Ty B
Powell Signals December Rate Hike Unlikely
(Thanks for the confirmation Jerry! You fuggen hack!-seen through yer bullshit since before you asshats started raising)
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech Thursday suggests the central bank has a “bias” to “look through any hawkish data and delay any potential further rate hikes until 2024,” said Tim Duy, chief US economist at SGH Macro Advisors.
The risk is that a dovish Fed pushes up inflation expectations, “forcing its hand on another hike,” Duy, a long-term Fed watcher, wrote in a note. Powell pointed out that the Fed is making progress toward its dual mandate on inflation and employment, even though the central bank hasn’t raised rates since July. It suggests that Powell doesn’t want to hike again unless that progress is stalled, the economist said.
With market expectations on November hike already low, “Powell’s discussion was overkill in terms of setting expectations for the November meeting.” said Duy. “The open question is about the December meeting, and the message is that the Fed doesn’t anticipate raising rates in December, although of course Powell is not going to say that directly.”
Duy notes that rising inflation expectations in early March prompted Powell to put a 50bp rate hike on the table at the time. So if breakeven rates head toward the March level, “the Fed will rethink the policy path."
Five-year breakeven rate, a gauge of investors’ inflation expectations derived from the difference between the nominal Treasury and TIPS yields, rose to a seven-month high of 2.46% Friday. In March, the gauge jumped to about 2.8%. OIS rates tied to the December Fed meeting suggests traders see slightly higher than 1/4 of a chance for a rate increase by year-end.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/powell-signals-december-rate-hike-unlikely
https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html
;)
Brazilian AF BRS51 Embraer 390 WN out of Tel Aviv
Poilievre says Freeland should block RBC-HSBC Canada takeover
Canada’s Opposition leader is calling on the Liberal government to block RBC’s proposed takeover of HSBC Bank Canada, arguing the sale will reduce competition and negatively affect Canadians.
“We need competition in banking. It’s common sense,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told BNN Bloomberg in a Friday television interview. Competition does not happen when the biggest player simply swallows the seventh-biggest player and Canadians are left paying the price.”
The Competition Bureau approved the proposed $13.5-billion acquisition last month, though it noted that financial services are concentrated in Canada.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland must now give final approval of the deal.
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Poilievre said Friday that he was “confused” by the Competition Bureau’s decision. In a public statement issued earlier in the day, he urged Freeland to reject the deal in order to protect banking competitiveness at a time when Canadians face high costs of living.
Speaking with BNN Bloomberg, Poilievre pointed out that some mortgage rates are currently lower at HSBC Canada than they are at RBC for the same product. He said he fears that those cheaper rates would disappear if HSBC were acquired by its larger competitor.
Poilievre also raised concerns about what he views as a lack of competitiveness in the Canadian business landscape at large.
“We have a problem where very old, very large, government-protected oligopolies have little competition and therefore little entrepreneurial incentive to become more productive and more enterprising,” he said. “One of the only ways to change that is to engender more competition in the marketplace.”
His comments came a day after the Competition Bureau published a report documenting waning business competitiveness over the last two decades, flagging trends such as more concentrated industries and more dominant players with fewer competitors.
FREELAND, RBC RESPOND
A spokesperson for Freeland said her decision on the sale “will be informed by all required regulatory review processes, including those administered by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) and the Competition Bureau.”
RBC said in a written statement that the departure of HSBC Canada’s parent company from Canada has led to “uncertainty” for Canadian customers, and that RBC’s takeover plan offers those people stability.
“We strongly believe that RBC’s proposed acquisition offers HSBC’s Canadian clients the best possibility for continuity and stability, while providing them with innovative made-in-Canada international banking solutions and advanced digital capabilities,” the emailed statement read.
“This proposed acquisition will also keep more well-paying financial sector jobs in Canada and will repatriate overseas roles that currently support HSBC’s Canadian operations.”
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/poilievre-says-freeland-should-block-rbc-hsbc-canada-takeover-1.1987346
Late today
Later B