In one of the quietest trading periods of the market year, while many investors and traders are lolling on the beach or hiking in the mountains, the U.S. Treasury 10-year-2-year yield spread inverted again. Consequently, all eyes are on the Sept. 18 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. As of Friday, the 10-year yield was 1.50% and the 2-year at 1.50%.

Meanwhile, the economic data keeps arriving that again points up the conundrum for the Federal Reserve Board and its chairman, Jerome Powell. According to the Commerce Dept., the economy is growing with support from the U.S. consumer. It revised down slightly its estimate of overall second-quarter economic growth to an annual rate of 2.0% in the second quarter, compared with the previous estimate of a 2.1% rise.

Corporate profits rose 4.8% from the prior quarter, the department said, which followed a 1.5% drop in both the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter of 2018. It was the largest quarterly rise since the first quarter of 2018, just after the corporate tax overhaul became law. Additionally, personal-consumption expenditures, a measure of household spending, increased 0.6% in July from June.

Not gangbusters growth, but this is problematic for the Fed, as it grapples with perhaps having to lower interest ...

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