The analysts streaming across my screen last week all had the same opinion - Greece will vote yes, accept Europe's terms and stay in the Euro. Well, as I write this, the early polls prove, if nothing else, that one should beware of experts bearing consensus opinions. According to the headlines at all the major newspapers the Greeks have voted [...]
Our lens suggests that the very low interest rates that have prevailed for so long may not be “equilibrium” ones, which would be conducive to sustainable and balanced global expansion. Rather than just reflecting the current weakness, low rates may in part have contributed to it by fuelling costly financial booms and busts. The result is too much debt, too [...]
The title is a shorthand way of saying that the most recent performance of the economy isn't predictive of the future performance of the stock market. The bottom line is that GDP growth today doesn't necessarily mean stock price growth today - GDP growth and stock returns are not highly correlated. In fact, some analysis suggests that they are negatively [...]
It was a nasty week for investors with almost no place - or at least no logical place - to hide. Of the 16 broad market ETFs I monitor on a daily basis, only one, was higher on the week - IWM, the Russell 2000 small cap ETF. That's what I mean by no logical place to hide. When the [...]
If man is not to do more harm than good in his efforts to improve the social order, he will have to learn that in this, as in all other fields where essential complexity of an organized kind prevails, he cannot acquire the full knowledge which would make mastery of the events possible. He will therefore have to use what [...]
The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Mark Twain Over the last few years I've read a plethora of articles about this supposedly hated bull market in stocks. It is said that this is the most hated bull market in history and while I'd argue with that a bit, it isn't far off the mark. The desire to be [...]
Transitory: 1. tending to pass away; not persistent 2. of brief duration Transitory is the term the FOMC used to describe the factors that held back the US economy in the 1st quarter. With the GDP report coming earlier in the day the FOMC had no choice but to acknowledge the slowdown but as many seem to be doing, they dismissed [...]
US stocks continued their recently more volatile ways this week giving up almost all the gains of last week. In fact, the S&P 500 is now basically flat for the last four months, making no headway since late November despite a series of nominal new highs along the way. As the Fed has backed away from buying assets - assets [...]
So far the heavy buying after yesterday’s FOMC admission has held on the eurodollar curve. Most of the contracts along the curve have only given back a few bps after the 15-25 bps moves everywhere yesterday afternoon. The salient interpretation of trading along these lines is one of deep and abiding concerns over “dollar” liquidity and the economy. With the [...]
Stocks finally took a breather last week, down about 1.5%, mostly due to a downdraft Friday that was "blamed" on a good employment report. Jobs increased by 295k in February and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5% (although that was mostly due to a drop in the participation rate) and that, according to the pundits, means the timeline for a [...]
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