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The year in sport: A fond farewell for some, a glimpse of the future for others | CNN

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The year in sport: A fond farewell for some, a glimpse of the future for others | CNN



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An athlete, former jockey AP McCoy said earlier this 12 months, is the one one who dies twice, such is the ache of strolling away from the intoxicating, all-consuming nature {of professional} sport.

McCoy retired from his lengthy, embellished racing profession in 2015, and since then has needed to be taught, in his personal phrases, the way to “begin once more and have one other life.”

Based mostly on the previous 12 months, there are some notable sports activities stars who may need been listening additional carefully to McCoy’s expertise of retirement – or certainly to anybody else who has spoken candidly concerning the issue of ending a profitable sporting profession.

Amongst them is Roger Federer, who known as time on his trophy-laden tennis profession on the Laver Cup in September after years spent making an attempt to get well from two knee surgical procedures.

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Within the letter saying his retirement, Federer, like McCoy, alluded to the heightened feelings of being an expert athlete and the way they make saying goodbye so arduous.

“I’ve laughed and cried, felt pleasure and ache, and most of all I’ve felt extremely alive,” Federer wrote. “To the sport of tennis,” he signed off the letter, “I really like you and can by no means go away you.”

These remaining phrases had been reassuring for followers who’ve admired Federer’s profession for thus a few years, but in addition spoke to a different subject: particularly, of how arduous it may be to stroll away solely from skilled sport after retirement.

It stays to be seen precisely how Federer will stay concerned in tennis shifting ahead, and the identical might be stated of Serena Williams, who introduced she would “evolve away from tennis” forward of this 12 months’s US Open – however refused to say she was retiring.

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On a number of events over the previous three months, the 23-time grand slam champion has even teased followers a few potential return to tennis.

At the 2022 US Open, Serena Williams lost to Australian Ajla Tomlijanovic in the third round.

Whereas Federer and Williams have stepped away from their careers as two of the best athletes of all time, different sports activities stars can’t appear to determine when, or how, to stroll away.

Heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has yo-yoed out and in of retirement this 12 months, saying in October that he’s discovering it “actually arduous to let this factor go.”

And earlier this 12 months, Tom Brady introduced he can be retiring from the NFL, leaving the game as a seven-time Tremendous Bowl champion and arguably the best quarterback of all time. the 45-year-old then reversed that call and continues to be breaking information with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout his twenty third season within the NFL.

Nonetheless in September, Brady and Gisele Bündchen introduced they had been to divorce after 13 years of marriage.

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“I believe there may be quite a lot of professionals in life that undergo issues that they cope with at work they usually cope with at house,” the Bucs quarterback stated on his weekly podcast just a few days the couple’s divorce announcement.

“Clearly, the excellent news is it’s a really amicable scenario, and I’m actually targeted on two issues: taking good care of my household, and definitely my youngsters, and secondly doing the perfect job I can to win soccer video games. That’s what professionals do.”

Tom Brady flip-flopped on retiring.

Brady has redefined what most believed to be the typical shelf-life of an athlete, and he’s not the one particular person refusing to let the sunshine dim on his profession.

LeBron James is about to show 38 however continues to be setting information within the NBA – in February passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for essentially the most mixed common season and postseason factors in NBA historical past.

Federer’s rivals Rafael Nadal, 36, and Novak Djokovic, 35, in the meantime, have added to their grand slam tallies this 12 months – the Mallorcan on the Australian Open and French Open, the place he grew to become the oldest males’s singles champion, and the Serbian at Wimbledon. Djokovic’s Wimbledon triumph moved him to inside one grand slam title of Nadal’s males’s file of twenty-two.

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Having been deported from Australia over his vaccination standing at first of the 12 months, Djokovic is ready to compete on the Australian Open at first of 2023 – a match he has gained on 9 earlier events and is favourite to win once more subsequent 12 months off the again of his latest ATP Finals victory.

For Nadal, his future within the sport rests on the quantity of pressure his injury-ravaged physique can proceed to resist.

In golf, Tiger Woods faces comparable questions. The 15-time main champion accomplished a surprising return from severe leg accidents suffered in a automotive crash at this 12 months’s Masters, scoring a outstanding one-under 71 at Augusta Nationwide earlier than making the reduce the next day.

