Is the Bond Market Pricing in a Fed Policy Error?

After months of carefully communicating the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) plan to reduce its asset purchases toward the middle of 2022, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell seemingly sped up that timetable during his Congressional testimony last week. While not officially announced policy yet, the expectation is that the Fed will now accelerate its tapering plans and end its…

Inflation Blowout!

Did you miss our most recent episode of the Financial Insights Podcast, on video?  Check it out below as Ryan and Brian tackled some of the latest inflation numbers. The latest inflation (CPI) numbers surprised to the upside, creating more headaches for the Fed on how, and when, to respond. It’s looking more and more…

6 Things to Know About December and Omicron

Here comes December, historically a pretty solid month for stocks, but now we have the Omicron variant wreaking havoc on markets. “What a difference a week makes. A week ago stocks were at all-time highs and the economy was strong. Now all we have are uncertainties and questions,” explained LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist Ryan…

Can the Yield Curve Turn Around Here?

One of the more surprising developments in markets over the past six months has been the persistent decline in longer-term Treasury yields. This, coupled with the recent spike in short-term rates as the market has moved to price in rate hikes, has caused most measures of the yield curve to flatten dramatically. This can be seen…