That’s it, for the last 2 days the rate over the 30 years US has gone below the fed funds rate. All interest rates of the US curve are now below the fed funds rate.
This reflects a terrible concern for the future. Investors no longer want to take bets on the future.
It should be noted that the inversion of the curve no longer reflects a compression effect resulting from the rise in the Fed rate as expected last autumn, but an effect of poor expectations for the future. The two schemes are very different and the second is the most worrying.
Such a signal has always been a precursor of two points:
the first is a decline in Fed rates. For macroeconomic reasons (the data are still robust) and for the credibility and independence of the US central bank, I hope that this rate cut will not take place in July (or even here)
The second point is that this configuration of US interest rates is always a signal of future recession. Simply put, it is not only investors who have poor expectations about the future. The rapid fall in interest rates is simply a signal for the perception of the future. This one is not specific to financiers. The US recession will certainly take place in 2020.
We can imagine that until then, the tenant of the White House will be firing on all cylinders to show that he has done everything possible to avoid this decline in activity during an election year. The pressure on the Fed is going in this direction, as is the pressure on China. But if he fails, there will be no shortage of scapegoats. Jay Powell, the Fed President, will be in the front row but also probably Xi Jinping, the Chinese President who will not have put all the goodwill necessary to reach an agreement with the US. “Heads I win, tails you lose”