Zacks.com – Energy ETFs Set to Soar This Earnings Season The energy sector, which was the biggest drag on the earnings growth picture over the past two years, appears to make a strong comeback for the first time after eight quarters of declines. This is especially true as total earnings for the sector are expected to… Continue reading A Look At Crude Oil And Energy ETF Flows
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – World’s Biggest Real Estate Buyers Are Suddenly Short on Cash Stronger capital controls are deterring first-time purchases China’s escalating crackdown on capital outflows is sending shudders through property markets around the world. .. Still, broad measures of China’s capital flight suggest government curbs were having an effect even… Continue reading Capital Outflows From China Making Ripples Abroad
The Financial Times – Risky corporate borrowers make hay as yields slide Hopes for faster US growth help triple-C rated companies to cut finance costs Junk bonds had been hammered by the fall in the oil price, touching a nadir in February. The subsequent rally in commodity prices, coupled with Mr Trump’s plans to quicken economic… Continue reading Strong High Yield Issuance, However Investor Flows Waning
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Markets – Earnings Repeat Role as Market Elixir as Results Fan Stocks Anew S&P 500’s 1.3 percent rise this season is half the average For the 17th straight quarter, earnings from U.S. companies are providing an antidote to paralysis in the stock market. The S&P 500 Index surged to a… Continue reading Rising Valuations vs Inflation
Bloomberg View – Mohamed A. El-Erian: Trump’s Economic Approach Starts to Take Shape … If sustained, the impact of Trump’s approach would extend well beyond changes to the internal workings and orientations of the U.S. economy, including how it picks and chooses the way it interacts with the global economy. Given that the U.S. is at the… Continue reading Trumponomics
<Click on chart for larger image> Barron’s – What’s a Bond Investor to Do in a Bearish 2017? Bond yields have spiked since last summer, raising concerns about a long-term bear market. But declaring a bear market for bonds is more challenging than it is for stocks. Unlike the stock market, where a 20% drop in… Continue reading Would We Know a Bond Bear Market If We Saw One?
The Brookings Institution – Ben Bernanke: Shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet …At some point the Fed is likely to reduce the size of its balance sheet. Without taking a position on the overall pace of monetary tightening, I’ve offered two arguments why beginning that process is not urgent. First, to minimize the risk that unwinding… Continue reading Ben Bernanke On Shrinking The Fed’s Balance Sheet
AFP News – China’s hopes of globalising currency hit snag: report China’s renminbi slipped a notch to become the sixth most-used global currency over the course of last year, hit by depreciation and government capital controls, a report said Thursday. Analysts said the drop was a setback for Beijing’s ambitious plans to dramatically increase the… Continue reading The Globalization Of The Yuan Feels The Effect Of Chinese Capital Outflows
Bloomberg.com – Trump’s Uncertainty Principle During Barack Obama’s two terms in the White House, business executives complained that uncertainty about government policy was messing up their decision-making. “Operating a business under conditions of excessive uncertainty is like playing a game when you don’t know the rules. Without rules, it is impossible to develop a strategy… Continue reading Measuring & Interpreting Uncertainty
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Top Forecaster Says Fed to Increase Rates Every Quarter in 2018 The Federal Reserve is about to go rapid-fire on interest rates, boosting them in the second half of this year, and following that with a rise in every single quarter of 2018, according to BNP Paribas… Continue reading Timing Future FOMC Hikes
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Danielle DiMartino Booth: Heed the Fed’s Balance Sheet Banter The changing of the political guard in Washington shouldn’t overshadow some radical developments happening across town at the Federal Reserve, where it’s as if the doves have donned hawks’ feathers and flown the coop…New York Fed President William… Continue reading More On The Fed’s Balance Sheet