The Fed — Once again, the eyes of Wall Street are laser focused on none other than the Federal Reserve. To be fair, they were never really not focused on the Fed, but attention certainly spikes during FOMC meetings like the one that began yesterday.

Tapering and rate hikes have been teased for months now, but market participants largely expect to get some tangible commentary on the subject. Even if a taper isn’t announced, which is broadly anticipated, expectations of Fed policy and actions weigh just as heavily as actual policy and actions. Giving the market a heads up of the game plan going forward allows traders and investors to adjust on the fly, often well before an announced action takes place.

As a result of these expectations, government yield curves around the world have been flattening. As central banks either do, or simply just announce, plans to tighten monetary policy, investors expect government interest rates to begin to rise as they are no longer dragged down by artificial demand. This can bring a mixed bag of outcomes, but as it relates to equity markets, it’s not exactly ideal. Rising rates means fixed income investments look more attractive on a relative basis in addition to increasing the cost of borrowing on companies themselves across the board.

Still, major U.S. indices hit all-time highs once again yesterday, so equity investors clearly aren’t too shook yet. We’ll hear directly from the man himself later this week, and you better believe all of Wall Street will be on the edge of their seats.

EV or BS? — Ford and Amazon don’t have a whole lot in common, but like cordially divorced parents, they’re in it for the kids. The only difference is, the “kids” in question here happen to be a ~$60bn EV company called Rivian — and clearly, Amazon is the preferred parent, retaining a 20% stake while Ford carries 12%.

Many, many more parents will join the party this or next week, as Rivian revs up for its public debut on the Nasdaq. It’s a good time to be an EV stock (shoutout to Tesla), so despite Rivian having minimal sales and lines of business, it’s market cap is already expected to be around that of its own owner, Ford. Based on how the market has behaved lately, I might not even be surprised if Rivian’s market cap reaches that of its other owner, Amazon, pretty damn soon.

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