The Financial Times – US banks hit brakes on lending after Trump election For the first time in more than five years, total outstanding bank loans have dipped for two consecutive months with declines in December and January. The Federal Reserve’s latest figures, published on Friday, show that the weakness has continued so far in February.… Continue reading U.S. Banks Halt Loans
Bloomberg Business – JPMorgan Software Does in Seconds What Took Lawyers 360,000 Hours At JPMorgan Chase & Co., a learning machine is parsing financial deals that once kept legal teams busy for thousands of hours. The program, called COIN, for Contract Intelligence, does the mind-numbing job of interpreting commercial-loan agreements that, until the project went online… Continue reading Software Is Taking Over The World
Bloomberg.com – The Bond Market Is Calling Yellen’s March Rate Hike Bluff Traders hold veto power over hikes as policy makers push March Central bankers running short on time before blackout period Yet try as they might, the bond market seems unconvinced there’s much behind the tough talk. With less than three weeks to go, traders… Continue reading The Market Still Dictates Fed Policy
The Wall Street Journal – Fed Isn’t Ready to Cut Balance Sheet Yet Yellen, other officials resist push to sell assets bought to spur economy Top Federal Reserve officials are in no hurry to reduce their huge portfolio of securities and other assets, effectively pushing back on several regional Fed bank presidents who have suggested… Continue reading What Does The Future Hold For The Fed’s Balance Sheet?
The Wall Street Journal – Bond Market Is Flashing Warning Signal on Trump Reflation Trade Rising bond market seen indicating that valuations of riskier assets may be stretched Some money managers and traders believe that a rising Treasury bond market, often seen as a haven for investors, is a warning that valuations of riskier assets—such as… Continue reading Emerging Markets’ Outperformance in Jeopardy
Fact Set – Earnings Insight For February 24, 2017 Earnings Scorecard: As of today (with 92% of the companies in the S&P 500 reporting actual results for Q4 2016), 66% of S&P 500 companies have beat the mean EPS estimate and 52% of S&P 500 companies have beat the mean sales estimate. Earnings Growth: For… Continue reading An Earnings Update
The Wall Street Journal – What Does the French Election Mean for the Euro? National Front candidate Marine Le Pen has said she would pull her country, one of the EU’s founding nations, out of the common currency Are Markets Preparing for a French Departure? In the short term, derivatives that protect investors against a… Continue reading An Update On The French Election
The Economist – Martin Schulz breathes new life into Germany’s Social Democrats Angela Merkel suddenly has a serious rival Mr Schulz’s selection as candidate in late January caused an extraordinary surge in the polls (see chart). The SPD, currently the junior partner in the coalition with Mrs Merkel’s conservative bloc, now runs neck-and-neck with… Continue reading The German Election
Bloomberg Business – Ben Carlson: Understanding the Trump Rally Experts and pundits predicted a stock market crash if Trump were to upset Clinton and win the presidential race, so the market’s behavior seemed to confirm expectations. But then a funny thing happened — stocks came roaring back, almost immediately. Markets opened slightly down but quickly regained… Continue reading Market Returns Since Election Day
CNBC – Robert Shiller: With stock valuations high, it’s time to reduce your holdings Long-term investors ought to use the recent market rally to cut back on their equity holdings, according to Yale professor of economics Robert Shiller. The S&P 500 forward price-earnings ratio, a common measure of market valuations that compares the index’s… Continue reading Valuations Continue To Climb
The Wall Street Journal – The World’s Most Radical Experiment in Monetary Policy Isn’t Working A generation of Japanese accustomed to falling prices have diminished the impact of negative interest rates and other stimulus that were supposed to spur wage and price increases; ‘people love to save’ The U.S. appears to be leading other parts… Continue reading Abenomics