financialsense.com / PAUL KASRIEL / 07/22/2016
The Fed was cocked and primed to deliver a 25 basis point increase in the federal funds rate on June 15. But on June 3, the BLS announced that nonfarm payrolls increased a paltry 38,000 in May. This monthly random number prompted the Fed to stand down on its interest rate increase. Then on June 23, the UK voters surprised the smart money by voting to have the UK leave the EU. Globally, the prices of risk assets swooned for a couple of days. The FOMC was thanking its lucky stars that the May nonfarm payroll report caused it to hold off on its planned rate increase for June 15.
But my bet is that in the announcement immediately following the July 26-27 FOMC meeting, the Fed will put us on notice that an interest rate hike is on the agenda for the next FOMC meeting, September 20-21. One reason for my Fed policy expectation is that the pace of U.S. economic activity has picked up in recent months. June nonfarm payrolls rebounded by 287,000. Nominal retail sales surged at an annualized rate of 5.9% in the second quarter after having contracted 0.2% annualized in the first quarter. The manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) increased in both May and June with the June level of 53.2 being the highest reading since February 2015. Corroborating the behavior of the manufacturing PMI was the 0.4% rebound in the Fed’s measure of manufacturing production for June. At 1.160 million units, average second quarter housing starts were the highest since Q4:2007. Too be sure, the U.S. economy is not hitting on all cylinders. “Compression” is low in business capital spending, in part due to the relatively low energy prices and previously weak consumer demand. Exports have weakened because of the slowdown in the pace of economic activity in developing economies. But about 80% of the economy is doing reasonably well.
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