If you ran home at the bell yesterday you missed all the ârealâ action. After the close, Bernanke pulled back on any hawkish rhetoric that he ever spoke and told everyone that rates will be zero until the end of life as we know it on planet earth. Cockroaches and rats will be crawling the earthâs surface until well after weâre gone, yet Benâs printing presses will still be humming softly in the background.
Bernanke didnât really tell us anything new, but he did clarify his statements of a couple of weeks ago. Frankly, this will only prolong the agony of getting the markets reacclamated to an eventual tightening, but for now the tape should rip.
It was nice to see the market start to embrace a higher dollar and higher rates for a few weeks, now it will be back on the Fed feedbag, watching every grunt, groan and facial twitch from Bernanke and his Fed. Too bad in a way. Data dependent.
I guess all Bernanke did back on June 19 was just put out a âfeelerâ when he petrified the planet with taper talk. The Fed didnât like the reaction. The $SPX dove about 90 handles, but then something strange happened, we rallied hard off the lows as the market embraced the new reality of higher rates.. That was a good thing and showed great resilience by the market. The dollar went up, rates ticked up, but most importantly, the market went up in lockstep. Very bullish action when that happens. Now weâre back on the central plannerâs teet. Stocks love it, and Iâm longer than Georgia pine so Iâm cool with that, but once again we have delayed the inevitable.
I think Bernanke thought the housing market would get away from him, as mortgage rates ripped and housing stocks got buried. Ben didnât like that. Kuroda and Draghi have their mentor and buddy back for a while, as theyâre all organizing a central planner gig at the Bellagio in the fall. Should be a hoot.
If Bernanke is having trepidations about hitting his 6.5% employment target (LOL), then ever getting back to âfull employmentâ is a pipe dream. Hilarious. Keep dreaming.
Itâs all good for stocks, but Bernanke continues to day trade the economy.
P.S. Buy any and all dips forever. Go get em.
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