Nomura Holdings Inc. now expects the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates by 75 basis points at both its June and July meetings, moves that would follow up on an expected 50 basis point hike in May.

“Our U.S. team has changed their Fed call,” Rob Subbaraman, head of global markets research at Nomura, wrote in an email. “They now expect the FOMC to be even more front-loaded with rate hikes, in order to get the funds rate back to neutral as expeditiously as possible to avoid a wage-price spiral.”

The Nomura call comes as Fed officials increasingly ramp up their hawkish views in order to contain soaring inflation. (Bloomberg - Continue Reading)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists expect Corporate America to easily trounce Wall Street’s earnings forecasts.

Consensus earnings estimates for the S&P 500 are “overly pessimistic” for the first quarter and companies in the index are poised to deliver a surprise of 4% to 5% on “better-than-feared margins,” according to a team of JPMorgan strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas and Marko Kolanovic.

In the first quarter, estimates for net-income growth -- excluding the energy sector and the impact of buybacks -- have been revised down to a decline of 1.9% from a year ago and are forecast to be 0.7% lower for the second quarter, the strategists said. (Bloomberg - Continue Reading)

French President Emmanuel Macron has maintained and possibly slightly extended his lead over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen following a prickly television head-to-head debate which he was judged to have won, polls showed on Thursday.

With just three days to go before Sunday's election run-off, the two were back on the campaign trail - Macron in a Paris suburb with a strong left-wing vote, and Le Pen in the north of the country where she has a loyal following.

"Why wait for Macron to step down when, by using your vote, you can fire him?" Le Pen told a rally in the town of Arras in which she urged a "silent majority" opposed to Macron not to facilitate his victory by abstaining. (Reuters - Continue Reading)