The Wall Street Journal – OPEC’s Foil: It Can’t Drain Enough Stored Oil “The production deal was a risky maneuver by OPEC,” said Antoine Halff, senior researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “By choosing a storage target, they set themselves up for failure.” Almost six months after OPEC’s 13 members and 11… Continue reading Crude Oil Inventories
Bloomberg – Low Volatility Raises Paranoia Over Leverage in the Quant Fund World Low returns cause funds to add leverage or find new factors The pain of an almost paralyzed stock market has seeped its way into the money machine of equity quants, raising anxiety levels among analysts who say they’ve seen this movie before. It’s… Continue reading The Agony of Low Volatility
CNBC – Even at its massive size, Apple may be under-owned by investors The world’s largest company by market value may still be under-owned by investors. Apple is crushing the market this year. The company’s stock is up 32 percent year-to-date through Friday compared with the S&P 500’s 6 percent return in the same time period,… Continue reading Is Apple Underowned?
Bloomberg View – Zachary Karabell: The Real Problem With Productivity Is Measuring It Even those who acknowledge some underestimation of productivity tend to argue that if you added back some amount for the hard-to-quantify effects of the digital revolution, you still wouldn’t get back to the levels of the 20th century. Perhaps. Or perhaps… Continue reading Measuring Productivity
The Wall Street Journal – ONLY ROBOTS CAN TALLY WHAT THE LARGEST U.S. PENSION FUND PAYS IN FEES The nation’s largest pension plan has 380 people overseeing roughly $320 billion in assets. But when one of its top officials was asked during a board meeting how much in performance fees was paid to private-equity managers, he… Continue reading Algos As Accountants
Bloomberg Business – Bond Bulls Get the Most Hedge-Fund Support Since 2007 Bond traders have seen this story play out time and time again: something pops up that quashes calls for higher interest rates and optimism surrounding the U.S. economy. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists lowered their year-end forecast for 10-year U.S. yields last week,… Continue reading Inflation Expectations Falling
Crain’s Chicago Business – Class-action suit aims to halt Zestimates in Illinois The Zestimates that Zillow posts are misleading and pose as accurate appraisals in violation of Illinois’ legal description of an appraisal, according to the class action complaint filed by three members of the Patel family and Schaumburg-based CastleBldrs.com. They claim homebuyers read the estimate… Continue reading Home Prices And Anchoring
Bloomberg Briefs – ECB’s Balance Sheet Overtakes Federal Reserve’s Ongoing asset purchases by the European Central Bank, combined with the strong euro following the French presidential election, have pushed the size of the ECB’s balance sheet above the Federal Reserve’s. The spread will likely widen over the months ahead, with the ECB unlikely to begin… Continue reading The ECB Overtakes The Fed
The Wall Street Journal – Greek Bonds Would Be A Great Investment, If Anyone Actually Traded Them In theory Greek debt is a good investment, yet there are very few takers, no matter the price Greek debt has been a great investment this year—in theory. The reality is that almost nobody trades it, even… Continue reading Greek Bonds, The Best Trade You Cannot Actually Make
CNBC – This bull market might not be hated, but it still isn’t trusted Investor ambivalence can be glimpsed from a few angles. The monthly Bank of America Merrill Lynch global fund manager survey shows a record percentage of pros see a “just right” investment backdrop of strong growth and low inflation. Yet those calling… Continue reading Bull Markets Climb A Wall Of Worry
The New York Times – Ford, Trudging Into the Future, Ousts Mark Fields as C.E.O. Ford Motor was the American automaker savvy enough to avoid bankruptcy when industry sales collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis. Then it rode economic recovery and cheap gasoline to record sales and profits. But what looks like success can turn upside… Continue reading The Future Of The Auto Industry
The Financial Times – Frontier markets are still unloved Plenty of money has pursued emerging markets this year, not so the outer realm of the investing universe. Flows into frontier markets — countries whose markets are considered to be too small or illiquid to be included in MSCI’s flagship EM Index, such as Argentina, Kuwait,… Continue reading The Sector Of Emerging Markets That Remains Unloved