Thursday☕️

02 Nov 2023 — 4 min read

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Markets:

Fed Interest Rates:

Jerome Powell, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, highlighted that the financial stability of consumers and small businesses might have been stronger than initially thought, given their consistent spending patterns. He acknowledged the possibility of having underestimated their financial resilience, although he noted that the nation is yet to return to the savings levels seen before the pandemic.
Addressing the noticeable increase in Treasury yields, Powell clarified that this has not prompted the Federal Reserve to alter its ongoing strategy of scaling down its bond holdings, allowing up to $95 billion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities to mature without reinvestment each month.
He emphasized that this process has only played a minor role in the rise of yields and confirmed that there are no current plans to change the pace of this balance sheet reduction. Looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, Powell mentioned that no decisions have been finalized.
He also mentioned the notion that pausing interest rate hikes for two or three meetings would make it challenging for the central bank to resume rate increases in the future, assuring that the Committee is committed to taking whatever actions necessary to bring inflation to the 2% target (current: 3.7%).

Boeing Hack Threat:

Boeing is currently associated with a situation that involves the LockBit ransomware gang. Up to this point, Boeing has not issued any public announcements regarding the alleged data breach or the ransom demand from LockBit. The information available comes directly from LockBit, which posted a statement on their website claiming responsibility for hacking into Boeing’s systems.
In their message, LockBit demanded a $50 million ransom in Bitcoin, incorporating a countdown timer and stating that the data would be leaked if the ransom was not paid by November 2, 2023. Following the passing of the deadline, Boeing’s name was removed from the list of victims displayed on LockBit’s website, creating an uncertain situation.
This could mean Boeing may have resolved the situation privately, that LockBit’s initial claims were false, or other undisclosed circumstances. To this point, there has been no confirmation or denial of the events from either Boeing or LockBit. The current status of the situation and the validity of the claims made by LockBit remain unclear, with information from both parties pending.

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