In an interview with Fox Business, James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, commented on the Federal Reserve’s stimulus exit strategy, indicating that interest rates may stay low well into 2012.
Mr. Bullard’s comments shouldn’t be a shock to anyone considering the fact that, historically, the Federal Reserve has waited two and a half to three years after the end of a recession to begin raising rates.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, wholesale inventories fell by 0.8 per cent in December, or US$383.6 billion. Wholesale inventories have continued to decline since peaking in early 2009 and are now at or near their pre-recession lows of mid-2008. While this indicates that the U.S. economy may have turned a corner, poor labour and housing numbers continue to persist.
At 1:15 p.m. the Canadian dollar was trading lower against the U.S. dollar at 0.9362.
Market report prepared by Bruce Hauser
Accu-Rate Corp.
http://accu-rate.ca
