Recession talk is flooding Wall Street again. It has been a week of abysmal data, which weighed on a regional central bank’s GDP estimate. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta trimmed its GDPNow estimate for the first quarter to 1.5 percent, down from the previous 1.7 percent. The Atlanta Fed Bank’s GDPNow had been as […]
Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve’s balance sheet eases as bank emergency lending slows
The Federal Reserve’s emergency lending to banks appears to have slowed. For the week ending March 30, the U.S. central bank’s balance sheet eased by nearly $30 billion to $8.706 trillion, down from $8.734 trillion. In the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures, the Fed employed emergency lending tools, prompting the […]
Federal Reserve added another $100 billion to its balance sheet last week amid banking crisis
The Federal Reserve added another $100 billion to its balance, raising the total to nearly $400 billion in two weeks. The U.S. central bank’s balance sheet now stands at $8.733 trillion. At the beginning of its tightening campaign, the balance sheet was $8.965 trillion. Here is the chart:
Watch: Post-FOMC policy meeting with Fed Chair Jerome Powell
First, here is the post-meeting press conference with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell: Now, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points, increasing the benchmark target rate to a range of 4.75% and 5.00%. The key Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement that everyone was waiting for: “The U.S. banking system is sound […]
Markets expecting quarter-point rate hike at today’s FOMC meeting
The financial markets are penciling in a quarter-point increase to the benchmark federal funds rate at today’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting. Here is a snapshot of what investors expect: Looking ahead, the futures market does not see the Fed easing monetary policy until December. But there is one man urging the U.S. […]