#45 Daily Financial News Round Up - Dec 15,2021
Market Snapshot
Dow Jones is down by 0.29%, S&P500 is down by 0.23%, and Nasdaq Composite is down by 0.47%.
How’s crypto-market?
Bitcoin is down by 0.17% in the last 24 hours to the price $47,094.72. XRP, Dogecoin and Solana are the top three traded cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours. The top 3 gainers are Aragon, Waves and UMA Protocol. The top 3 losers are Dogecoin, Tezos and Loopring.
What news caught my attention?
Fed signalled that interest rate increases are likely to happen at the beginning of next year. This policy signals that Fed is prioritizing reining in inflation rates over employment shortfalls. This Fed move makes sense considering the rapid rise in inflation and record-low unemployment numbers. Since the Fed influences borrowing costs by controlling the interest rates, by keeping interest rates low through the pandemic, Fed was able to stimulate the economy by keeping the federal funds rate at a rate near zero since March 2020. The Fed is directly increasing the borrowers' borrowing costs by increasing the interest rates.
After adjusting for seasonal rates, the rise in consumer sales is 0.3% compared to the previous month's 1.8%. High inflation rates impacting consumers' willingness to spend could explain this modest increase in sales.
My Takeaways:
Inflation is the giant scary monster rampaging the city, while the Avengers (Fed) strategize to rein in the beast.