As a member of Wilmington Trust’s Investment Committee, Luke develops forecasts of the U.S. and international economies, as well as researches emerging issues to support and enhance the firm’s investment strategy. Luke is also responsible for communicating the economic outlook and investment strategy to clients and the public.
Prior to joining Wilmington Trust in 2015, Luke was officer and economic advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Earlier in his career, Luke worked as a senior economist at IHS Global Insight and as an economist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Luke holds a master’s degree and PhD in economics from Temple University, and a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from James Madison University. He is a former adjunct faculty member at Temple University and formerly served on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Economic Association. In addition, Luke is a former president of the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics, a chapter of the National Association for Business Economics.
June 20, 2019 – The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged at its meeting this week, but as we expected it would, it hinted that rate cuts may be coming soon. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept an optimistic stance, saying it still expects economic growth to continue, the labor market to remain strong, and for inflation to remain subdued, but that the “uncertainties around this outlook have increased.
May 31, 2019 – On Thursday May 30, President Trump unexpectedly announced new tariffs on imports from Mexico, tying the policy to illegal immigration.
May 2, 2019 – Over the past several months, expectations (and hopes) have been building that the Federal Reserve (Fed) may be moving toward rate cuts in the face of stubbornly low inflation, a move that would likely be helpful to equities. No one really expected the central bank to cut rates this week, but it appears that some investors were hoping for hints that it may be tilting more in that direction, and some apparently read the initial statement as just such a hint.