Then there’s sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who turns 36 later this month however has proven no indicators of slowing down. The Jamaican produced a string of persistently quick performances this 12 months, operating underneath 10.7 seconds for the 100 meters a file seven occasions and claiming her fifth world championship title over the gap in July.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce celebrates winning the women's 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in  Eugene, Oregon, in July.

And it’s not simply athletes who’ve defied the decision of retirement this 12 months. In November, 73-year-old Dusty Baker grew to become the oldest ever supervisor to win the World Sequence when he guided the Houston Astros to a 4-2 victory in opposition to the Philadelphia Phillies.

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Most of the athletes who stole the headlines in 2022 have been doing so for years.

Nobody is certain the place an getting old Cristiano Ronaldo will play his membership soccer in January after ending his second spell at Manchester United in ignominious style, however the 37-year-old nonetheless seems to be set on extending his taking part in profession after Portugal’s quarterfinal exit from the World Cup.

His rival Lionel Messi, in the meantime, ended the 12 months on a sensational excessive, guiding Argentina to a 3rd World Cup trophy. The 35-year-old Messi scored twice in an absorbing remaining in opposition to France and at last received his palms on the World Cup on the fifth time of asking, additional staking his declare as the sport’s best ever participant.

That hasn’t been the one latest occasion of a longtime celebrity profitable silverware. In final season’s NBA Finals, Steph Curry guided the Golden State Warriors to a fourth championship title in eight seasons – within the course of selecting up his first Finals MVP award because the Warriors beat the Boston Celtics.

In baseball, in the meantime, Aaron Decide loved a season for the ages. The 30-year-old outfielder, who has reportedly simply signed a nine-year, $360 million cope with the New York Yankees, hit 62 house runs final season, breaking Roger Maris’ single-season American League (AL) house run file from 1961.

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On Wednesday, the Yankees named Decide, the reigning AL MVP, because the sixteenth captain within the franchise’s historical past.

Judge (left) hit a record-breaking 62 home runs last season.

However at the same time as acquainted faces have continued to shine, the previous 12 months has additionally seen future stars emerge.

The 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz ends the 12 months because the youngest No. 1 within the historical past of the lads’s tennis having triumphed on the US Open, and within the girls’s sport, Iga Swiatek, who rose to No. 1 on the earth following Ashleigh Barty’s resolution to retire after profitable the Australian Open, seems to be set to dominate for years to come back.

This 12 months, the 21-year-old Swiatek gained her second grand slam title on the French Open – which got here in the midst of a 37-match profitable streak – and her third on the US Open.

In Components One, Max Verstappen has cemented his place as the perfect driver within the sport, comfortably defending his world title with 4 races to spare, whereas Erling Haaland, considered among the best strikers in European soccer, has been scoring objectives at a record-breaking fee throughout his first season at Manchester Metropolis.

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There was no stopping Max Verstappen this year.

On the Winter Olympics in Beijing, then-18-year-old freestyle skier Eileen Gu stole the headlines, profitable two gold medals and a silver for the host nation; she additionally grew to become the primary freestyle skier to earn three medals at a single Olympics.

One other teenager, determine skater Kamila Valieva, had a memorable Video games for various causes. The 16-year-old examined optimistic for trimetazidine, a coronary heart remedy, in December 2021, however the outcome didn’t come to mild till Valieva was already in Beijing and had gained gold within the determine skating workforce occasion.

In that competitors, she grew to become the primary girl to land a quadruple leap – which entails 4 spins within the air – on the Winter Olympics.

The end result from the optimistic take a look at stays unresolved, and in November, the World Anti-Doping Company referred Valieva’s case to the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport after deeming the Russian Anti-Doping Company had made no progress.

Eileen Gu performs a trick during the women's freestyle freeski halfpipe final at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forged a shadow over a lot of this 12 months’s sporting calendar.

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Athletes and groups from Russia and Belarus had been banned from competitions throughout numerous sports activities, together with qualification video games for this 12 months’s World Cup and participation at Wimbledon.

The choice from Wimbledon was maybe the strongest stance taken by a sports activities group, ensuing within the ATP and WTA Excursions eradicating rating factors from this 12 months’s match.

Initially of the battle, many Ukrainian athletes – like skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych and MMA fighter Yaroslav Amosov – opted to place their careers on maintain and help the nation’s army efforts.

