More data. More bad news for Fed-hike prognosticators.
Today, U.S. industrial production year-over-year slowed again to the lowest reading of 2015. Here’s analysis and a chart from Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough:
“With Industrial Production only 0.3% y/y now (lowest reading of 2015 - see red circles) we’re entering the next leg down of the cycle = Industrial/Cyclical Recession. Don’t forget that growth is reported y/y and the toughest compares were in NOV/DEC of 2014 (see green circle). Things should slow faster in the coming months.”
click image to enlarge.
That’s just the latest underwhelming economic reading. Don't forget New York Fed president Bill Dudley's recent concern that inflation is running “well below our 2 percent objective.”
Below are a few more recent economic misses (for those of you keeping score):
So a December rate hike isn’t necessarily such a sure thing. The Fed is 'data dependent.' Remember?
And yet, the latest headscratcher from Old Wall is the overwhelming expectation of a December rate hike. If you think their predictive track record matters, think again. Here’s a Wall Street Journal survey of economists:
“There is near-unanimous agreement among private forecasters surveyed that the Federal Reserve will begin raising short-term interest rates next month after holding them near zero for seven years.
About 92% of the business and academic economists polled by The Wall Street Journal in recent days said they expected the Fed to raise its benchmark federal-funds rate at its Dec. 15-16 policy meeting…
In the latest survey, the economists on average estimated the probability of a rate increase next month at 71%, up from 48% a month earlier.”
Right...
Now take a second to look at how “well” these same folks have done forecasting the next Fed rate hike. Below is a recap also from WSJ. (Notice the overwhelming consensus, in July and August, that the Fed would hike in September):
No, we don’t put much stock in Old Wall’s predictions.