Top News Headlines Hillary debates aging hippie Sanders and some other guy. Dell to buy EMC in biggest tech deal ever, assuming bond market is agreeable. Walmart earnings take a dive, stock follows. Gold turns positive for the year. Economic News China trade figures disappoint. US PPI and CPI both negative on the month. Inflation? What inflation? Retail sales up [...]
An interesting side benefit of the Fed having pegged interest rates effectively to zero and having accomplished so little with QE, is that we get to see markets' self-correcting tendency. Consider what has happened over the last year or so since the Fed made it clear their goal was to start normalizing policy, i.e. raise interest rates. As I've pointed [...]
Top News Headlines Russia, Iran surge into Syria; Obama blusters Obama signs stop gap funding bill; vows to veto any more short term extensions over debt limit. Hurricane Joaquin tracks up US east coast; Trump vows to deport if makes landfall. Education Secretary Aren Duncan steps down having accomplished nothing. Economic News Employment gains fading, unemployment rate steady, no wage [...]
If the consequences for the economy were less important one couldn't help but be amused by the predicament in which Janet Yellen finds herself today. She and her fellow Fed travelers have been "preparing" the market for a rate hike for nearly a year and now it is that very preparation that has kept them from hiking rates as planned. [...]
Well, thank goodness that's over. The Fed met last week and decided to maintain the Fed funds rate in the 0 - 0.25% range in which it has been confined since the great financial crisis of 2008. Of course, the fed funds market is essentially kaput having been usurped by the Fed itself during the crisis so the rate charged [...]
Top News Headlines Pope visits Cuba, Raul Castro praises pontiff's focus on climate change, inequality. Migrant influx to Europe continues. Republicans debate. Fiorina gains traction, Trump still center of attention. Stocks fall on growth worries, gold rallies. AB Inbev offers to buy SAB Miller. Economic News Fed chickens out, keeps rates unchanged. Hewlett Packard to cut another 30,000 jobs. Manufacturing [...]
Top News Headlines BIS Quarterly Report: China slowdown, strong and rising dollar threaten emerging markets. European migrant crisis continues; Germany tightens border security. Stocks rally 2% ahead of Fed meeting. Apple unveils new products Economic News Brazil's debt rating cut to junk. IMF adds its name to very long list of Keynesians begging Yellen to hold off on rate hikes. [...]
Economic Reports Scorecard – 8/31/15 to 9/11/15 The majority of the reports from the last two weeks were worse than expected but the overall view of the economy hasn't changed much. Manufacturing, with the exception of autos, continues to struggle and the majority of the pain is centered in the oil patch as evidenced by the awful Dallas Fed report. [...]
That's the question everyone is asking these days. Will the Fed go ahead and raise interest rates at their next meeting? Or is the economy still so soft they don't dare derail what recovery we've managed to attain? Was last week's employment report good enough to keep the Fed on track to do what they seem to think they need [...]
Top News Headlines Migrant crisis grips Europe. China finds a way to stop market from falling; trading suspended for parade. US stocks resume slide, down 3.4% for the week. ECB contemplates new round of QE. Markets shrug. Economic News Mixed employment report confuses rate hike calculus. Manufacturing still weak. Chicago PMI, Dallas Fed survey, ISM manufacturing all less than expected. [...]
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