Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Dow Passes 13000

The Dow has risen 6.1% over the past seven weeks. With crude-oil prices reaching nine month highs, oil companies are the leading contributors to the Dow's gains. Bullish speculators see attractive stock valuation levels and improving consumer sentiment fueling further market accelerations. However, euro-zone debt woes and bank lending requirements continue to weigh on investor sentiment.

Wall Street Journal
Dow Touches 13000 but Can't Hold On

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Federal Reserve's Interest Rate Forecasts

In the Federal Reserve's effort to provide more transparent disclosure on their policy direction they've begun to publish the FOMC's assessments following each of their meetings. This meeting's release showed two key policy categories: 1) Appropriate timing of policy firming and 2) Appropriate pace of policy firming.

In the February 1st release the majority of the participants felt the appropriate timing for policy firming to be in 2014. Of the 17 FOMC members, the majority felt the federal funds target rate would remain at 0.25% from 2012 - 2014 and reach 4.0% in the longer run.

Wall Street Journal
The Federal Reserve's rate forecast projections.