How the Fed Told the Market What It Wanted to Hear

One of the most human things about humans is that they tend to hear what they want.  It's easy to take advantage of this trait. Politicians do it as a matter of course.  Many, and perhaps most, Congressional districts are gerrymandered to favor one party or the other, so that members of Congress can be elected, and then endlessly re-elected, simply for saying what their constituents want to hear.  Our gridlocked government doesn't actually do anything.  We pay members of Congress nice salaries simply to say what we want to hear--and in the final analysis the shame is on us.

Government officials aren't above telling us what we want to hear, either.  The Fed's latest policy statement is a good example.  The word "patient" was removed, indicating that there wouldn't necessarily be much warning of an interest rate hike.  This is hawkish. 

But the statement also tried to make nice-nice with all the skittish investors out there who bet on continued money printing by saying that a rate increase in April is unlikely, and that the timing of future rate increases would be dependent on economic data.  The Fed also continued from the previous statement to say that it anticipated moderate economic growth, lower than average inflation in the near term and a continuation of its practice of re-investing principal payments from its holdings of federal agency and Treasury securities into other agency and Treasury securities (thereby maintaining the size of its balance sheet).  These dovish statements softened expectations for rate hikes in the near future.

The market rallied yesterday (Wednesday, March 18, 2015), with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising almost 230 points (more than 1%).  Today, the Dow dropped 117 points, or 0.65% (although the Nasdaq rose 0.2%).  What gives?  The market initially read the Fed statement to be dovish and drank deeply of the punch bowl.  But Fed Chair Janet Yellen also has made clear that there are no assurances as to June and a rate increase in June is possible.  The market evident sobered up today and took some money off the table.  The Fed statement didn't change from yesterday to today.  What changed was how the market read the statement.

The Fed is now in the position it wants to be in--it can move rates without giving a lot of notice.  It has much more flexibility to react to changes in economic data.  Investors who are caught leaning the wrong way can't expect a bailout.  We're back to the past, to the Fed of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, which tended to be opaque and liked it that way.  It had room to move.  For example, in 1994, the Fed decided to raise rates, when large swaths of the market didn't expect a rate increase.  Many hedge funds and other investors were seriously discombobulated, but there was no money printing done to make the boo boo go away.  All the losers could do was to reflect on how there's a certain amount of rancid cheese in life and you just have to deal with it.

Now, let the investor beware.