MacroScope

Conflicting signals from Fed speak have central bank watchers back to playing the word game, adding renewed weight to every nuance that can be gleaned from official speeches and pronouncements. There is good reason for the mixed messages. Fed policymakers face a tricky task trying to ensure their commitment to an accommodative stance while also having to assure investors and the public that they will remove the punchbowl before the party gets out of hand.

Eric Lascelles at TD Securities applies a little physical mechanics to the study of Fed chatter.  

The contemplation of signal-to-noise ratios is usually the exclusive domain of electrical engineers. But this subject has become of increasing relevance to economists due to the sheer number of Fed Governors and Presidents who are now proffering their myriad views on a daily basis. It has become increasingly difficult to separate what constitutes a reliable signal of future monetary policy from the inconsequential noise. The monetary policy signal-to-noise ratio is currently very low. This partly explains why expected bond market volatility remains so high – central bankers as a collective are not offering anything close to a clear path forward.

Lascelles errs on the side of dovishness, telling his readers to focus on what Chairman Bernanke has to say.  “The TD view remains that the Fed will surprise many in how long it manages to remain on hold, with a first hike coming in Q1 2011.”

Recent press reports alluded to the possibility that the Fed might be pondering some shift in its language, either removing or moderating its vow to keep rates low for an “extended period.” But former Fed Governor Larry Meyer, now at Macroeconomic Advisors, says all the talk about a verbal baby step toward tightening is just that.

The Federal Reserve has gone on the offensive to sell its exit strategy to investors and the public, in the hopes that it can stall an increase in inflation expectations. The effort was first launched by Fed Board Governor Kevin Warsh, who argued in a Wall Street Journal editorial, followed by a speech, that when the time came for Fed tightening, policymakers might have to move quickly. Even Bernanke, whose Great Depression expertise usually pegs him as a dove, was particularly meticulous about describing the Fed’s stimulus-withdrawal tools this week, sending the bond market into a tailspin.

But with the unemployment rate rapidly climbing toward 10 percent — and expected to remain up there for the foreseeable future, some economists are telling Fed officials to hold their horses. Paul Krugman, in his blog, makes a vehement case for an ultra-dovish policy stance. He calculates that the ideal fed funds rate given current economic conditions should be, get this, -5.6 percent. In another post, he argues that even if the U.S. economic recovery is more robust than most believe, the Fed should still keep rates at rock-bottom lows for at least two years.

So where’s the case for monetary tightening? For some reason many Fed officials seem to view it as inherently unsound to stay at a zero rate for several years running — but I’m at a loss to understand what model, or even conceptual framework, leads them to that conclusion. One gets the impression of officials who have decided that they want to tighten, and are making up new conceptual frameworks on the fly to justify their desires.

  Policy-makers, academics and analysts from around the world are gathered at a remote lodge in Wyoming’s Jackson Hole this week to reflect on the financial crisis.

    One of the topics of conversation on the sidelines of the conference is whether President Barack Obama will reappoint the chairman of the U.S. central bank — Ben Bernanke — whose term ends early next year.

    Two veteran Fed-watchers weigh in: 

GLENN HUBBARD, DEAN OF COLUMBIA’S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

     “I think the bar for replacing Bernanke would have to be very high, in the middle of the crisis he has shown determination to take very bold action and his own knowledge has been very specific and helpful in the crisis.”

Five things to think about this week:

APPETITE TO CHASE? 
- Equity bulls have managed to retain the upper hand so far and the MSCI world index is up almost 50 percent from its March lows. However, earnings may need to show signs of rebounding for the rally's momentum to be sustained. Even those looking for further equity gains think the rise in stock prices will lag that in earnings once the earnings recovery gets underway, as was the case in past cycles. The symmetry/asymmetry of market reaction to data this week -- as much from China as from the major developed economies -- will show how much appetite there is to keep chasing the rally higher. 

TAKING CONSUMERS' PULSE 
- A better picture of the health of the consumer will emerge this week as U.S. retailers' earnings coincides with the release of U.S. July retail sales data and the UK BRC retail survey comes out on the other side of the Atlantic. With joblessness still rising, the reports will show how willing households are to spend and whether deep discounts, which eat into retailers' profit margins, are the only thing that will tempt them to shop -- both key issues for the macroeconomic and corporate outlook. 

