Good Morning,
A
whole lot of nothing…That’s what the general consensus seems to be
regarding yesterday’s release of FOMC minutes from the most recent
meeting of the Fed minds. There’s no question that tapering will
eventually happen but the “sooner or
later” part of the equation has yet to be solved. All calculus,
trigonometry and algebra aside, the simple sum of whether the job market
is healthy and inflation reaches an optimum level will continue to be
the proverbial trip wire for the beginning of the
end of Quantitative Easing. After the dust settled, 10-year bond yields
had surged to 2.9% and the DJIA had lost over 100 points by the end of
the session. Gold closed the day at $1370.6 and now trades at the day’s
high of $1374.8. The rest of the complex
is in the green to start the day as will with silver up nearly 1% while
platinum trades at $1523, having reached as high as $1529, and
palladium hovering just below $750 an ounce. In domestic economic
happenings, the weekly U.S. jobless claims increased 13,000
to 336,000 and while that is not necessarily a good sign, some critics
would argue that because the more accurate four-week average stands at
330,500 and overall jobless claims remain near the lowest levels seen in
more than 5 years, that employment may be
poised for a comeback. We’ll see about that on September 6th.
U.S. manufacturing pushed further into expansion territory this month
as data from Markit showed the index moved to 53.9 from 53.7 last month.
Jackson Hole gets underway today and central
bankers from around the globe will converge on the site to hear what
Janet Yellen, the likely successor to Chairman Bernanke, has to say
about the current state of affairs. Have a great day!
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