Thinking out loud here
Looking for 25bps today and a conference where Powell talks about a pause.
The conference is more important than the rate. Fed knows that the run to put excess deposits into Tbills and money markets is restrictive monetary policy at light-speed. Those deposits are the $$$'s used to make loans. Now that they are in assets like TBills, money market funds, etc, they can't be leant. This means higher rates and spreads on mortgages and car loans and HELOCs. Does the Fed acknowledge this? They can see bank flows real time, but we can't. Stocks are back to looking pretty expensive at 18.5x trailing and forward earnings still seem high, even more so now with bank problems. Anything perceived as dovish that causes stocks to rise sharply, I will most likely fade.
To
@wllm post, energy curve is flat and oversupplied on front end, but at least the space is cheap. Should start refilling the SPR at these prices which will help take some of the excess off? The recession odds have increased and that is putting pressure on the space, so not without risk. Watching sentiment in precious metals get better while sentiment in grains tanks. Big fund repositioning?
I'm keeping powder dry until I see a reaction on the decision and if nothing jumps out I will listen to the conference and see what happens.