CENTRAL BANK WATCH 
- After last week's Bank of England surprise, all eyes turn to what sort of signals the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan will send on the outlook for their respective economies and QE programmes. After the BOE's expansion of its QE programme the short sterling strip repriced how soon UK rates would rise. But the broader trend recently in the U.S., euro zone and the UK has been to discount rate rises in 2010 -- and possibly as soon as this year in Australia. Benchmark interbank euro rates have risen for the first time in two months, and central bankers everywhere, including China, face the delicate balancing act of managing monetary tightening expectations in the months ahead. 

Five things to think about this week: 

RESULTS RUSH 
- The early wave of Q2 earnings last week prevented any major risk shakeout but there are plenty more results this week, including from banking, technology (Apple, Microsoft), and other sectors (Lockheed Martin, Coke, McDonalds). Investors with bullish inclinations will be looking for the VIX to stay subdued after it fell last week to lows last seen in September 2008, especially if more pent up cash is to be released from money market funds. Bears will be thinking that what might be the S&P's best weekly performance since mid-March could be setting the market up to be more sensitive to bad news.

BANKS - IS THE BEST PAST? 
-  It is hard to see how bank results this week can top the boost which Goldman and JPM gave stocks last week. More of a mixed bag is likely with the U.S. slate including Bank of New York Mellon, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Capital One, and American Express while Credit Suisse will be the first major European bank to report. Defaults and delinquencies will be in focus for banks more exposed to the retail sector -- both for what it means for their outlook and for what it bodes for household solvency and spending. 

DRILLING DOWN 
-  The breakdown of company results this week (ABB, Texas Instruments, Caterpillar, DuPont, Boeing, 3M) will show the extent to which the inventory rebuilding story, which has helped lift world equities almost 40 percent from their March lows, can offer more sustainable support to stocks in the weeks and months ahead. Earnings this week will be closely scanned to see how inventories are stacking up verus orders. How deeply firms are cutting into costs to defend profit margins, as well as their business investment plans, will be key for unemployment and other macroeconomic data.

Central bankers in the euro zone will have to get out their dictionaries and calculators to work out how often they are entitled to vote on European Central Bank decisions under a complicated new voting system.

New rules show that the size of a country’s economy, the health of its banking sector and the spelling of its name will all influence how often a governor from one of the euro zone’s national central banks gets to vote on setting ECB interest rates and other crucial policy decisions.

This could make the difference between a governor from a similar-sized economy being sidelined for as little as six months in a three-year period or as many as nine.

Five things to think about this week:

STALLING RALLY
- The global equity market rally has stalled in June and is threatening to go into reverse. With this week effectively the last full week of the second quarter, the temptation for many funds to book profits on such a lucrative quarter will be high. Any knock on boost to volatility would pose more risks for some of the trades that looked the most attractive in a lower volatility environment, such as cyclical versus defensives plays, emerging markets, and foreign exchange carry trades.

POLICY, SUPPLY RISKS FOR BONDS
- How the U.S. Federal Reserve will respond to the interest rate market gyrations of the past month has been a key market talking point. Questions centre on whether it will expand the size of buybacks, whether there will be any change in the length of time the buyback programme lasts, whether the central bank makes any effort to unwind the rise in bond yields seen in the past months, and whether there will be any talk of an exit strategy. Another risk to the front end will be the Treasury refinancing, which resumes after a week of no supply and will be concentrating on the shorter end.

WHAT COLOUR ARE THE SHOOTS
- This week's data will show both whether the inventory rebuilding that was priced in over recent months is actually materialising and whether there are any other drivers of economic activity out there. The flash PMI in Europe and sentiment indicators will be particularly relevant in deciding on the latter issue, with consumer and income data out from both sides of the Atlantic providing an additional window on how domestic demand is shaping up.

The Federal Reserve should not interpret signs of moderation in the U.S. recession as a reason to stop its emergency measures to heal the economy and financial markets, according to Payden & Rygel economist Thomas Higgins.

“An often overlooked danger is that policymakers may cut back on monetary and  fiscal stimulus too soon. This is what happened in Japan in the mid-1990s and in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s,” he wrote in a research note.

In that context, Higgins said the Fed missed a chance to stay ahead of the curve by not announcing an increase in its purchase of Treasuries, thereby allowing benchmark bond yields to climb above 3 percent.

Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Markets Correspondent Pedro da Costa and Carrie Lee to discuss the Fed’s balance sheet and the U.S. economy.