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 [...]
It wasn't a pretty week for stocks globally. Almost every major market was down - one prominent exception was Japan - and the minor ones were down more. China experienced a 6.5% hiccup mid-week that everyone seemed to want to see as, at least, the beginning of the end of that bull market so it probably was nothing more than [...]
With Germany’s bond market spooking fixed income all over the world, every rate system has fallen under increasing suspicion. US rates seemed to have bowed to the same ghosts, as the benchmark 10-year treasury rose in yield to an intraday high of around 2.30% last week. That was a sharp increase in only a few days, a trading week, that [...]
Even factoring different sources, there is a decided bi-polar nature to views on Europe’s “recovery.” The slightest deviation from the straight, upward extrapolations of economists is cause for serious self-reflection of Europe internally. That should not be so unexpected, particularly given how economists have completely missed everything since 2007 (anyone remember de-coupling?). But with the ECB’s new QE, there is [...]
I should have known better than to write an article about the possibility of a correction in US stocks. I took a lot of abuse from the bulls this week as the US stock market shrugged off - again, for now - the weak economic data that just keeps coming. That light at the end of the tunnel the Fed [...]
Rhetorically, I wondered yesterday what it was that economists and the media were actually looking at when opining about certain economic topics. That was in relation to German factory orders which are clearly moving in the “wrong” direction, to which that is supposed to be set aside in favor of “sentiment” and the ephemeral “confidence.” Neither of those words really [...]
So far Europe’s QE is having some trouble gaining pace. As of March 13, the ECB reports that €9.7 under the Public Sector Purchase Program has been carried out, or about half the rate that was anticipated. That may come as a shock to those not familiar with the ECB’s heightened action of the past eight months, but it is [...]
France was the latest Eurozone country to announce officially an entrance into negative “inflation.” The French were very cautious, overly it might be said, to assure that such an outcome was not at risk of pushing that economy into “deflation.” Apparently, rigidity in wages from socialism is a factor as an economic buffer, though left unanswered is where such an [...]
With new figures on Japan’s GDP released, it is becoming increasingly clear the disparity between what is supposed to happen and what has actually taken place. The main operative theory by which everything has been supported takes “aggregate demand” literally; in that all demand is essentially a perfect substitute for itself. In other words, monetary theory posits that demand of [...]
The growing appeal toward unease about the terms of Greece’s ongoing strangulation is more than just a simple, fleeting sense of déjà vu. It is exactly the same process only pushed forward three years. At the height of the “last” challenge that began in earnest in 2010, and nearly re-ignited a global bank run (among only banks) for a second [...]
Stay In Touch