Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Fed takeaways from JPMorgan’s M Feroli ‐ The Fed remains committed to supporting growth, as the
statement released at the conclusion of today's FOMC meeting conveyed no sense of a hurry to remove
policy stimulus. Not only did the Fed reiterate their intention to keep rates low for an extended period,
but the cautious description of the economy changed little very relative to the late January statement.
The protests from the hawkish wing of the Fed ‐‐ including another Hoenig dissent today ‐‐ receive a fair
bit of attention, but the actions of the leadership signal a strong aversion to repeating the premature
tightening mistakes of US central bankers in the 1930s or Japanese central bankers earlier this decade.
We don't see anything in this statement to change our view that the Fed remains on hold throughout
the course of 2010.
• Health Care ‐ Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health
care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent
President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority. CNN• Latest WSJ/NBC
poll – on health care, while the measure remains unpopular w/the country at large, it is still popular
w/some core Democrat constituencies, meaning several who are on the fence may find it politically
advantageous to vote in favor of the legislation. For the nation as a whole, 48% calling it a "bad idea"
and 36% viewing it as a "good idea" when presented with a choice between those two. Away from HC,
Republicans have a major enthusiasm advantage at the moment heading into the ’10 mid‐terms. WSJ
• European sovereign headwinds continue to clear – all these headlines were out early in NY trading
on Tues but are impacting European trading on Wed ‐ Mon, the Moody’s comments around the US/UK
AAA ratings being at risk received a lot of attention, but Moody’s hosted a call Tues morning and
clarifying their remarks, stating that no AAA sovereign credit faces near‐term risk; Moody’s added that
Spain, which has been a big concern among investors, remains well within AAA parameters. Separately,
S&P Tues morning came out and took Greece off watch negative.
• Jobs statement published ‐ Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, White House budget director
Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a joint
statement Tues (out early in the trading session) that they anticipate the jobless rate to remain elevated
for some time going forward and that it may even increase from the current 9.7% due to formally
discouraged job seekers returning to the pool of eligible workers. – are they tempering expectations so
that anything better than this abysmal outcome is construed as positive?
• China & the yuan ‐ The Chinese yuan is "very much undervalued," International Monetary Fund
managing director Dominque Strauss‐Kahn said Wednesday. DJ• China – the World Bank urges China
to cool its growth rate ‐ China Quarterly Update, the World Bank raised its forecast for China's economic
growth this year from +8.7% to +9.5%; the report signaled that China should use rate hikes and a
stronger yuan to avoid asset bubbles and inflation – WSJ
• China asks US groups to back its current stance on the yuan – the country is calling on large multi‐
national companies to lobby the White House in favor of China’s present yuan policy. FT