Citi On Taper: When It Actually Happens, It May Be Yesterday’s News

Markets remain agog with the possibility of the Fed announcing the much maligned ‘taper’ as early as this December. Consider this: On Monday the ISM Manufacturing Index for November came in at 57.3 instead of the consensus estimate of 55.1. Thursday, annualized GDP growth for the third quarter printed at 3.6%, handily beating analysts’ forecasts of 3.1%.  This morning, Non-Farm Payroll data for November showed 203K jobs added against consensus of 185K, while the unemployment rate reported at 7.0% instead of 7.2%. Encouraging economic data that shows the Fed’s massive Quantitative Easing exercise to restore the economy may be nudging…