October 9, 2018 The first major data has been released during the last quarter of the year. The September jobs report showed an increase of 134,000 jobs, less than expected; however, the previous two months of job gains were revised upward by 87,000 jobs. The headline unemployment rate moved to 3.7%, the lowest in almost […]
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October 2, 2018 The end of the quarter is especially busy when the Federal Reserve Board schedules its meeting at the same time. We are just days past the Fed announcement to raise short-term rates by 1/4 of one percent and a confirmation of strong economic growth for the second quarter. In addition, at the end this […]
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September 25, 2018 Let us assume that the prognosticators are correct, and the Federal Reserve Board will hike short-term rates by one-quarter of one percent when they finish their two-day meeting tomorrow. What questions does that leave us with? For one, will the Fed’s announcement also give us a hint about whether there will be […]
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September 18, 2018 Taking into account recent statements by the members of the Federal Reserve Board and recent economic reports, as we mentioned previously, the markets are counting upon a rate increase next week when the Fed meets. The acceleration of wage growth has the markets particularly worried and right now many analysts are expecting […]
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September 11, 2018 Leading up to the jobs report released last week, all indications were that the good times would continue. We had an upward revision in the measure of economic growth for last quarter, consumers continue to spend, and confidence is soaring. Therefore, the markets were predicting another strong employment report, especially considering that […]
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August 28, 2018 Borrowing from the name of a classic movie title, it seems like the focus upon trade keeps moving around the world. From Canada to Europe to China to Turkey. Thus far, we have not seen any negative effect upon economic growth. Tomorrow we will see the first revision of the measure of […]
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August 21, 2018 The economy seems to be firing on all cylinders. We had a great preliminary estimate of economic growth for the second quarter, unemployment is near historic lows and consumer optimism continues to be very high. The strength of the economy has prompted the Federal Reserve to continue to raise rates from their […]
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August 14, 2018 The economy is humming and there is a certain optimism from analysts that the economy will continue to grow from here. Even the Federal Reserve Board in their brief recent statement used the word “strong” to characterize the economy. Though it seems to be “all systems go,” the question for this week […]
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August 7, 2018 We started the flow of really important data on Friday, July 27. Though the numbers were preliminary, the first snapshot of economic growth for the second quarter was quite impressive. It more than made up for a weaker first quarter and you can be sure that the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market […]
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July 31, 2018 Though August is usually a pretty slow month within the financial markets and the real estate sector, this August starts with a bang. Today the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee concludes their meeting and will issue their rate decision and analysis. Just two weeks ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress […]
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