Investment Newsletter – December 2021
As of 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated a new coronavirus strain detected in South Africa as a “variant of concern” at around 12a.m. CET or 7a.m. Beijing time, prompting countries around the world to impose travel restrictions amid fears over its potential spread. However, public health experts have urged caution, noting that there is as yet no firm evidence that Omicron is more dangerous than previous variants like Delta.
As of March 2021, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested that inflation will pick up in the following months but that it would likely prove temporary and not enough for the Fed to alter its record-low interest rate policies. As of September 2021, the Fed said in December it would not start withdrawing that bond-buying support for the economy until it sees “substantial further progress” towards its maximum employment and inflation goals, which noted that “inflation is elevated, largely reflecting transitory factors”. As of 4 November 2021, the Fed announced it will reduce its USD 120 billion in monthly bond purchases by USD 15 billion per month. It plans to end the program, buying nothing, by June 2022. President Joe Biden announced on 22 November 2021 that he is renominating Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chair and as of 30 November 2021 after renomination, Powell acknowledged that he now expects high inflation to continue into the middle of 2022, stating that the government should no longer push what had been a recurring slogan of it being “transitory.” Moreover, Powell made clear that Fed officials will discuss paring those purchases “more quickly” when it next meets in mid-December 2021. Doing so would put the Fed on a path to begin raising its key short-term rate as early as the first half of next year, amid slow economic growth.