Boxer Oleksandr Usyk has additionally spoken passionately about serving his nation, and within the ring has prolonged his undefeated file, beating Anthony Joshua in August to retain his WBA (Tremendous), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles.

Oleksandr Usyk lands a punch on Anthony Joshua during their

All through 2022, sport and geopolitics have been carefully entwined. This month, WNBA star Brittney Griner returned house to the US having been detained in Russia for almost 10 months on drug smuggling prices.

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Regardless of her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the hashish oil that was present in her baggage, Griner was sentenced to 9 years in jail in early August and was moved to a penal colony within the Mordovia republic in mid-November after dropping her enchantment.

The 32-year-old’s arrest in Russia sparked diplomatic drama between the US and the Kremlin which performed out alongside Russia’s battle in Ukraine.

She was launched in a prisoner swap that concerned Russian arms supplier Viktor Bout. The alternate, nevertheless, didn’t embrace one other American that the State Division has declared wrongfully detained, Paul Whelan.

Brittney Griner is seen getting off a plane in an undated photo posted to her Instagram.

Maybe no sport has been as gripped by inner politics this 12 months as a lot as golf, which was rocked by the launch of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf sequence in June.

LIV Golf has been criticized by among the sport’s main gamers – together with Woods and Rory McIlroy – whereas others – main champions Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson – have deserted the PGA Tour in favor of the profitable, breakaway sequence.

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It has left the game divided. Earlier this 12 months, LIV Golf joined an antitrust lawsuit alongside a few of its gamers, alleging that the PGA Tour threatened to put lifetime bans on gamers who take part within the LIV Golf sequence.

The go well with additionally alleges that the PGA Tour has threatened sponsors, distributors, and brokers to coerce gamers into abandoning alternatives to play in LIV Golf occasions.

The PGA Tour filed a countersuit in late September, claiming “tortious interference with the Tour’s contracts with its members.”

The LIV Golf sequence is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) – a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the person who a US intelligence report named as chargeable for approving the operation that led to the 2018 homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi’s homicide.

LIV Golf’s launch is a part of Saudi Arabia’s wider ambition to host and put money into international sports activities occasions. This 12 months, it staged the rematch between Usyk and Joshua and even gained a bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Video games.

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However unquestionably, essentially the most outstanding sporting occasion held within the Gulf area this 12 months has been the World Cup in Qatar.

The four-week-long match got here to an exhilarating conclusion on Sunday as Argentina lifted the trophy, bringing down the curtain on what FIFA president Gianni Infantino argued was the best World Cup of all time.

There have been upsets, high-scoring video games, and sensible objectives all through – proper as much as Sunday’s showpiece when Messi reigned supreme and Kylian Mbappé scored a surprising hat-trick in a dropping trigger.

The match between Argentina and France at Qatar 2022 is being viewed as the greatest ever World Cup final.

It was the primary time a rustic within the Center East had hosted the World Cup, and Qatar, which has a inhabitants of simply three million individuals, invested billions of {dollars} in constructing seven new stadiums, in addition to new accommodations and expansions to the nation’s airport, rail networks and highways.

The match was additionally fraught with controversy, significantly when it got here to allegations surrounding the nation’s poor human rights file and therapy of migrant staff.

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Since 2010, many migrant staff in Qatar have confronted delayed or unpaid wages, compelled labor, lengthy hours in scorching climate, employer intimidation, and an lack of ability to depart their jobs due to the nation’s sponsorship system, human rights organizations have discovered.

Within the face of such criticism, Qatar has maintained it’s an open, tolerant nation and has seen the World Cup as a car to speed up labor reforms.

Elsewhere in worldwide soccer, England gained the Ladies’s European Championships for the primary time in entrance of a file crowd on house soil, whereas Senegal claimed the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title in February, additionally for the primary time.

Outdoors worldwide competitions, Actual Madrid gained its 14th European crown by defeating Liverpool within the Champions League remaining – a sport that was marred by safety points.

Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in this year's Champions League final in Paris.

The match itself was delayed by greater than 35 minutes after Liverpool followers struggled to enter the Stade de France and tear fuel was utilized by French police in the direction of supporters held in tightly packed areas.

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Paris police chief Didier Lallement admitted in June that the chaos was “clearly a failure” and stated he takes “full duty for police administration” of the occasion.

