The window dressing phenomenon is expected to again influence financial market movements throughout 2025, especially as each quarter approaches its close. This strategy is generally employed by investment managers to enhance portfolio performance in periodic reports, often encouraging the strengthening of risky assets such as stocks. However, this shift in sentiment also has different implications for hedge funds, particularly gold. Quarter One (Q1): Limited Pressure for Gold At the end of March 2025, Q1 window dressing tended to be moderate. Funds began flowing into blue-chip stocks after...
U.S. consumer spending increased slightly more than expected in October, suggesting the economy retained much of its solid growth momentum early in the fourth quarter, but progress on lowering inflation appears to have stalled in recent months. The lack of success in bringing inflation back to the Federal Reserve's 2% target, together with the prospect of higher tariffs on imported goods from the incoming Trump administration, could narrow the scope for interest rate cuts from the U.S. central bank next year. The Fed is still widely expected to deliver a third rate cut in December, with...
Federal Reserve officials conveyed optimism that inflation is subsiding and the labor market remains robust, supporting the possibility of further interest rate cuts, though at a measured pace, minutes from November 6-7 meeting showed. Officials noted that monetary policy decisions are contingent on economic trends and cautioned against making premature rate cuts. The volatility in recent data and uncertainty about the neutral interest rate's impact on economic activity made policymaking particularly challenging. Some participants suggested keeping rates at restrictive levels if inflation...
Donald Trump's Republicans are promising to hit the gas next year when they assume full control of the U.S. Congress, with little to stop them from executing the president-elect's promises to slash taxes and reorder the global trade landscape. But the $28 trillion Treasury debt market is flashing a red warning light against adding excessively to a debt load already expanding at a pace of $2 trillion a year. What is yet to be seen is whether these concerns will be enough to slow Republican lawmakers' ambitions or push them to find offsetting savings on a tax break agenda estimated to cost...
MRB warns of fewer cuts next year.The Fed is likely to rein in its forecast for rate cuts next year as Fed members are teeing up the idea of a higher neutral rate pointing to much shallower rate-cut cycle, MRB Partners said in a recent note. "Investors should expect the Fed's median forecast of the longer-run (or neutral) policy rate to rise ahead," strategists at MRB Partners said. "The implication is that Fed will ease rates less next year than what it had signaled in the September dot-plot, and what the bond market has been pricing in." The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points in November...
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Thursday reiterated his support for further interest rate cuts and his openness to doing them more slowly, remarks that underscore the U.S. central bank's debate that it's not about whether, but over how fast and how far, borrowing costs should be lowered. Some Fed policymakers worry that progress lowering inflation may have stalled and call for a cautious approach, while others want to make sure the labor market doesn't cool further, suggesting the need for continued rate cuts. And over all of those differences hangs the uncertainty of...
Asian stock markets fell in unison on Thursday, following Wall Street's decline. A brief rally in tech stocks led by Nvidia quickly faded, prompting investors to turn away from riskier assets like...
Pasangan mata uang EUR/USD mengawali pekan ini dengan nada sedikit melemah di sesi Asia, diperdagangkan di sekitar 1,1730, turun kurang dari 0,10% dalam sehari. Meski terkoreksi, euro masih berada...
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States may store and possibly sell oil seized off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, as Reuters reported on Monday.
Trump added that...