Barclays: From a risk management perspective, the Federal Reserve should end its balance sheet early

Barclays believes the Fed has signalled it can cut interest rates while shrinking its balance sheet, but is recommending an earlier end for risk management reasons. Barclays still expects the Fed to end quantitative tightening in December and the FOMC to announce it in November. "In 2019, reserve scarcity exacerbated an already tight situation in the repo market, driving funding rates up sharply and causing significant disruptions to the Treasury market," Barclays strategist Joseph Abate wrote in a note to clients. "We believe this outweighs the risk of maintaining reserves at slightly higher levels than necessary".