Tragically, soccer has witnessed a number of severe stadium disasters this 12 months. In October, greater than 130 individuals had been killed in a stampede within the Indonesian metropolis of Malang – one of many world’s deadliest stadium disasters of all time.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo later stated the nation would demolish and rebuild the stadium, vowing to “totally remodel” the game within the football-mad nation.

Players and officials from Arema Football Club gather to pray on the pitch for victims of the stampede at Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang.

A stadium crush within the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé throughout this 12 months’s AFCON additionally noticed at the least eight individuals killed and 38 injured in the course of the sport between Cameroon and Comoros.

Waiting for 2023, Australia and New Zealand is scheduled to host the Ladies’s World Cup in July and August.

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The US Ladies’s Nationwide Crew (USWNT) might grow to be the primary workforce to win the match 3 times in a row.

This 12 months, america Soccer Federation (USSF), the USWNT’s Gamers Affiliation (USWNTPA) and america Nationwide Soccer Crew Gamers Affiliation (USNSTPA) cast a landmark equal pay deal – the primary federation on the earth to equalize prize cash awarded to the groups for collaborating in World Cups.

Subsequent 12 months would be the first time the USWNT has performed a significant match underneath such a deal.

Among the many different main sporting occasions being held subsequent 12 months are the World Athletics Championshps in Budapest, Hungary, and the Rugby World Cup in France.

Within the NFL, Tremendous Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona is barely weeks away, whereas the NBA Playoffs start two months later in April.

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With the lads’s World Cup over, membership soccer resumes in Europe and tennis’ first grand slam of the 12 months, the Australian Open, begins on January 16.

For sports activities followers, that may hopefully function tonic to stave off the January blues.

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Video: Heavy Rains and Wind Wreak Havoc on the West Coast

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Video: Heavy Rains and Wind Wreak Havoc on the West Coast

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Heavy Rains and Wind Wreak Havoc on the West Coast

A series of atmospheric rivers has caused flooding and damage in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people.

It just crashed through the front of the house, crashed through the kitchen, and it broke the whole ridge beam. The whole peak of the house is just crushed.

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How long will Trump’s honeymoon with the stock market last?

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How long will Trump’s honeymoon with the stock market last?

Few were surprised when US stocks jumped after Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election. Amid widespread assumptions of weeks of uncertainty, a clear result was always likely to prompt an initial relief rally. More unexpected was what has happened since.

The president-elect has nominated a string of hardliners to senior positions, signalling his intent to push ahead with a radical agenda to enact sweeping tariffs and deport millions of illegal immigrants that many economists warn would cause inflation and deficits to spiral upward.

Yet the stock market — the economic barometer most closely watched by the general public, and one often referenced by Trump himself — seems to have shown little sign of concern.

The S&P 500, Wall Street’s benchmark index for large stocks, is still up about 3 per cent since the vote, even after a slight pullback. The main index of small cap stocks is up almost 5 per cent.

The relative cost of borrowing for large companies has also plummeted to multi-decade lows, and speculative assets such as bitcoin have surged.

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Under the surface, not every part of the stock market has been so calm. A Citi-created index of stocks that may be vulnerable to government spending cuts, for example, has tumbled 8 per cent since the election, while healthcare stocks have been hit by the nomination of vaccine sceptic Robert Kennedy Jr to head the health department.

The prospect of inflation arising from tariffs and a tighter labour market has also spooked many in the $27tn Treasury market, with some high-profile groups warning about over-exuberance.

But the contrasting signals raise some key questions for traders and policymakers alike: are equity investors setting themselves up for a fall by ignoring high valuations and potential downsides of Trumponomics, or will they be proved right as gloomy economists once again have to walk back their dire prognoses?

“Any time . . . you get to the point where markets are beyond priced to perfection, you have to be concerned about complacency”, says Sonal Desai, chief investment officer at Franklin Templeton Fixed Income.

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But, she adds, “the reality is you also need to very actively look for triggers for sell-offs, and right now . . . I think the underlying economy is strong and the policies of the incoming administration are unlikely to move that significantly.”


The bull case was on full display at the Wynn resort in Las Vegas this week, where more than 800 investors, bankers and executives were gathered for Goldman Sachs’ annual conference for “innovative private companies”.

With interest rates now trending downward, capital markets specialists had already been preparing for a recovery in stock market listings and mergers and acquisitions activity, but the election result has poured fuel on the fire.

