Phil Grossfield's Blog

Santa Quest.  I was so excited!  Every year when I was little my mom took me and my sister downtown Minneapolis to the Dayton’s (now Macy’s) Holiday Display.  I didn’t get much up-close interaction with this kind of stuff back then.  I even got to meet Santa!  I remember the feeling of confusion, like when Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said, “I’m Jewish…I don’t get anything.”  Despite the confusion, I loved the whole thing.

This year over the Thanksgiving break we went to Minneapolis to visit family.  My wife’s sister and her family live there and my entire family is there as well.  On a Saturday we decided to go downtown to the holiday display so our kids could experience it.  What fun!  And they were far less confused about things then I was at their age.  And on top of everything, we took a group picture with Santa.  Unfortunately I don’t have the evidence to support it, but this was the first time in my Dad’s 82 years he’s posed with Santa. 🙂

My Market Update 12/18/2014 AM

The 30-year Fannie Mae bond is trading up +14bps since yesterday’s close.  Generally a lender’s pricing improves when the bond is being bought.

Janet Yellen, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, made some interesting statements at her press conference earlier in the week.  If you recall, I focused on her position with respect to the likelihood of interest rate hikes in 2015. Many factors will be taken into consideration with that day comes, including inflation, unemployment, etc.  Yellen’s position on inflation is interesting in itself.  She is regarded as one of the few economists willing to risk higher inflation as a strategy to battle unemployment.  Remember, bonds hate inflation and since the trading of bonds is directly affected by it, well, I think we should be paying attention to Yellen’s opinion on the subject.