“It was an interesting week last week,” Guy Williams, president of Gulf Bank and Trust, told WWL’s Newell Normand. “Suddenly, everything turned green.”
After 11 recent interest rate hikes that made borrowing money more difficult for Americans, the Federal Reserve Bank announced this month that it would pause rate increases. Those hikes were intended to bring down inflation, which has been high for more than a year.
In addition to that news, the “Treasury talked about refunding existing debt, and the Treasury refunding was a little bit slimmer than people expected – and suddenly it was good news everywhere,” said Williams.
While he acknowledged that some believe the pause in rate hikes means the Fed indicates that rates will be lowered soon, Williams said he doubts it. What he really found intriguing was that the stock market “completely reversed,” and all indexes turned green.
At the same time, there was news of a slowing economy, increased unemployment and job gains that were not as robust as expected. Williams said it seems a bit counterintuitive.
“But it was definitely an interesting week with interest rates dropping, stock market prices going up and people expecting, you know: it’s Goldilocks time. And I really do – I hope it is,” said Williams. “That would be wonderful.”
Listen to his full conversation with Normand here to find out why things might be a bit more complicated.