Good Thursday morning. Following two strong days of trading (Monday, Tuesday), futures were solidly higher yesterday morning and then the reality of J Powells approaching presser began to set in. After all, Powell has the worst track record of stock market performance (on Fed presser day) of any Fed Chair in history. At 2PM the FOMC statement came out…no real surprises there (FFR left unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%, with one dissent)…but the minute Powell began to speak the markets began to move lower.

At the outset, Powells intent was clear;  say “oil shock” and "energy shock” as many times as possible , while continuing to blame "Trumps tariffs" for stubborn levels of inflation. If you know Powell and his dislike of Trump, you recognized that his scripted message was engineered to kneecap the administration while pretending neutrality. Classic Fed sabotage.

If I was in the room I would have asked Powell this question (because no one else did); “when Biden was president in 2022, oil...