CNBC – US rises to the top of the list of major markets with big political risk Political risk for U.S. markets is higher than usual with the uncertainty surrounding the timing of tax reform. The U.S. doesn’t usually rise to the top of the list of major markets with political risk, but with stocks near… Continue reading Political Risk In The U.S.
The Financial Times – Are US Treasury yields truly on the rise? Also in focus is China’s yield curve inversion, the BoE and the pound The 10-year Treasury yield has slowly risen from this year’s nadir of 2.17 per cent set in mid-April and was briefly above 2.40 per cent last week before pulling back… Continue reading Yields On The Rise
The Financial Times – Gavyn Davies: The consequences of shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet There are at least three good reasons for believing that the effects of the run down will be much smaller than the impact of the original QE programme…First, the scale of reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet in the next few… Continue reading Reducing The Fed’s Balance Sheet
The Wall Street Journal – Spencer Jakab: OPEC Should Give Up on Production Cuts Saudi Arabia has led oil-production cuts that have helped U.S. shale to rebound far more quickly than expected The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries deserves a pretty good grade, arguably a B-plus, for its effort to prop up the world oil… Continue reading OPEC’s Production Cuts
Bloomberg – There Are Now More Indexes Than Stocks The number of market indexes now exceeds the number of U.S. stocks. Traditional ones such as the S&P 500 are collections of securities weighted by market value, and index funds mimic them as a low-cost way to deliver the market’s performance. Many new indexes are different:… Continue reading The Rise Of The Index
The Philadelphia Inquirer – Comcast’s CNBC faces a big threat from Fox Business Network Fox Business was launched in 2007 in about 30 million pay-TV homes. But it couldn’t seem to find a market. By 2014, the network was foundering with a dismal daytime audience of 42,000. Fox recommitted to business news and ousted network… Continue reading CNBC vs Fox Business
The Financial Times – Bitcoin’s surge fuels fears of asset bubble Value of unregulated crypto currencies bursts through $50bn Sky-high valuations for bitcoin have helped the value of crypto currencies burst through $50bn, raising fears of an asset bubble in the unregulated market. A growing number of alternative digital currencies — or “alt-coins” — is… Continue reading Bitcoin
Barron’s – Gene Epstein: Hopes for an Economic Trump Jump Look Overblown Netted out, the negatives and positives of the president’s proposals don’t point to any acceleration in GDP expansion. The U.S. economy under President Barack Obama expanded at the tepid annual rate of 2.1%, the slowest since World War II. The Trump administration claims… Continue reading The Net Effect Of Trump’s Proposals On GDP
Bloomberg.com – Trading Fortunes Depend on a Mysterious Antenna in an Empty Field High-speed firms rush to put up antennas in surrounding land Jump Trading, McKay Brothers and Webline among players It was an odd transaction from the outset: $14 million, double the going rate, for a 31-acre plot of flat, undeveloped land just west of… Continue reading The High-Frequency Trading Landscape
The Wall Street Journal – Robots Will Save the Economy In digital industries—technology, communications, media, software, finance and professional services—productivity grew 2.7% annually over the past 15 years, according to the findings of our report, “The Coming Productivity Boom,” released in March. The slowdown is concentrated in physical industries—health care, transportation, education, manufacturing, retail—where productivity… Continue reading The Case For More Robots Taking Our Jobs
OPEN Understanding The Fed’s Balance Sheet Comment Yesterday we hosted a webcast titled Understanding The Fed’s Balance Sheet. A webcast replay, mp3 replay and the conference call material can be found by clicking on the open button above. The Wall Street Journal – Economists See Modest Impact From a Fed Balance-Sheet Reduction Shrinking the Federal Reserve’s $4.5… Continue reading Understanding The Fed’s Balance Sheet