Watch Out! Flattening of the Yield Curve Portends Economic Weakness

FOMC Bond Market Reaction

There was an interesting reaction in the bond market today in response to the Fed penciling in rate hikes that I doubt happen. 

  • 30-Year Yield: +0 Basis Points
  • 10-Year Yield: +9 Basis Points
  • 5-Year Yield: +11 Basis Points
  • 2-Year Yield: +5 Basis Points 
  • 1-Month Yield: +2 Basis Points

Normally, moves are larger at the long end of the curve, in either direction. Today, the 30-year long bond made a big yawn in response to alleged pending inflation. 

The net result, amplified a yield spread tightening that was already underway.

US Treasury Yield Spreads 

Inflation in the Rear View Mirror

This is by no means a flat yield curve. However, the trend is significant, so is 30-year long bond yield itself. 

If you are looking for a signal that inflation is mostly if not entirely in the rear view mirror, then look no further than the long bond yield and flattening at the long end of the curve.

Fed Will Foolishly Continue QE Purchases in Search of Higher Inflation

Earlier today I commented the Fed Will Foolishly Continue QE Purchases in Search of Higher Inflation

The Key takeaway from the FOMC meeting is not the expectation of faster hikes. Rather it’s the Fed’s stated policy of more QE when banks are choking on it.

Despite the Fed’s attempt to cram more debt into the system, corporate investment is sinking.

Consumer Inflation Expectations Jump 7th Straight Month to a New Record High but careful analysis shows expectations are totally meaningless.

Priming the Pump Nonsense 

The Fed believes in priming the pump nonsense, that somehow it can steer the economy into some sort of inflationary nirvana via interest rate suppression and QE.

There is a short-term reaction, then what? Then the stimulus fades (as it always does), while unproductive debt builds up further depressing the economy in the long-rung.

Not a Truck!

The economy is not a truck, and it cannot be steered by anyone, let alone Fed charlatans who would not understand inflation if it jumped up and spit grapefruit juice right in Powell’s eyes. 

Meanwhile, please note the Impact of Three Rounds of Stimulus on Retail Spending has already worn off. 

What’s the Fed going to do for an encore? 

I suggest it is anything but the rate hikes they penciled in today temporarily spooking gold.

Subscribe!

Like these reports? I hope so, and if you do, please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

Subscribers get an email alert of each post as they happen. Read the ones you like and you can unsubscribe at any time.

If you have subscribed and do not get email alerts, please check your spam folder.

Mish  

Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

Subscribers get an email alert of each post as they happen. Read the ones you like and you can unsubscribe at any time.

This post originated on MishTalk.Com

Thanks for Tuning In!

