The end of NIRP seems near/A bunch of company comments

Before I get to a bunch of company stuff, something to watch again in 2024 is the BoJ. While we debate when the Fed and ECB, and maybe others, might cut rates next year, the BoJ is still trying to figure out when to get out of negative rate policy. Bloomberg is reporting today that a few weeks ago the Second Association of Regional Banks in Japan "called on the BoJ to scrap its negative interest rate when executives met with central bank officials last month, according to people familiar with the matter." Rate policy has been a killer of regional bank profitability for many years now. The article said "The request likely served as a fresh reminder for Ueda of the side effects of the world's last subzero rate."

This story was then followed by another interesting story overnight that the Deputy Governor of the BoJ Ryozo Himino in a speech to business people in Japan today and gave a positive spin if they decide raise short term rates. BN reporting on this said "Himino indicated that the first hike since 2007 might not be as harmful as some have feared. Himino said households would probably benefit from improved net income if rates moved to positive territory and the impact on the corporate sector would likely be limited. He also said the financial system is resilient enough to cope with that transition."

Sounds like this could happen sooner rather than later but no market reaction today as yields fell, following the Treasury rally, and the yen is lower. 

The comments from the Amex CEO that saw the stock fall was this, "If you just go back in the 2nd quarter, we had 8% overall billings growth. Third quarter, it came down to 7%. And in October, everybody got a little bit skittish, and I think other people have said the same thing that growth wasn't as strong in October. And we didn't see growth in October like it was in the third quarter." He did say though after that November he saw "sort of what we looked like in the third quarter."