Longer-term Treasury Bonds jumped earlier this week ahead of the Federal Reserve's inflation data, with simultaneous upward movement in the value of the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) and a downward trend in the value of gold. Despite this, according to Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, the Federal Reserve isn't worried.
Wall Street felt a bit of panic earlier in the week as it contemplated the still looming threat of inflation, driving major stock indices and many cryptocurrency markets down, as well as causing the price of gold to take a hit. Longer-term Treasury bonds, however, as they tend to do during periods of inflation-based volatility.
A myriad of factors is feeding inflation fears, but a critical factor may be the slower than expected recovery of the job market. Currently, many experts fear that large numbers of Americans are unwilling to return to the labor market, as many now make more in unemployment support than they had at their previous jobs. As such, concerns of inflation tend to be joined by fears of worker shortages, producing production slowdowns, and commodity shortages.
The Federal Reserve isn't concerned, and appears to be weathering . spoke on inflation on Wednesday, stating that price spikes were only "transitory" and that the economy would stabilize in time. While some are beginning to grow concerned that the Fed may be misjudging the situation, others believe that the Fed is acting precisely as it should, given the situation.
"The case is really quite strong for the outlook for inflation being quite moderate," David Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics, told Bloomberg. "The basic strategy is exactly the right one, which is to project a realistic confidence about the outlook for inflation, combined with a readiness to pivot if circumstances change."
Looking to the Fed's yield curve rate table, 10-year yields were up 6.2% on Wednesday compared to a week prior, while 20-year yields were up 7%, and 30-year yields up 6.7%.