Bloomberg View – Komal Sri-Kumar: What the Markets Are Teaching the Trump Administration What the future holds for financial markets depends very much on the path the Trump administration follows. If, for example, the Congress passes the budget by August as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hopes, with meaningful moves toward tax reform, not only would the equities’… Continue reading The Markets vs. Trump
Bloomberg.com – More Hedge Funds Shut Last Year Than Any Time Since the 2008 Crisis Fees fell in 2016 as investors pulled cash from firms Funds with more than $5 billion manage 70% of industry cash More hedge funds closed in 2016 than in any year since the financial crisis as investors moved money to larger… Continue reading Hedge Fund Returns
The Financial Times – Economic frustration drives young French voters towards Le Pen Almost 40 per cent of those aged 18-24 intend to vote for far-right National Front In a surprising French election, with favoured candidates falling by the wayside and insurgents including Ms Le Pen heading the polls, Ms Dieulafait and her friends… Continue reading The French Election
The Financial Times – Machines and markets: 5 areas to watch The rise of algo trading and passive investing is bringing new patterns and pitfalls ETFs are causing some oddities inside the US stock market. First-generation products that track the S&P 500 are fairly blunt tools for today’s investors, with many turning to sectoral ETFs… Continue reading The Problems That Come With Algos & ETFs
Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC on Friday with Rick Santelli discussing the Fed. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any our recent interviews, click here. Global Macro Monitor (Blog) – The Broken Bond Market The Fed tightens on Wednesday and bonds rally. What the hay? GaveKal, Jeff Gundlach,… Continue reading Where Are Rates Heading?
CNN – Gallup: Trump job approval drops to 37% President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dropped to 37%, while 58% of Americans disapprove of his performance so far as president, new Gallup figures show. The approval ratings, Trump’s worst since taking office two months ago, come as FBI Director James Comey is expected to tell… Continue reading Trump’s Approval Rating Drops
The Financial Times – Record-breaking 2017 for ETFs fuels fears of stock market bubble Exchange traded funds attracted $131bn in the first two months of the year Exchange traded funds have attracted the biggest inflow of money in the first two months of the year on record, heightening concerns that ETF buying is fuelling an unsustainable… Continue reading ETFs See Record Inflows To Start 2017
The Baffler – The Wrongest Profession How economists have botched the promise of widely distributed prosperity—and why they have no intention of stopping now Over the past two decades, the economics profession has compiled an impressive track record of getting almost all the big calls wrong. In the mid-1990s, all the great minds in the… Continue reading Why Economists Keep Getting The Big Calls Wrong
The Financial Times – Foreign investors dumped eurozone debt for first time since 1999 last year Foreign investors were net annual sellers of eurozone bonds for the first time since the introduction of the single currency, as record amounts of central bank stimulus coupled with major political shocks has cooled overseas demand for the continent’s debt.… Continue reading Foreigners Were Net Sellers Of Eurozone Debt For The First Time Since 1999
Bloomberg View – Noah Smith: A Strong Dollar Isn’t That Great for America Since the U.S. doesn’t have capital controls that limit the movement of money in and out of the country, weakening the dollar would mean getting the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Right now it’s doing the opposite. But if the Fed… Continue reading A Strong Dollar
Bloomberg – For Once, the Fed Is Showing It’s Smarter Than the Markets The shoe is on the other foot. That’s the takeaway from the past three weeks, which have shown the Federal Reserve regaining command of the outlook for U.S. monetary policy. Traders have moved more into step with Fed officials’ dot-plot chart for projected… Continue reading Where Are We Compared to Past Tightening Campaigns?