Daily Market Color May 16, 2022Rates Decline on Eve of Powell Comments Rates resume decline, but catalysts scarce. Treasury yields and swap rates continued to grind lower today, the 10-year Treasury yield ending the day 3.5bps lower to close below 2.90% at 2.88%. Equities were mixed, though tech stocks were hammered once again as the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.2% on the day. The VIX continued to moderate in a sign of improving sentiment, falling a point on the day to 27.4. Bezos latest to attack administration over inflation. Jeff Bezos waded into the inflation debate today, tweeting that if the administration had succeeded in passing their original spending bill they would have succeeded in making inflation even higher. Bezos’s tweet comes after President Biden suggested that inflation was partially caused by wealthy companies not paying enough in taxes. Powell to speak tomorrow. A host of Fed speakers will make public comments tomorrow, including Bullard, Harker, Mester, Evans and most importantly Fed Chair Powell. Powell will be interviewed tomorrow at 2pm ET at the Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” conference.
