The Guardian – Greece standoff over €86bn bailout eases after Brussels deal Greece’s bailout inspectors are returning to Athens to seek changes to the country’s tax, pensions and labour market laws in a sign that the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, will give way to European pressure for deeper reforms. His government agreed at a meeting… Continue reading More On The Greek Bailout
Bloomberg Business – America’s Business Leaders Are Brimming With Post-Election Optimism It’s been at least seven years since America’s mid-sized companies have been this ecstatic about the economy’s prospects. A whopping 80 percent of middle-market businesses said they were optimistic, the most since JPMorgan Chase & Co. began its Business Leaders Outlook survey. That’s up from… Continue reading U.S. Economic Optimism
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Why Biggest U.S. Creditors Are Selling Treasuries Have foreigners ever held this much U.S. debt? No. Nor has the U.S. ever owed so much. Foreign investors own $6 trillion in U.S. government debt, up from $3.08 trillion in 2008. (The share of debt owned by foreigners went down… Continue reading Why Foreigners Are Selling U.S. Debt
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Fed’s $2.5 Trillion Hoard of Treasuries Seen Barely Shrinking .. For all the preoccupation in the bond market about the fate of the Federal Reserve’s $2.46 trillion portfolio of Treasuries, officials may ultimately be hard-pressed to pare down holdings amassed as part of the biggest economic stimulus… Continue reading The Fed Is Still Hoarding U.S. Treasuries
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – The Next Financial Crisis Might Be in Your Driveway Subprime borrowers are cruising in style—cautionary tale or systemic risk? .. Lured by low interest rates, low gas prices, and a crop of seductive vehicles that are faster, smarter, and more efficient than ever before, American drivers are… Continue reading Why Auto Loans May Be The Next Sub-Prime Crisis
The Financial Times – The $143bn flop: How Warren Buffett and 3G lost Unilever When Kraft Heinz unexpectedly withdrew its bid on Sunday, it handed the first public defeat to a group of globetrotting investors who are not used to seeing their ambitions thwarted. The Financial Times interviewed more than a dozen people involved in the… Continue reading The $143 Billion Flop
Sometimes CNBC can even offer some comedic relief: The tone was very different about a year ago, when the S&P was 24% lower:
<Click on chart for larger image> Fact Set – Earnings Insight For February 17, 2017 Earnings Scorecard: As of today (with 82% 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 53% of S&P 500 companies have beat the… Continue reading Earnings Update
<Click on image to view interview> Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC last Friday and discussed politics and the markets. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews, click here. The Financial Times – Trump transition moves from detente to trench war Over the past two weeks, I… Continue reading Talking Politics And Markets
Financial Times – German 2-year debt yields hit record low The tightest market focus is on the Franco-German 10-year yield spread, which offers a taste of how nervous investors are about holding politically-charged French debt over the German benchmark.The yield spread hit 0.82 percentage points on Monday, the widest level since August 2012, but was slightly… Continue reading Risk Markets Looking Past Rising France/Germany 10-Year Spread
Reuters – German Social Democrat candidate would beat Merkel in chancellor vote – poll Martin Schulz, the German Social Democrats’ candidate for federal elections in September, would beat Chancellor Angela Merkel if balloting was based on a direct leadership vote, a poll showed on Friday. The poll carried out by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen for broadcaster ZDF… Continue reading Is Merkel In Trouble?
Bloomberg – Three Decades of Bond-Market History Sow Doubt on Reflation Bets Decades of trading shows yields typically fall from May-Sept. If history is any guide, bond investors should be wary of piling into bets that Trump administration policies will jolt the U.S. economy into high gear and drive up Treasury yields through year-end.Signs of rising… Continue reading US Treasuries Finding Reasons to Abate Decline