Monday November 17, 2008 Navivest

It was not too long ago that the investment community was actively debating whether the Federal Reserve would raise rates or not at their next scheduled meetings.

That debate is now off the table as the economy has cooled substantially and if anything, the debate is now whether the feds will continue to cut rates to spur the economy.

Tomorrow, we get the Producer Price Index numbers for October. The PPI measures the price of goods at the wholesale level.

With the state of the economy and the drop in oil prices of late, we expect to see a tame PPI.

Investors watch the PPI numbers as it helps portend the direction of interest rates.

One thing we would like to know is what Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher is thinking now. At the August 5th meeting when the FOMC voted to keep interest rates unchanged, he dissented and

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A batch of interesting video clips about the election of Barack Obama and the unfolding financial crisis has appeared over the past few days as all and sundry are attempting to make sense of a rather murky picture. A number of clips that have attracted my attention are shared below.

Firstly, back to basics with a rudimentary explanation by Enspire of how the mortgage crisis came about. (Click here in case you missed Enspire’s previous video, “Understanding the financial crisis”.)

Enspire Learning: The mortgage banking meltdown

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While the Lehman Brothers (LEH) and AIG (AIG) crisis currently affecting Wall Street will be front and center today, driving stock market action, we also have an active economic calendar in store. At 8:30 AM, we will be getting the Consumer Price Index Numbers for August. 

Additionally, the Federal Open Market Committee (the FOMC is the monetary policy-making group of the Federal Reserve.) will be meeting today.

After their last meeting, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that they would not be lowering rates further this year. If anything, it was more likely that they would raise rates. We’ve never understood this, as the economy is suffering. But because oil and other commodity prices have been strong of late, some at the Federal Reserve felt a hawkish stance was neccessary.

At the last meeting when they voted to keep rates unchanged, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, dissented and instead voted to raise rates. Now that

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For the week, the Dow gained 1.8% (down 13.9% y-t-d) and the S&P500 increased 0.8% (down 14.8%). The Utilities rose 2.6% (down 14.8%), and the Morgan Stanley Consumer index gained 2.2% (down 5.1%). The Transports jumped 3.8% (up 11%), and the Morgan Stanley Cyclical index advanced 3.3% (down 13.2%). The small cap Russell 2000 added 0.2% (down 5.1%), and the S&P400 Mid-Caps increased 0.4% (down 8.1%). The NASDAQ100 was about unchanged (down 15.2%), while the Morgan Stanley High Tech index slipped 0.4% (down 15.6%). The Semiconductors lost 2.9% (down 21.2%). The Street.com Internet Index declined 0.3% (down 11%), while the NASDAQ Telecommunications index gained 1.7% (down 10.2%). The Biotechs gained 1.0% (up 3%). The financial stocks were mixed. With Lehman collapsing, the Broker/Dealers sank 11.6% (down 35.9%). Meanwhile, the Banks gained 3.2% (down 19.9%). With Bullion sinking $37, the ...

By Jennifer Yousfi Managing Editor The next move from the U.S. Federal Reserve will be to increase the Federal Funds rate, although the timing of that hike remains to be decided. “A number of participants worried about the possibility that core inflation might fail to moderate next year unless the stance of monetary policy was tightened sooner than currently anticipated by financial markets,” according to the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Aug. 5 meeting released yesterday (Tuesday). The FOMC voted to slash interest rates seven times from 5.25% last September, before voting to hold steady at the current 2.0% rate at the last two consecutive meetings. While it seems clear the Fed is anticipating a change in course to a tighter monetary policy in order to battle inflation, the majority of FOMC members still feel weak economic growth remains the larger ...