reserve raised its key lending rate, the fed funds rate, by 25 basis points (bp, 1 bp = 0.01%) to a range of 4.75 – 5.00%, as most observers had expected. A few saw no change. Before the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a...
by Mark Chandik | Mar 6, 2023
Weekly Market Commentary The economic distortions tied to that pandemic and the government’s massive response to prop up the economy have been far-reaching. Before continuing, let’s look at some facts and definitions. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of the total...
by Mark Chandik | Feb 27, 2023
Weekly Market Commentary Last year, the economy appeared to be headed toward one of two scenarios. There was a narrow path to what is called a ‘soft landing.’ A soft landing is a slowdown in economic growth that leads to a slowdown in inflation. It’s accomplished...
by Mark Chandik | Feb 21, 2023
Weekly Market Commentary The Fed’s road to 2% annual inflation took a curious turn last week, disappointing some investors that had been expecting continued progress on inflation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the January Consumer Price Index...
by Mark Chandik | Feb 13, 2023
Weekly Market Commentary Rising interest rates are the result of the Federal Reserve’s campaign to snuff out inflation. The pain of rising rates has been felt in the financial sector. It has also been felt in housing. Housing sales tumbled since the beginning of 2022,...
