Stocks: Strange Sentiment in a Fed-Obsessed, Rangebound Market
The market regained about half of its Tuesday losses Wednesday, but remains stuck in the trading range and obsessed with the Fed's statement to be released Thursday afternoon. While most expect the Fed to raise rates 25 basis points (¼%), the language in the statement will be dissected with fine-toothed combs to divine future rate changes.
Actually, when all is said and done, the Fed really should pause here. The economy is cooling off, inflation due to higher commodity prices is on the decline and the effect of prior hikes has yet to be fully reflected in the economy. In fact, recent signs of a weakening economy, such as a nearly-inverted yield curve and slumping repo balances, suggest that the prudent course for the Fed would be to pause to assess the risks.
But, of course, the Fed would be roundly criticized for being prudent, so with their hands tied to the rate hike lever, the Fed will hike rates once again. That's despite the fact that rate hikes actually exacerbate inflationary pressure until it becomes evident that the weight of higher interest rates is causing the economy to slump, at which point the Fed realizes it has gone too far and starts pumping liquidity into the economy at a furious pace. It's called a "vicious cycle."
Peter Eliades of
http://www.stockmarketcycles.com/ has pointed out that, historically, whenever the Fed raises the discount rate to current levels, severe bear markets almost always occur in the stock market. And, many of those bear markets have been associated with recessions. Given the projected path of the yield curve, a recession beginning in the middle of 2007 appears virtually certain. With this rate hike, the yield curve is on track to fully invert over the next several months as the 10-year rate plunges below the 90-day T-Bill rate. If that inversion persists for a full 90 days, it signals a recession beginning one year later.
The sentiment readings are strange here. The OEX crowd is, as is typically the case, bearish, which is contrariwise bullish, of course. But, the QQQQ crowd is wildly bullish, which is contrariwise bearish. Does this mean the market could be stuck in a trading range for months? We shall see, but we expect extreme dips and rallies on Thursday after the Fed announcement. Then, we expect the market will frustrate the bulls and bears and close unchanged on the day.
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