Rocket Fuel Newsletter – 09/24/22

close up of male hands with newspaper and coffee

The FDA is now advising consumers against cooking chicken in Nyquil™, and the COO of Beyond Meat was arrested for biting a man’s nose last weekend. If anyone had that on their 2022 bingo card, take a bow. 

This week’s edition includes a recap of the FOMC meeting and our current refi market. 

Fuel Up 🚀   

Federal Reserve Press Release – Simplified  

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met this week, where they announced another rate hike of 75 basis points.

To help cut through the noise of the Fed’s decision, Bill Banfield, EVP, Capital Markets for Rocket Mortgage, offers a simplified version with key takeaways. 

The Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds rate another 0.75%.  This is the 5th interest rate increase this year, bringing Fed Funds to 3.25%. 

Here are a few things to know: 

  1. There are only three changes in today’s statement from the last meeting. The first highlight was changed from softening of spending and production to “modest growth.”
     
  2. Modest growth should let us all know they are HAWKISH. That’s a strange term used to suggest they are going to be aggressive to fight inflation in the face of continued growth. Simply – they will keep raising Fed Funds. 
     
  3. Other than that, not a single word was changed. Since the Jackson Hole retreat, Jerome Powell has been extremely steady trying to demonstrate Team FOMC’s commitment to fighting inflation. 
     
  4. Balance sheet reduction plan is still in place and, to date, we haven’t seen a material disruption in the market. 
     
  5. Rising rates – remember that the Fed Funds is the short end of the yield curve.  This increase was largely expected and, so far, we’re not seeing much of a negative reaction in the market. 

Housing Prices See Biggest Fall In 9 Years 

Inflated home prices are coming back down to earth from their pandemic-driven highs, as National Assocation of REALTORS® data shows the largest 2-month drop in nearly a decade – 6%.

OKeefe’s time of 1:28 was one second better than Zach’s 1:29 on last week’s puzzle. Congrats to both of them, and also to John F and Bryan for posting times under 2 minutes. 

This week’s puzzle is perfect for those who like to go fast. We’ll give it 3 out of 5 Rockets.

Click here to solve!