Stocks got a boost from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday when it released its policy statement. In the
statement, the FOMC says it will aggressively dial back its bond purchasing program because its dual mandate
of employment and inflation have been met. The FOMC is indicating three interest rate hikes by the end of 2022
which is in line with the market?s expectations. The risk now is that inflation won?t respond to the policy shift
and the FOMC will be forced to act even more aggressively than it is now indicating.?
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On the economic front, the November retail sales figures came in much weaker than expected and reflect the
rising problem of inflation. Retail sales came in at up 0.3% versus an expectation of up 0.5% but the data does
not account for the impacts of inflation. With CPI up 6.8% for the year, the volume of sales is actually down
with the difference in the Retail Sales data made up by higher prices.