Christopher Low Quotations

Like everyone else, we expect a quarter-point hike in fed funds today to 4.75 percent -- we also expect the statement to be softened.

Lower energy prices have brought a sense of relief to consumers.

So far, the refunding has been a mixed bag. The three-year saw little foreign interest and had a low bid-to-cover, but the 10-year went a little better yesterday.

Fourth quarter consumer spending is coming in a lot lower. It looks like it's going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 percent -- that is, unless December turns out to be a blockbuster month.

If yields stay where they are, it's difficult to imagine how it could not have some economic impact.

There is a good chance in the second half of next year, we see growth slow down fairly dramatically.

It is going to make economists slightly revise down first-quarter GDP, which they already did with the weaker consumer spending number.

Today, the first auction of 30-year Treasury bonds in (almost) five years is expected to go well.

The decline helps affirm cooling in the housing sector and is consistent with other broad-based data we have seen.

We're talking about an entire huge city and several smaller surrounding cities that will be empty for some time. It looks like we are going to have sustained prices for at least some weeks and maybe even months, and if that happens, I think that will have a pretty severe impact on the economy.

There is no sign of an immediate pass through of energy to core prices, but consumers spent with abandon considering their lack of confidence in the continued health of the economy. That is likely to bolster the Fed's fear of future inflation and reinvigorate their will to raise rates.

We had thought that transparency meant efficiency in the market... and that's not what happened. The meaning of the bias within the Fed was not well understood.

These are abysmal numbers, suggesting a deeply pessimistic consumer in the first half of September.

Activities are beginning to pick up. Manufacturing has been the weakest part of the economy. The rest of the economy may be even stronger.

They tighten again in May and then they wait and watch.

It's a big surprise. There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence of regional weakness, but none of the national numbers have shown weakness.

It's the same tone that he took in his testimony two weeks ago.

It's nice to know that the Fed is taking (exotic home loans) seriously,

Economists were expecting that the Fed would either remove the warning about asymmetric risks toward inflation or judgment that further tightening might be necessary. Of course, the Fed did neither.

The yield curve is a really powerful indicator. It always has been. The shape of the curve still matters.

In today's market, everyone is a Fed-watcher. Hopefully we will not lose any transparency and will lose some of the volatility.

Housing is as strong as ever, and the mortgage business is as good as ever.

Home sales have remained surprisingly strong despite higher interest rates.

You can see this clear, ongoing deterioration. And what's scary about this is it's still accelerating,

The job market was lousy, now it's been upgraded to good.