Daily Briefing – September 17, 2020

Senior editor, Ash Bennington, joins managing editor, Ed Harrison, to discuss the latest in markets, macro, and coronavirus. They discuss how the results of the upcoming earnings season will provide a gauge on the health of the economy and solidify its standing as 2020 begins to come to a close. They also speculate on the ongoing persistence and momentum to the upside in equity markets, short-dated options trading amongst retail investors, and the sudden proliferation of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Ash and Ed then debrief yesterday’s FOMC meeting, lay out the impact the Fed’s actions will have on the bond market, and consider whether the Fed really is out of ammo at this point. In the intro, Peter Cooper shares the latest jobless claims data and enumerates on the flaws of solely relying on this data to understand the health of the labor market.