Reuters – Exclusive: ‘If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown,’ Trump says President Donald Trump downplayed the severity of a potential government shutdown on Thursday, just two days shy of a deadline for Congress to reach a spending deal to avert temporary layoffs of federal workers. “We’ll see what happens. If there’s a shutdown, there’s a… Continue reading No Shutdown Expected
The Financial Times – China’s short-term money market rate hits 2-year high Clampdown on shadow banking practices pushes up borrowing costs Short-term borrowing costs in China have climbed to their highest level in two years as comments from President Xi Jinping fan investor expectations that a “regulatory windstorm” is part of a broader crackdown on… Continue reading China Clamps Down
Bloomberg.com – Anything-But-Soft Earnings Data Starting to Smack of Rally Years S&P 500 EPS growth seen topping 10% for first time since 2013 Such rate has accompanied stock gains averaging 12% since 1988 Could this be the restoration of the profit growth that drove the bull market’s fattest years? Signs from the first quarter point… Continue reading Earnings
Bloomberg Business – Trump Era Brings Rare Drop in Loans at America’s Regional Banks For regional banks across the U.S., the “Trump bump” hasn’t yet translated into business. Bank stocks have climbed since Donald Trump was elected president as investors bet his pro-growth agenda and rising interest rates would help lenders generate huge profits. But this… Continue reading Bank Loans Fall In Q1
The Wall Street Journal – James Mackintosh: Markets Think Trump Speaks Loudly But Carries No Stick Investor concern about Mr. Trump using his executive powers was on show in Wednesday’s trading. Leaks that the White House was preparing an executive order ditching the North American Free Trade Agreement knocked 1.5% off the value of the Mexican… Continue reading Market’s Opinion Of Trump?
Bloomberg Gadfly – Marcus Ashworth: Markets Are Partying, Draghi Stays Home At the press conference after the European Central Bank President publishes its policy decision Thursday, President Mario Draghi will surely be asked whether officials discussed dropping their assessment that risks to the outlook lie to the downside. How he handles this question will be… Continue reading Where Is Draghi?
The Wall Street Journal – Tech’s Titans Go From Big to Bigger Scale of Amazon, Microsoft and Google hard to combat as tech industry shifts to new markets Today’s high-tech giants may not be monopolies in the most classic sense. But their outsize prominence is hard to deny, as demonstrated during the tech-earnings-palooza Thursday afternoon.… Continue reading FAANG Stocks Are All That Matter
ETF Trends – After Three Rate Hikes in Sixteen Months Look to Bank ETFs The Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLF), the largest exchange traded fund dedicated to the financial services sector, is up just 2.2% year-to-date, a performance that trails the S&P 500 by a wide margin. While financial services stocks and ETFs have been disappointments… Continue reading Stable Treasury Curve Prompts Return to Bank ETFs
Bloomberg – Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Wary of Auto Loans, But Pack Them in Bonds The two banks among top underwriters of subprime auto bonds Depending whose money they’re using, Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. either love subprime car loans or fear them. Both banks have grown more reluctant to make new subprime… Continue reading Trouble Brewing in Subprime Auto Loans
Forbes – Bob Haber: An Asset Allocator’s Nightmare What if it didn’t work? There would be blood in the streets for the levered “Risk Parity” allocation version. Leverage has a way of doing that. Of course, the plain vanilla 60/40 allocation would suffer mightily as well. What could cause this calamity? Inflation can cause it… Continue reading The Correlation Between Stocks and Bonds
Bloomberg.com – In Dot-Com Bubble Time, It’s Still Only 1997 for U.S. Equities Terrified that rallies in Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google portend a millennial catastrophe along the lines of the dot-com bust? Relax. Going by one doomsday clock, it’s only 1997 in bubble years. So says Leuthold Group LLC in a study that… Continue reading Comparing The Current Bull Market To The Dot Com Bull Market