, it was only a matter of time before the Fed jumped on the bandwagon and used nCoV-2019 as the latest bogeyman giving Powell free reign to cut rates and/or launch QE5 (as a reminder QE4 which was launched to "fix" the repo market is set to wind down in Q2).

And sure enough, in the latest semi-annual Monetary Policy Report submitted to Congress, the Coronavirus indeed makes a triumphant appearance, with the Fed board warning that the coronavirus outbreak "presented a new risk" to the economic outlook for the U.S. and warned of disruptions in global markets.

Specifically, with "fragilities in the corporate and financial sector" leaving China vulnerable to adverse developments, "because of the size of the Chinese economy, significant distress in China could spill over to U.S. and global markets through a retrenchment of risk appetite, U.S. dollar appreciation, and declines in trade and commodity prices" the Fed warned, adding that "the effects of the coronavirus in China have presented a new risk to the outlook."

In short: if a global virus pandemic is about to halt global growth, the Fed is confident it can fix it by just making money even cheaper and/or printing it outright.