All in all, this is significantly more hawkish than I suspect market participants were anticipating, ... Bond market players have been throwing around theories about a second half slowdown, with the June data creating a huge stir, but the Fed has almost not given that idea a second thought. |
All in all, this is significantly more hawkish than I suspect market participants were anticipating. Bond market players have been throwing around theories about a second half slowdown, with the June data creating a huge stir, but the Fed has almost not given that idea a second thought. |
At the same time, notwithstanding the lack of job creation, the economy is generally strong. |
He tried as best as possible to stick to the Fed script and to avoid making waves. |
I do not view the upside surprise as being terribly significant. There were very few areas of concern within the core. |
It is reassuring that the February drop in confidence appears to have been a one-off event rather than the beginning of a trend. |
It made my decision a lot easier to come back knowing that guys I knew and really enjoyed being with were going to be here. That's always an exciting thing as a player, really enjoying guys you've played with in the past. |
Just because people were extremely concerned in the first days after Katrina hit does not mean that spending has fallen apart. Indeed, the weekly chain store sales results suggest that the impact so far has been surprisingly modest. |
No one should have any false hope that the trade gap is going to narrow much or for very long, but at least the speed of the underlying deterioration is less than we thought. |
Once we get a few strong payroll gains, the tightening cycle will commence, ... That could be three months away or another year away. No one, including Greenspan, knows the timeframe; but make no mistake, tightening is coming sooner or later. |
Once we get a few strong payroll gains, the tightening cycle will commence. That could be three months away or another year away. No one, including Greenspan, knows the timeframe; but make no mistake, tightening is coming sooner or later. |
Our goal is to NOT have that become a retail center. |
That's not exactly an evaluation which would suggest that Friday's number will be a blowout to the upside. |
The bottom line is that the housing sector, at least for now, is more than holding its own in the face of higher but not yet high mortgage rates, |
The bottom line is that, with employment and income gains picking up, it will take mortgage rates a lot higher than 6.24 percent to choke off housing demand. We will probably get to a level of rates that bites eventually, but certainly not in the next few months. |