The Financial Times – US Treasuries: On the cusp of a reversal Some see the end of the bond bull run amid signs of growth, inflation and a rate rise One of the longest and most important trends in world finance may be on the cusp of a reversal. US 10-year Treasury bond yields, used as… Continue reading Is The Bond Bull Market Over?
The Wall Street Journal – SEC Denies Winklevoss Application for a Bitcoin ETF Attempt was for first exchange-traded fund to track price of digital currency The Securities and Exchange Commission denied an application for the first exchange-traded fund that would track the price of bitcoin, a high-profile rejection for the digital currency and the Winklevoss… Continue reading Bitcoin ETF Is Denied
Bloomberg.com – Lisa Ambramowicz: Emerging Market Debt Is Safer Now (Unless …) Remember when emerging-market debt investors used to fret about Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes? Apparently, they don’t care anymore, or at least not very much. Even though it’s almost a sure thing the Fed will bump up overnight borrowing costs next week, investors are… Continue reading Emerging Market Debt
The Financial Times – Bonfire of Wall St analysts burns some big names Active fund managers are seeking to reduce costs, cutting sell-side research At 4.15pm last Monday, as Mr Mayo tells it, he was summoned to an all-hands meeting. At 4.20pm he and 89 others were let go. He went to FedEx to buy… Continue reading Active Managers Getting Squeezed
The Financial Times – Hedge funds run by women outperform But fewer than one in 20 alternative managers employ a female portfolio manager Hedge funds run by women have outperformed a broader benchmark of alternative investment managers over the past five years, raising fresh questions about why there are so few female portfolio managers. The… Continue reading Female Portfolio Managers Beat Their Peers, But Not Their Benchmark
The Financial Times – Why market reporters lean towards negative news Journalists tend to avoid hype and have less to lose from being incorrectly bearish The way that markets are reported affects the way they are perceived, and the way that investors behave. So can the way journalists report the markets be measured? Are we… Continue reading Negative News
Bloomberg.com – U.S. Subprime Auto Loan Losses Reach Highest Level Since the Financial Crisis Subprime net loss rate in auto bonds rose to 9.1% in January Rate rising amid worsening recoveries when borrowers default U.S. subprime auto lenders are losing money on car loans at the highest rate since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis… Continue reading Subprime Auto Loans
Bloomberg Business – U.S. Jobs, Pay Show Solid Gains in Trump’s First Full Month Payrolls gain 235,000, driven by construction, manufacturing Average hourly earnings increased 2.8% from year earlier U.S. employers added jobs at an above-average pace for a second month on outsized gains in construction and manufacturing while wage growth picked up, as the labor… Continue reading Employment In Pictures
Comment The chart above shows the probability of a March 15 rate hike and the track record of the fed funds market over the last 90 meetings. A hike next week is virtually a certainty. What about the rest of the year? The chart below shows the number of rate hikes the market is expecting… Continue reading Countdown To The Fed Hike
Bloomberg.com – U.S. Consumer Comfort Just Reached Its Highest Level in a Decade Sentiment about U.S. economy is strongest since August 2001 Confidence extends beyond Republicans as independents upbeat Americans’ confidence continued to mount last week as the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index reached the highest point in a decade on more-upbeat assessments about the economy and… Continue reading Another “Soft Data” Measure Surges
Financial Times – Gold looks vulnerable if Treasury yields push higher Gold tends not to like a rising dollar and climbing bond yields. The metal is denominated in bucks, so a higher US currency is expected to make it more expensive to non-US buyers. And rising interest rates increase the “opportunity cost” of holding a non-yielding… Continue reading No Reprieve for Gold