Fernando'S ha scritto:
io ho interrogato "il Prudente"
..ha detto long
Il prudente è d'accordo con Bernanke?
E' lui che ha scatenato il rally odierno....
Bernanke Says Housing in `Substantial Correction' (Update2)
By Craig Torres and Scott Lanman
Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. housing market is in a ``substantial correction'' that will lop about a percentage point off economic growth in the second half and restrain the expansion next year.
The Fed chairman also said in response to questions after a speech in Washington that the central bank remains ``concerned about inflation'' because it remains above ``what we would consider price stability.''
Taken together, the remarks reaffirm the view of some investors that the central bank will keep the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5.25 percent for the remainder of the year. Stocks extended their advance after his comments and Treasury notes remained higher. Yields on Eurodollar futures suggest the Fed will reduce its rate a quarter point by June.
``There is currently a substantial correction going on in the housing market,'' Bernanke said. The decline in residential housing construction is one of the ``major drags that is causing the economy to slow.''
Bernanke ``broadcast the fact that the Fed is not interested in raising rates from here on out,'' said Michael Farr, president and founder of Washington-based Farr, Miller & Washington LLC which manages more than $475 million. Those were ``cautious words. They are not going to take the action.''
The Federal Open Market Committee has left the federal funds rate unchanged since August, following two years of increases, betting on an internal forecast that slowing growth and a decline in energy prices will reduce inflation. FOMC officials next meet Oct. 24-25.
Gradual Retreat
``We do believe that inflation is going to be coming down gradually over time,'' Bernanke said after addressing the Economic Club of Washington. ``But it is something that we have to watch very carefully to make sure that it doesn't rise or even remain where it is.''
His speech was devoted to the challenges faced by fiscal policy makers as the U.S. workforce ages and the need to ``reform'' entitlement programs, boost takes, or cut spending. Failure to do so, he predicted, will place the burden on future generations and erode the productive potential of the economy.
Part of the Fed's economic forecast appears to be panning out. The economy expanded at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter, down from a 5.6 percent pace in the first three months. Crude oil prices are down 9 percent from a year ago.
ISM Index Declines
Service industries in the U.S. expanded at the slowest pace in more than three years in September as the housing slump deepened. The Institute for Supply Management's index of non- manufacturing businesses fell to 52.9, the lowest since April 2003. Home construction fell at an annual rate of 11.1 percent in the second quarter, the biggest decline since the same three months in 1995, the government said last week.
Still, inflation has remained stubbornly high, rising 2.5 percent for the 12-month period ending Aug. 31. That's above Bernanke's ``comfort zone'' of a 1 percent to 2 percent rise in the personal consumption expenditures price index minus food and energy.
``Inflation, honestly, right now is too high,'' Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig said in a speech in Albuquerque, New Mexico yesterday. The current level of the Fed's benchmark rate is ``modestly restrictive,'' he added. ``It's not tight, but modestly restrictive.''
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn will speak on the economy later today to the New York University Money Marketeers Club.
Bernanke also said the Fed should share its economic outlook and the risks that surround that outlook, and called the central bank's communication strategy ``a work in progress.''