Posted on 03/15/2020 2:12:17 PM PDT by billyboy15
The Federal Reserve, saying the coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States, cut interest rates to zero on Sunday and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program to shelter the economy from the effects of the virus.
Facing highly disrupted financial markets, the Fed also slashed the rate of emergency lending at the discount window for banks by 125 bps to 0.25%, and lengthened the term of loans to 90 days.
The Fed also cut reserve requirement ratios for thousands of banks to zero. In addition, in a global coordinated move by centrals banks, the Fed said the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank took action to enhance dollar liquidity around the world through existing dollar swap arrangements.
The banks lowered the rate on these swap line loans and extended the period for such loans. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to hold a press conference via telephone at 6 pm eastern time. The actions by the Fed appeared to be the largest single day set of moves the bank had ever taken, mirroring in many ways its efforts during the financial crisis that were rolled out over several months.
The quantitative easing will take the form of $500 billion of treasuries and $200 billion of agency-backed mortgage securities. The Fed said the purchases will begin Monday with a $40 billion installment.
The Fed cut rates to a new range of 0% to 0.25% from 1% to 1.25% and said it would remain there until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Thanks for clarification...everyone is on edge, me included...more angry at our officials.
It ain't down YET....
Yes, they are shorting their @$$s off or straddling, they always make money. Yes they are trying to create a depression with a Virus, brilliant and the sheeple are believing it. I don't take this lightly, it is real, this virus is tricky, and I don't think it came from bat soup & China must pay, and they might aka Xi and his cronies may collapse.
But we Freepers /Treepers aren't going anywhere, we still believe in America, Our Jobs/Businesses/Careers, God, Our Families and when this is over we will return to the regularly scheduled programming. And we will crawl over broken glass rapped in toilet paper to vote for President Donald J. Trump.
I have an wise owl old friend, and this is not investment advice, but he is buying. I follow Seeking Alpha and other sources, as they might say and again not advice, but their are some screaming buys out their...
This may not help markets in the short term, but gold tends to do quite well in times of QE.
Trump has been slowly forcing Powell to zero for 3 years. This is IMO step one of Trump’s plan to make the Federal Reserve irrelevant and cut them out of the loop in his second term. Next step will be to announce at some point that the US Treasury Dept will start issuing our currency. Federal Reserve no longer needed.
Well, that to me proves the Left and their billionaire shorting market manipulators are winning. No sports, hoarding, no eating out, everyone scared, including the smart Freepers...if we keep going on this, it will be like the solient green experiments where the rats started eating each other...once we hear of neighbors shooting each other, society will start breaking down, those armored vehicles the municipalities bought will be in the streets, and then governors and PDJT will order lockdown.”
Yes, they are shorting their @$$s off or straddling, they always make money. Yes they are trying to create a depression with a Virus, brilliant and the sheeple are believing it. I don’t take this lightly, it is real, this virus is tricky, and I don’t think it came from bat soup & China must pay, and they might aka Xi and his cronies may collapse.
But we Freepers /Treepers aren’t going anywhere, we still believe in America, Our Jobs/Businesses/Careers, God, Our Families and when this is over we will return to the regularly scheduled programming. And we will crawl over broken glass rapped in toilet paper to vote for President Donald J. Trump.
I have an wise owl old friend, and this is not investment advice, but he is buying. I follow Seeking Alpha and other sources, as they might say and again not advice, but their are some screaming buys out their...
........
Great post...u and me are likely mind melded on this...closest to my thinking of anyone in last few days...
Banks are getting swamped with refi requests; not only are they hiring new people to do it, but they are deliberately listing rates that are too high on their homepage in an attempt to cut down demand.
For a brief instant last Monday I saw 10-year refi’s going for 2.4% APR for 740+ credit scores and (I guess) 30%+ LTV in Minnesota.
“....You are going to bring a virus to justice?...”
No. Not the “virus”. IF it’s actually the tin-foil hat bioweapon being bantered about, those responsible for releasing it. Even if that were true, I wouldn’t be holding my breath to see justice in this day and age.
Half are crowing that the Fed has lost all control and we're in for a Great Depression, a couple have noticed that the heads of the top backs announced that effective immediately they were going to cease their share buy-backs and start lending.
Little noticed is that Mnuchin and Trump suggested restructuring the entire 22 T Federal deficit into 100-year bonds at 1%.
Thinking out loud and not investment advice...
Yes they have been hinting at this for a while. In some ways I think this might be worse than what Obama did twisting the yield curve. You can't build a Bond Ladder with a yield curve like this, who in their right mind would go long on Treasuries unless it is a pure flight to safety scenario? At the same time the Obama years taught us You don't fight the FED...
So, like in the Obama years, does this drive Seniors to Blue Chips Dividends yielders and Utilities because their is no place else to go for yield?
I don't say this as a novice, to sit at a desk after taking the notes in the meeting and being tasked with building said bond ladder for a client back when we had a normal yield curve with GWB and seeing what it could do for a newly retired client and the positive impression it made, has me scratching my head a this move.
Printing Presses at the Ready!
Isn’t it INTERESTING that Mother Government can ‘run out’ of all sorts of CRITICAL things - materials to improve our infrastructure, needed medicines because She’s bowing down to her Chinese Masters, Common Sense (Oh, never mind! She wouldn’t have that in the first place!)
But the ONE THING She NEVER runs out of is INK for the money printing presses!
We’re SUCH a bunch of Suckers. ;)
What if Trump’s goal is to destroy the Fed, which is UnConstitutional anyway?
"Ya picked the wrong time to leave me Lucile" to quote and old Kenny Rogers tune ;-). I don't know if I'd throw that monkey wrench in the gear box now, we got bigger fish to fry.
Bond funds. That would be yes, and a lot.
They are acting in-proportion to the level of panic some people on FR were pushing for.
/
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BINGO.
Will mortgage rates fall? My sister wants to sell me her house.
Well, then you will be happy.
There a more ways to invest in the market than just stocks, some are just more indirect, but attached to the market nonetheless.
I've always wondered if at some point there would be an agreement amongst nations to "reset" the global debt. There really is zero chance it will ever be paid down as far too many nations are hooked on debt like an addict.
You might want to find a different del. If it is the only deli near you....that explains it.
I did better than that! I work from my home office now, and make my own lunch. Save a lot of money, and eat better too.
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