Federal Reserve officials are considering using reverse repurchase agreements in order to withdraw a part of the $1 trillion the Fed pumped into the economy, according to Bloomberg.
What will this mean for the markets and how should investors prepare for the possible change? Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services, offered CNBC his insights.
"I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Cashin told CNBC.
“It may not be a change or adjustment to monetary policy. It may be the fact that there are billions of dollars in the Treasury supplemental bills that are going to mature in the next couple of days and rather than have it flood the banking system with $100 billion in free reserves, that’s probably why the Fed is doing all that talking about reverse repos.”
Cashin said markets could be dramatically affected for the worse if there were to be a change in policy.
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"I don’t think it’s ready yet and I don’t think any of the observers believe that the economy has shaken off the fragility that could accept any minimalist tightening in there,” he said. “It’s rather tough.”
Meanwhile, General Mills posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strong sales in the U.S. and lower commodity costs. Cashin touched on the consumer outlook.
“If you look at places like Wal-Mart and others, the increases in sales that they’re seeing is basics,” said Cashin. “So that tells you that people can cut back in a lot of areas, but not when it comes to food, usually.”
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Disclosure:
No immediate information was available for Cashin or his firm.
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