Jay Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, scored a big win this week when the US central bank started its rate-cutting cycle with a bang, chopping half a percentage point off the benchmark.
Typically, that is a distress signal to markets — a flag that the economy is in dire shape or that the central bank knows it is cutting too late. Powell however convinced investors this was a luxury decision. It cut rates hard because it can. This deft piece of central banker speak succeeded in not spooking the horses; stocks and bonds very much held their cool.
Now the common assumption is that the rate cut — the start of a long series, judging from the Fed’s messaging — will prompt a huge wave of cash being held by investors to spill on to the shores of risky markets. Any day now this will start landing. Just you wait. It sounds too good to be true, and probably is.