Mish

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

15 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Cocoa
Cocoa
2 years ago
Confusing price inflation with money supply inflation and liquidity is what is driving the FED bonkers. Price inflation requires jawboning about tightening whereas the velocity of money is so slow that banks are choking on liquidity with nowhere to loan it. So the FED, as usual, has to ram cash down banks throats to force it out and the banks just go to the repo desk and give it back
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
I made my final buy in SLV…now we see if we get a bounce. Silver has take a hit, but it’s not looking nearly as sick as gold. I expect to still make a nominal profit on my trade, but only if we get a decent bounce from here. I don’t expect silver to break out now. I’d be happy to be wrong.    🙂
Zardoz
Zardoz
2 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
My foray into precious metals has had a rather ignominious start.
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
So…..if you were following me, you know that everything I’ve bought is a trade….and when your expectation on a trend is wrong, as mine seems to have been on the USD, you have to make adjustments. If you bought metals and/or miners and are underwater, you might have to wait a while to be made whole.
If the USD has started a new intermediate cycle as some analysts are saying, the early part might have more upside surprises like yesterday. But I always try to wait for a decent bounce to exit a losing trade, if I think there’ll be one…… in metals there usually is.
I never buy and hold any asset anymore. I bought some SLV several days ago at about 28.50…and now it’s underwater. The tendency would be to cut one’s losses…but nothing goes straight up or straight down. Imho the odds favor waiting for the bounce here, at least in SLV. I switched to SLV from GLD because it had a better chart.  I hope the bounce will test the $30 area.
In general. after a smackdown, a day like today, with a narrow range follow-through to the downside is not horrible, because it makes it easier to form a swing low over the next few days. Not sure if that makes sense. If not we could talk about it.
The timing for gold is still right for a daily cycle low…a bottom. I would be very surprised if gold does not have a decent bounce.
The sea change here has to do with the top in the Euro…which is not a natural event, but rather one designed by the ECB and carried out with the collusion of the Fed, no doubt. It had nothing to do with the FOMC announcement, that’s just cover imho.
Always do your own DD. I am not a financial expert, and I don’t give advice. I only discuss my trades out of a desire to learn and teach. I learn from Mish and other smart people here all the time. 
Good traders know that they will lose on more trades than they will win on. Controlling risk is key.
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
So what do we know?  And what to we do, based on what we know?
Pump priming of the economy doesn’t work when the people who make corporate decisions are rewarded more for buying their own stock instead of making investments in capital improvements. 
More of the same from the Fed inflates the bubbles until some fine day when a butterfly fart in some faraway place starts it all snowballing into a wealth-destroying deflationary crash…most likely. I don’t buy the hyperinflation argument.
That’s all I can see as the end game now.
So you can  decide how to hedge for this eventuality. I have to say physical gold is a reasonable thing to own. Other tangible assets (RE) are reasonable to own if they aren’t leveraged. Cash would be fine, but it will lose nominal value against risk assets of all kinds in the medium term.
What most people will really do is keep buying the indexes and the FAANGS and anything else that’s rising in dollar value until it’s way too late to get out….this is based on what I’ve seen in the past.
So…if you have lots of gains now, and you aren’t worried about losing buying power for the basic necessities of food, shelter, transportation, health insurance, etc….then it probably makes sense to go to safety, which for somebody my age with no 401(K)…..might mean selling a lot of RE and buying one or more pension products like fixed index annuities or deferred annuities and making a plan to sell my business while it’s still worth something.
The hang-up is the rising cost of living that the CPI-U…or even the CPI-E…does not catch. And there is gonna be some of that. Not sure how much.
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
The unexpected reversal in the dollar, which is associated with a top in the Euro, has tempered my outlook for the metals. I am going to add more SLV on weakness today or tomorrow, and I do expect a bounce…but I will probably sell on that bounce rather than fight what may be the early advance of a new intermediate cycle in the USD.
ed_retired_actuary
ed_retired_actuary
2 years ago
When working with institutional bond managers, I observed little or no interest in forecasting economic or financial conditions 10 or 30 year hence when positioning 10 or 30 year bonds in their portfolios.  I don’t think that there is much, if any, long term economic predictive value in the short-term reaction of the yield curve to economic news.
njbr
njbr
2 years ago
@Mish
It’s a dry heat, isn’t it? 112 F.
Lovely.
njbr
njbr
2 years ago
From my end of the world–commercial construction–golden wings are turning into lead wings.  We had a very good year in 2020, but 2021 is looking tenuous.  Trying to stay ahead of daily price rises on fixed contracts will kill the year for many in construction.
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
I’m glad you put this up. I was wondering if anybody noticed that happened today. And thanks to @Scoot for his comment. I’m not really a bond guy……but I believe in the predictive power of an inverted yield curve.
Scooot
Scooot
2 years ago
Reply to  Eddie_T
Thanks Eddie. I tend to think taper talk will have the edge over rate hike talk, which I think is still a long way off, in the coming months. It’s difficult to call how this will impact because we might also get evidence of a slowdown in the recovery as Mish suggests. It all points to lots of volatility in my opinion.
Bbbbbbb
Bbbbbbb
2 years ago
“corporate investment is sinking”
What do you base that on? Thank you.
Scooot
Scooot
2 years ago
I would have said the yield curve has flattened today with the short end rising because the Fed have indicated for the first time they’ll do something about inflation (hike rates) if it does continue. 
If it had flattened because of economic weakness the long end would have fallen more than the short end. 
anoop
anoop
2 years ago
i’m holding cash like jamie dimon, just not $500b of it.
Eddie_T
Eddie_T
2 years ago
Reply to  anoop
Some people think JPM is sitting on 675 M oz’s of physical silver. Just sayin’………     🙂

Stay Informed

Subscribe to MishTalk

You will receive all messages from this feed and they will be delivered by email.