Local Financial Expert On Outlook For 2024

If money is on your mind for the new year, we may have some guidance for you. Steve Wyett from BOK Financial joined us to give a broad financial outlook for 2024.

Wednesday, December 27th 2023, 11:53 am

By: News On 6

If money is on your mind for the new year, we may have some guidance for you. Steve Wyett from BOK Financial joined us to give a broad financial outlook for 2024.

What's the general outlook for inflation in 2024?

"The good news is the trend is still lower. We got recent news on the CPI and PPI that inflation is continuing to trend lower. And here just recently, consumers are getting a bit of a break because gasoline prices have been falling. We're anticipating that to continue. Here's the hard part. Inflation coming down doesn't mean prices are going back to where they were. And so consumers are still dealing with the stress that since 2020, the overall CPI on a cumulative basis is still up like 19-percent. So those of us that have been to the grocery store recently, we've just come through the holiday season. We know as we prepared for that. It was a lot more expensive walking out of the grocery store than what it's been for a while. So the good news is, price increases have slowed. We're not looking though, for prices to go back where they were. A total regression would take actual disinflation or even deflation. And that's just not what we're anticipating," Wyett explained.

How are interest rates looking in 2024?

"It does appear that the Fed can stop raising interest rates. We're five and a quarter to five and a half on overnight interest rates. While the Fed was anticipating they might have to go another rate increase, now that looks like that's not going to happen. The market's building some actually lower interest rates as we move into 2024. That's going to be a question mark for us as to just how quickly the Fed can lower interest rates. But we've already seen home mortgages, which at 8-percent have backed off a little bit. But as you mentioned, car loans are higher and credit card interest rates are higher. That's the negative. The positive is investors, if you have cash, have been able to earn higher interest rates on their overnight money market funds, and fixed income investments. And we think that's still where there's some real value out there. But if you want to know how to how to make a 6-percent mortgage look good, start at eight! As it comes back to six all of a sudden," Wyett said.

What does cryptocurrency look like in 2024?

"The crypto markets have been, let's say controversial for a period of time. The ongoing communication around crypto has been to speculate responsibly. The crypto market's remained speculative. The issue that came to the light with SPF and FTX as a company, they trade on unregulated exchanges. That makes the actual trading more risky. Safekeeping is more risky. So the SEC is moving towards a scenario where they're going to increase the regulation that could actually add to the safety of those markets and make them more acceptable from an institutional standpoint. But until that time, crypto remains a speculative asset class. There's nothing wrong with speculation. That's not what's gonna get you in trouble. The size of your bet will get you in trouble as you're speculating," Wyett said.