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Investors are weighing whether a pivot away from rising interest rates by the Federal Reserve may come soon, and traders are considering a portfolio pivot of their own with longer-dated bonds. Long-term expectations are reflected in the funds, which are less susceptible to policy changes. And according to Strategas, Treasurys and cash-like bonds have been the two most popular ETF categories ranked by inflows this year. “The rising-rate environment has been the story of the year, and so investors are looking for new tools in their playbook,” Bryon Lake, global head of ETF Solutions at JPMorgan Asset Management, told Bob Pisani on CNBC’s ‘ETF Edge’ on Monday. Read More

Patrick Harker, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, said on Thursday that higher interest rates are insufficient to control inflation, so further increases are needed. “We are going to keep raising rates for a while,” the central bank official said in remarks for a speech in New Jersey. “Given our frankly disappointing lack of progress on curtailing inflation, I expect we will be well above 4% by the end of the year.” It was a reference to the federal funds rate, which is expected to remain between 3% and 3.25 percent for the foreseeable future. Read More

According to Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, a “very, very serious” combination of headwinds will likely cause both the U.S. and global economies to enter a recession by the middle of next year. In an interview with CNBC, Dimon, the CEO of the largest bank in the country, stated that the U.S. economy is “actually still doing well,” and consumers are likely to be in better shape compared to the 2008 financial crisis. “But you can’t talk about the economy without talking about stuff in the future — and this is serious stuff,” Dimon told CNBC’s Julianna Tatelbaum on Monday at the JPM Techstars conference in London. Read More

As central bankers’ hawkish messaging fueled fears of a deeper economic downturn, investors withdrew billions of dollars from U.S. equity funds over the past week. According to strategists at BofA Global Research, citing EPFR Global data in their weekly report, U.S. stock funds recorded their largest weekly outflow in 11 weeks from September 7. The exodus was largely from technology stocks, which booked withdrawals of $1.8 billion. Read More

In response to new guidance from federal health officials, Goldman Sachs said Tuesday it would lift all Covid-19 requirements in most offices beginning September 6. According to a memo received by CNBC on Tuesday, the bank will no longer require its employees to be vaccinated or wear face coverings when entering its offices. The policy covers most offices, except those in Lima and New York City. Read More

Cryptocurrencies opened in a sea of red on Friday morning, and little improvement was seen throughout the day. The price of Bitcoin fell below $21,400 again last week, wiping out its gains from better-than-expected inflation data. Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Blockchain (RIOT), and Hut 8 Mining (HUT) were all down more than 12% on the day. Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) dropped 11.3% by the closing bell as its SEC investigation heats up. And heavy bitcoin investor MicroStrategy (MSTR) saw its stock drop nearly 13% by the end of Friday. In the wake of July’s softer-than-expected CPI data, bitcoin almost reached $25,000 last week. It fell back to $21,300 by early Friday, its lowest level since the end of July, due to Fed plans for continued rate hikes and discussions regarding crypto risk and regulations found in Wednesday’s minutes.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency dragged the rest of the digital asset markets along with it. By Friday afternoon, Ethereum, which is ranked No. 2 by market capitalization, had lost its gains from last week and was trading around $1,700. Despite this, Ethereum has been holding above its July level due to its anticipated merging to a proof-of-stake consensus by the end of this month.