Walter Lundon, a trader, shows off his pro-Trump T-shirt on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
Walter Lundon, a trader, shows off his pro-Trump T-shirt on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Investors believe Trump will follow through on pledges to cut taxes and regulation © Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress in addition to the White House, investors are assuming that it will be easy for the Trump administration to fulfil promises to slash corporate taxes and scale back regulation. At the same time, more contentious proposals such as the introduction of tariffs were frequently dismissed by attendees as a “negotiating tactic”.

David Solomon, Goldman chief executive, said at the conference: “The market is basically saying they think the new administration will bring [regulation] back to a place where it’s more sensible.”

One hedge fund manager in attendance sums up the atmosphere more bluntly. “There are lots of giddy investors here getting excited about takeout targets,” he says. “M&A is now a real possibility because of the new administration. That’s been the most exciting [element of Trump’s proposals] . . . I think the mood is better than it’s been in the past four years.”

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The emphasis on tax and deregulation is clear when looking at which sectors have been the biggest winners in the recent market rally: financial services and energy.

The S&P 500 financials sub-index has jumped almost 8 per cent since the vote, while the energy sub-index is up almost 7 per cent. Energy executives have celebrated the president-elect’s pledges to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and open up federal lands for fracking in pursuit of US “energy dominance”.

The Russell 2000 index, which measures small cap companies, has also risen faster than the S&P thanks to its heavy weighting towards financial stocks, and a belief that smaller domestically focused companies have more to gain from corporate tax cuts.

Chris Shipley, co-chief investment officer at Fort Washington Investment Advisors, which manages about $86bn, says that “we believe the market has acted rationally since the election”, citing the concentration of gains in areas that could benefit from trends such as deregulation and M&A.

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Even policies that most mainstream economists think would have a negative effect overall — like a sharp increase in tariffs — could ironically boost the relative appeal of US stocks by hitting other countries even harder.

The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index, for example, has slipped since the election as investors bet the export-dependent region will be heavily hit by any increase in trade tensions. At the same time, the euro has dipped to a two-year low against the dollar.

“The ‘America First’ policy, not surprisingly, will be good for the US versus the rest of the world,” says Kay Herr, US chief investment officer for JPMorgan Asset Management’s global fixed income, currency and commodities team.


The worry among economists and many bond investors, however, is that Trump’s policies could create broader economic problems that would eventually be hard for the stock market to ignore.

Some of Trump’s policies, such as corporate tax cuts, could boost domestic growth. But with the economy already in a surprisingly robust state despite years of worries about a potential recession, some like former IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard fear an “overheating” that would lead to a resurgence in inflation and a subsequent slowdown.

A shale gas well drilling site in Pennsylvania
A shale gas well drilling site in Pennsylvania. The incoming Trump administration is expected to open up federal lands for fracking in pursuit of US ‘energy dominance’ © Keith Srakocic/AP

Demand-driven inflation could be exacerbated by supply-side pressures if Trump follows through with some of his more sweeping policy pledges.

On the campaign trail, Trump proposed a baseline 10 per cent import tariff on all goods made outside the US, and 60 per cent if they are made in China. Economists generally agree that the cost of tariffs falls substantially on the shoulders of consumers in the country enacting them. Walmart, the largest retailer in the US, warned this week it might have to raise prices if tariffs are introduced.

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Deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, meanwhile, would remove a huge source of labour from the US workforce, driving up wages and reducing the capacity of US companies to supply goods and services.

Economists at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank both predicted this week that Trump’s policies would drag on GDP growth by 2026, and make it harder for the Federal Reserve to bring inflation back to its 2 per cent target.

Tom Barkin, president of the Richmond Fed and a voting member on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, says he understands concerns among the business community about tariffs reigniting inflation, and says the US was “somewhat more vulnerable to cost shocks” than in the past.

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But some investors believe the risks to be minimal. “In our view, the inflationary concerns . . . regarding tariffs are overblown,” says Shipley of Fort Washington.

Fed policymakers have been quick to stress that they will not prejudge any potential policies before they have been officially announced, but bond investors have already scaled back their forecasts for how much the central bank will be able to cut interest rates over the next year.

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Interest rate futures are now pricing in a fall in Fed rates to roughly 4 per cent by the end of 2025, from the current level of 4.5-4.75 per cent. In September, investors were betting they would fall below 3 per cent by then.

Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which rises when prices fall, is up about 0.8 percentage points since mid-September to 4.4 per cent. As a consequence, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage is also ticking upward, to near 7 per cent.

“The bond market has been very focused on deficits and fiscal expansion, and the equity market has been focused, it seems, on deregulation and the growth aspect,” says JPMorgan’s Herr. But “at some point, a higher [Treasury yield] is problematic to equities”.

In part, that is because higher bond yields represent an alternative source of attractive returns at much lower risk than stocks. But the more important impact could come from the warning signal a further increase in yields would represent.

The rise in yields is being driven by concerns both about inflation and also higher government debt levels, says Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “2024 marks the first year in which the US spends more to service its debt than it spends on its entire defence budget. And that’s not sustainable in my opinion over the longer term, and so we have to worry about the potential for a mini Liz Truss moment.”

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Former UK prime minister Truss’s attempt to introduce billions of pounds of unfunded tax cuts and increased borrowing in 2022 caused a massive sell-off in British government debt that spilled into currency and equity markets.

Demonstrators in New York protests against Trump’s immigration proposals
Demonstrators in New York protest against Trump’s immigration proposals. His plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants would remove a large chunk from the US workforce © Michael Nigro/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

The structure and scale of the US Treasury market makes this sort of “bond vigilantism” less likely, strategists and investors stress, but many institutions have begun paying more attention to the possibility.

“Over the next two to four years, do I think that there’s a very serious risk of bond vigilantes coming back? Absolutely. And that’s entirely based on what the multiyear plan will be, and the impact which comes out of it,” says Franklin Templeton’s Desai.


Trump and his advisers have dismissed concerns about their economic agenda, arguing that policies such as encouraging the domestic energy sector will help keep inflation low and growth high.

Even if they do not, several investors in Las Vegas this week suggested that the president-elect’s personal preoccupation with the stock market would help restrain him from the most potentially damaging policies.

“I think Trump and all his donors measure their success and happiness around where the US stock market is,” says the hedge fund manager. “It’s one reason why I’m pretty bullish despite the market being where it is.”

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Economists have also consistently underestimated the resilience of the US economy in recent years. The combination of Trump’s attentiveness and economists’ poor past forecasting means even sceptical investors are wary of betting against the US market.

“There are risks out there,” says Colin Graham, head of multi-asset strategies at Robeco. “If some of the more extreme policies that were talked about during the campaign get implemented, our core view for next year is going to be wrong.

“But what is our biggest risk here? Missing out on the upside. The momentum is very strong.”

Data visualisation by Keith Fray and Chris Giles

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Can Matt Gaetz return to Congress? He says he won’t.

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Can Matt Gaetz return to Congress? He says he won’t.

Gaetz not returning to Congress

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Gaetz on not returning to Congress after dropping out of Trump attorney general consideration

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Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida says he doesn’t intend to return to Congress in January, after resigning from his seat and withdrawing from consideration as U.S. attorney general. 

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Gaetz announced his withdrawal Thursday, citing the distraction his impending nomination was causing, and President-elect Donald Trump soon afterward said former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi would be his new pick for the job. But Gaetz won reelection to his U.S. House seat earlier this month, so there were some questions about whether he was considering a return to Congress in January. 

But Gaetz told conservative personality Charlie Kirk on Friday that he doesn’t intend to go back to Congress, though he vowed to continue to fight for Trump and do “whatever he asks of me.”

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch,” Gaetz told Kirk. “I do not intend to join the 119th Congress. … Charlie, I’ve been in an elected office for 14 years. I first got elected to the state house when I was 26 years old, and I’m 42 now, and I’ve got some other goals in life that I’m eager to pursue with my wife and my family, and so I’m going to be fighting for President Trump. I’m going to be doing whatever he asks of me, as I always have. But I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress.”

But it may not be the end of his political career. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, first elected in 2018, will not be running again in 2026, since he’s limited by law to two terms as the state’s chief executive. 

Gaetz stepped down from Congress as the House Ethics Committee was weighing whether to release the report from its yearslong investigation into sexual misconduct and illegal drug use allegations. The committee lacked sufficient votes to release the report earlier this week but will, according to Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, reconvene on Dec. 5 to “further consider” the matter. 

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