Will it be 50 or 25? Either way it should be ok
Main U.S. indexes rally; Dow out front, up ~0.8%
All S&P 500 sectors green; Utilities, Materials lead
Dollar slips; crude ~flat; gold up ~1%; bitcoin up >2%
U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield dips to ~3.65%
Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com
WILL IT BE 50 OR 25? EITHER WAY IT SHOULD BE OK
U.S. market watchers have been in a fluster about whether the Federal Reserve will cut rates by 50 basis points or 25 basis points after its Sept. 17-18 meeting.
Fluctuations in bets have been evident in the CME Group's FedWatch tool with traders last putting a 57% probability on a 25 basis point cut and a 43% probability on a 50 basis point cut.
It shows Thursday's probability was at 72% for 25 and 28% for 50. Earlier on Thursday though, after the producer price report and Wednesday's consumer inflation report, traders were betting for a while on a 85% chance of the Fed cutting interest rates by 25 bps, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.
While the changes indicate uncertainty, strategists say this doesn't necessarily mean that the market will panic after whatever decision the U.S. central bank makes next week.
"Next week they're going to be putting in a cut. The question is how much. The market seems to imply 25 and their language seems to imply 25. There's concern that if they do 50 there may be a misinterpretation that they need to hurry because of things being more difficult," said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede in Philadelphia.
"The choice between 25 and 50 is probably not that big a deal because you're going to tie messaging around it," he said during a telephone interview.
So if the Fed goes with a 25 basis point cut, it will impact its signals on the number of future cuts. And if starts with the bigger cut it will explain its reasoning and temper expectations for future cuts accordingly, the strategist added.
"Their stopping point will be at the same point," he said.
Over at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist had a similar message in emailed comments.
"It’s possible that 50bps leads to a 'the Fed’s worried/what do they see that we don’t see' reaction, but again it comes back to how it’s communicated at the presser and in the summary of economic projections," Samana said.
"I don’t see either sized cut leading to any type of major/multi-week sell-off," said Samana, although he noted that elections might be a bigger catalyst than the easing pace.
So he says: "Investors should position for easing financial conditions and an improving economy, while using election-related dips as an opportunity to add equity risk."
(Sinéad Carew)
*****
FOR FRIDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:
LONG-DATED BOND POSITIONS MOST CROWDED? NOT NECESSARILY - CLICK HERE
INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR BEARS PERK UP - AAII - CLICK HERE
FRIDAY DATA ROUNDUP: 13 IS A LUCKY NUMBER - CLICK HERE
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK CAN MAKE! - CLICK HERE
HAVE GRAINS REACHED FERTILE GROUND ON THE CHARTS? - CLICK HERE
THE MACRO OUTLOOK MARKET DIVIDE - CLICK HERE
IS THE ECB FALLING BEHIND THE CURVE? - CLICK HERE
WHY NOT 50? - CLICK HERE
STOXX 600 HEADS FOR WEEKLY GAIN - CLICK HERE
EUROPEAN FUTURES EDGE UP ON RATE CUT BETS - CLICK HERE
SUPER-SIZED FED CUT CLIMBS BACK ON THE TABLE - CLICK HERE
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
