It’s Official

Well, it’s finally official. According to a Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey, conducted from March 7 to 11, a majority of the economists polled said that the U.S. has finally slipped into recession. This marks a huge change from the last poll conducted only 5 weeks before.

To add to the evidence, new data shows that retail sales dropped .6% in February, the result of the sub-prime credit crisis, falling housing prices and increased prices for staples such as food and gasoline.

According to Ned Davis Research and their study, 10 post-war recessions have lasted an average of 10 months. At the same time, during these recessions, the S&P 500 has seen the following returns:

Year Leading to Recession: -4.3%

Six Months After Recession Begins -4.8 %

One Year After Recession Begins +3.2%

Year After Recession Ends +14.4%

As you can see, the pain in the markets is short-lived and the recoveries are usually robust. Remember these are just averages and each recession has its own characteristics. Let’s hope this is a mild one with an ever better rebound!!!

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Federal Reserve Trying to Hold Off Recession

The Federal Reserve today, in an attempt to improve conditions in the credit markets and, hopefully, help the economy avoid recession, opened its coffers and made $200 Billion (with a ‘B’) of highly-liquid U.S. Treasuries available to primary dealers, secured for 28 days. It also significantly expanded the types of securities that can be used as collateral for loans, allowing them to swap mortgage notes it can’t sell for government securities that can easily be sold to raise cash.

The hope from the Fed is that this action will bring some normalcy to a credit market that has all but dried up in recent months and that this cash infusion will allow banks to lend money to keep the economy moving.

The financial markets have responded well to this latest move, with the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P all up more than 3.5% today.

The other positive aspect of this move is that, unlike a broad interest rate cut, this strategic bump helps a specific portion of the market without stoking the fear of increased inflation.

Finally, to its credit, the Fed is being pro-active in addressing issues caused by the sub-prime meltdown and is using every tool in its arsenal to both (hopefully) contain and minimize the long-term impact.

Stay tuned to see how this plays out.