Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving the needle.
Bond traders aren't waiting for the Fed to tip its hand. With Kevin Warsh at the helm, the central bank has stepped back from forward guidance, and markets have filled that vacuum themselves. By November thirteenth, CME FedWatch was pricing full odds of a December hike, a sharp and self-directed repricing that Wall Street is watching closely.
Shifting to the retail landscape, a seventy-two-year-old hardware store has shuttered as its parent chain loses twelve locations. Rising rents and brutal competition from Home Depot and Lowe's are squeezing independent operators who simply cannot match the pricing power of big-box rivals. When lease negotiations fail, the math becomes unforgiving and the lights go out.
And overnight in New Orleans, a riverboat carrying passengers was struck by a tanker on the river, causing the vessel to tip and begin sinking. Survivor Tamara Carrasco described water rushing in and the ship listing hard, comparing the scene to the Titanic. Authorities are now investigating the collision as rescue operations wind down.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
