The future is so bright, I gotta cut 50

Wednesday's FOMC was highly unusual. A 50bps cut, an optimistic economic outlook, and hawkish forward guidance have never combined at an FOMC meeting that I can recall. Historically, 50 was always a bazooka, reserved for highly stressful times when recession risks...

Rethinking the pace of a return to neutral rates

On Monday morning at 9am EST I am going to host a zoom call focused on the speed with which the Fed is likely to return to a neutral policy stance. A quickened pace post the election is likely to have important implications for equity, currency, credit, and commodity...

From the vault: 24-Feb-2011

I thought this very concise commentary below from over 13 years ago would be a nice way to kick off September. The Fed put structure has been a critical feature in my writing since first starting at Jefferies nearly 15 years ago. The put has come a long way, through...

The case for a rapid return to a neutral rate structure

As a good Greek, I tried my best to disengage from work during the month of August and rest up before hitting the road on an unusually aggressive fall travel schedule. That said, in the early part of the month, I felt obliged to write a quick note from the beaches of...

This is why we hold the blues!!

The Fed, the BoJ, payrolls, the US presidential election race, tech earnings, and the escalation in the Middle East have all conspired to create some heavy derisking. Volatility was low, and complacency was high heading into the mid-July all-time highs for spoos. And...

It’s not rocket science

Over the last three weeks, the odds of a Trump victory have jumped markedly. Biden's debate performance, Trump's judicial wins, and the awful events in Bethel Park last Saturday have all contributed to the shift. And while other macro forces such as softer inflation...

From the vault: 10-Jan-2017

Long Streetsmarts, Short Booksmarts: 10-Jan-2017 Over the last two months my market discussions with clients and colleagues have centered exclusively on the expectations for Trump economic policies – specifically fiscal policy, regulatory policy, immigration policy,...

Not every company gets a participation trophy – July 3, 2024

Today, I would like to address a topic that many pundits have deemed a negative risk factor for overall equity market performance: the issue of concentration. For the record, I discussed this topic last week in a CNBC segment, which you can access here. In a nutshell,...