Goldman Sachs(US:GS) Hu Xiu·2025-09-28 12:53Core Viewpoint - Goldman Sachs warns that the risk of a "re-acceleration" of the U.S. economy is rising, which could lead to a significantly different monetary policy path by 2026 [1] Group 1: Economic Indicators - The U.S. economy is showing strong performance across multiple key indicators, with Goldman Sachs' U.S. Macro Surprise Index recently surging and initial jobless claims data being encouraging [2] - Goldman Sachs' Global Investment Research (GIR) expects the U.S. GDP growth rate for Q3 to reach a healthy 2.6% on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, providing strong support for growth in the first half of next year [2] Group 2: Factors Driving Economic Re-acceleration - Key factors contributing to the risk of economic re-acceleration include: - Loose financial conditions characterized by strong performance of risk assets, expectations of future rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and a weaker dollar [3] - Anticipated positive fiscal policy impulses in the first half of next year, along with continued capital expenditure in the artificial intelligence sector [3] - A solid consumer base in the U.S. and the impact of deregulation [3][4] Group 3: Monetary Policy Path - The monetary policy path for 2025 and 2026 presents a starkly different scenario, heavily influenced by the new Federal Reserve chair's policy inclinations [5] - Current statements from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicate that recent job growth is below the "breakeven" level, suggesting a potential normalization of policy rates closer to neutral levels (3%-3.5% range) [6] - Goldman Sachs' baseline scenario anticipates rate cuts of 25 basis points in both October and December of this year [6] Group 4: Market Reactions to Policy Expectations - If the market expects the policy rate to remain low (indicating the Fed will not effectively tighten policy), the appropriate trades would be to go long on longer-dated breakeven inflation rates, gold, and continue holding risk assets [8] - Conversely, if the market believes the Fed will respond to economic re-acceleration by tightening policy, the U.S. Treasury yield curve should steepen [9] - The current SFRM6/M8 spread, which measures mid-term rate expectations for 2026, is hovering around flat (currently -5 basis points), indicating that the market has not fully priced in rate hike risks [10] - In this scenario, the 2-year and 10-year Treasury yield curve (2s10s) is also expected to steepen [11]