Now that an October taper is out of the question, bored investors, in a world in which fundamentals no longer matter, are looking forward to the next possible FOMC meetings and potential taper announcement dates, with three specific dates sticking out: December/January, which are really one cluster, and June, as possible announcement dates. Why are these dates important: because while a September tapering announcement would have resulted in a $4 trillion final Fed balance sheet (assuming the tapering proceeded to a full QE halt) before even more QE was unleashed, any subsequent taper dates imply a nice round number to the final Fed balance sheet at the end of 2014: either $4.5 trillion, assuming a January 2014 taper, or $5 trillion if the Fed waits until June to announce a tapering.
This can be seen on the following chart from Bank of America.
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BofA commentary:
Markets will be especially focused on the discussion around the timing and conditions of tapering. Our Chart of the day illustrates three scenarios, the first of which is a useful reference despite not actually happening: a September 2013 start to tapering that follows the June “framework” laid out by Chairman Ben Bernanke for a mid-2014 end to asset buying. In that case, the Fed’s asset holdings would have grown to around US$4tn. A January start and a slower pace of unwind results in nearly US$4.5tn in Fed assets, while a June start (and similar slow pace to conclude) yields nearly US$5tn. Those are sizable differences.
Another way of seeing the change in market expectations, is the following chart which shows what the current tapering path looks like.
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There is of course an increasingly likely third possibility: forget $4.5 or $5 trillion - with increasing chatter of a Fed that is prepared to unleash NGDP targeting, or as it is better known without its technical term: even more turbo printing in an attempt to unanchor future 2% inflation expectations, the Fed's balance sheet may just grow forever and ever.
And with every passing day in which the Fed demonstrates a complete lack of concern about the collapsing pool of high quality collateral which the Fed monetizes at an ever faster daily net basis, this becomes the most probable outcome.