by Pebblewriter, Pebblewriter.com
Futures responded to last week’s jobs numbers by promptly selling off on Friday.
Look for ES to complete the little H&S Pattern targeting 2052. Whether it’ll be allowed to play out is another matter altogether. USDJPY ramping is in full swing…
…with the pair approaching our upside target of 121.12 – the .886 retrace of the drop from the December highs.
But, CL is falling off the wagon once again – seemingly on its way to tag 47.66.
Needless to say, the jobs picture is problematic for the FOMC. Having balked at reducing market support when unemployment fell below 6.5% and then 6.0%, can they rationalize ZIRP at 5.5%?
Whether or not we think they should, they no doubt will. Simply put, the US cannot afford higher rates. With $18 trillion in debt, a mere 1% increase in rates translates to an extra $180 billion in annual interest payments. That would increase interest payments as a share of annual government expenditures from the current 6% to 11%.
If rates increased to a normalized 6%, annual interest payments would soar to nearly $1 trillion – about 26% of the nation’s budget. It would exceed every category of spending, including military, social security and health care.
That’s if we were miraculously able to hold the line at only $18 trillion in debt. And, it completely ignores the impact of off-balance sheet financing which most estimates put at another $50 trillion or so.
UPDATE: 1:00 PM, Friday.
Heck of a day for our charts. This one that we posted on Wednesday…
…turned out to be fairly predictive!
New targets coming up.
