DoubleLine's Jeffrey Gundlach says Federal Reserve has lost control

[August 21, 2019]   By Jennifer Ablan

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has lost control of interest rates as evidenced by the federal funds rate trading higher than any part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve, Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital LP, presents during the 2019 Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 6, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

"What else do you need to call it an inversion?" Gundlach said in a telephone interview. "Everyone is parsing all of these little arbitrary things. But we’ve got an inversion."

At around 1.55% and 2.03%, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note and 30-year Treasury bond, respectively, are below the target federal funds rate of 2.25% to 2.5%. The yield on the two-year Treasury note is currently around 1.51%.

Three weeks ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell characterized the U.S. central bank’s first rate cut since 2008 as a “mid-cycle adjustment to policy,” suggesting the move was not the start of a lengthy series of rate cuts.

Gundlach, who oversees more than $140 billion in assets, told Reuters last week that Powell's message to the markets have been inconsistent. He said Powell “can’t put a back-to-back consistent message together. It is different at every single meeting – the mid-cycle adjustment statement is not going to hold up.”

Powell could use the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium on Friday to clarify his stance on whether the Fed is at the beginning of a rate-cutting cycle or just intending to cut a few times as insurance against a possible downturn.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sonya Hepinstall)

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