Author Archives: Michael Murphy

Dear New World Investor: Wednesday and Thursday were the Fed’s semiannual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony to Congress. “Even if inflation accelerates, we aren’t going to raise rates,” said nobody, ever. Of course Chairman Powell said they may raise rates further if inflation doesn’t head down towards 2%. The next Fed meeting...

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Dear New World Investor: As I expected, the Fed did not raise interest rates Wednesday, after raising at each of its previous 10 meetings. They did, however, raise their interest rate forecasts for this year, signaling rates could rise to as high as 5.6%, implying at least one more...

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Dear New World Investor: Last Friday’s announcement that May payrolls increased by 339,000 jobs, far above the 190,000 estimate, marked the 14th-straight month that job creation came in above what Wall Street economists had expected and the largest monthly increase since January. Wall Street was “shocked” and...

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Dear New World Investor: Federal Reserve Governor Philip Jefferson, President Biden’s nominee to be Vice Chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors, and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker suggested yesterday that the Fed could pause rate hikes at its next policy meeting on June 13-14. But Wednesday’s Job Opening...

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Dear New World Investor: Traders have fully priced in another quarter-point (25 basis points) interest-rate increase by the Fed within the next two policy meetings and a more than 1-in-2 chance that hike could arrive as soon as the June 14 meeting. Near-term yields have moved higher for 10...

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Dear New World Investor: Many years ago, I learned that one good way to make money in the market is to understand the consensus view and then figure out where it is most likely to be wrong. Not that the consensus is always wrong – it’s usually right but...

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Dear New World Investor: Nonfarm payrolls rose by 253,000 in April with the unemployment rate falling to 3.4%. Economists expected 185,000 jobs last month with the unemployment rate ticking marginally higher to 3.6%. April was even stronger than March’s +236,000 – maybe. But is the jobs market really that...

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Dear New World Investor: The Fed is following my November 3 game plan to a T: Click for larger graphic The Fed in March: “We anticipate that some additional policy firming may be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return...

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Dear New World Investor: While the unemployment rate remains below 4%, the number of permanent job losses has begun to rise significantly. The latest two-month increase was as steep as in every recession for the last 30 years. Layoffs in higher-paying jobs has been increasing, causing a rise in...

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Dear New World Investor: On April 11, a dad and his five children were in their second-story apartment in Queens while he was charging his e-bike in the vestibule. Suddenly, the battery exploded in flames. As the fire raced through the building, he and three of the kids jumped...

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