US interest rate futures price in inter-meeting Fed cut
Adds details, U.S. data, Fed's Goolsbee's comments, investor comment, byline
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) -Futures on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and the Federal funds rate, which measure expectations of Federal Reserve monetary policy moves, on Monday priced in an inter-meeting interest rate cut.
The August 2024 SOFR futures SRAQ24 have factored in the likelihood that the Fed will cut interest rates by at least 25 basis points (bps) this month. The September futures SRAU24, on the other hand, have priced in a 100% chance of at least a 50 bps rate reduction.
SOFR, a measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight, was at 5.35% USDSOFR= as of late Friday.
In fed funds futures, the market has priced in 25 bps easing in August FFU24. For 2024, futures have priced in about 122 bps of cuts, scaling down from about 140 bps in cuts seen earlier in the session, according to LSEG calculations.
Expectations of an early rate cut by the Fed came after a weaker-than-expected jobs report last Friday that saw a meltdown in stocks and a plunge in U.S. Treasury yields after substantial safe-haven flows.
Some market participants, however, were skeptical about a rate move before the Fed's September meeting.
"The Fed is not there to support financial market prices because people are upset with their returns. Their job is to see that markets are functioning properly," said Jim Caron, chief investment officer, cross-asset solutions at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
"When we think about the Fed intervening, the main trigger point is if they believe something wasn’t functioning properly. Unless you see a liquidity market functionality crisis, I don’t see an emergency cut happening."
The next Fed meeting is on Sept. 17-18.
U.S. Treasury yields were still down midday on Monday, but had risen from their lows of the day, helped by a bounce in the U.S. services sector index.
U.S. services sector activity rebounded from a four-year low in July amid a bounce back in new orders and the first increase in employment in six months. The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) non-manufacturing purchasing managers (PMI) index increased to 51.4 last month from 48.8 in June, which was the lowest since May 2020.
SOFR and fed funds futures did pare back rate cut expectations after the services sector report.
Also helping the slight retreat in Fed rate cut views were comments from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, who is not a voter at this year's Federal Open Market Committee.
Goolsbee on Monday cautioned against taking too much signal from a global stock market sell-off that accelerated in the wake of fears the U.S. central bank has waited too long to begin cutting interest rates. The impact of the Bank of Japan's decision last week to raise rates, as well as increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, have also contributed to the bloodbath in financial markets.
"The law doesn't say anything about the stock market; it's about the employment and it's about price stability," Goolsbee said, citing the Fed's dual goals set by Congress, as he noted how prone financial markets are to volatility.
Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengalaru
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
