The Financial Times – Donald Trump’s desire for longer maturity debt will be a hard sell President-elect will run up against Treasury unit that eschews market-jolting moves As the self-described “king of debt”, Donald Trump suggested on the campaign trail that he wanted to take a more creative approach to handling America’s public borrowings — with allies… Continue reading Trump’s Presidency And Longer-Maturity Debt
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Can You Guess the Best-Performing Financial Asset of 2016? If you’ve been paying attention at all, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise which asset class “won” 2016: energy. A sector that had been battered for 18 straight months, and which still has… Continue reading A Look At 2016 Asset Returns
The Financial Times – Calling stockpickers: investors need you in 2017 Investor portfolios are not positioned for the change in investment regime heralded by the election of Donald Trump. Mr Trump’s presidential election victory signifies a fundamental shift in the investment regime. The public and political backlash against ever freer movement of goods, capital and people… Continue reading Investors Can No Longer Rely On Central Banks To Support Asset Prices
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Oil Prices Boosted by Optimism Over Production-Cut Promises ..Oil prices last year posted their biggest gains since the financial-crisis-era rebound in 2009, a recovery fueled by the apparent willingness of OPEC to cut supply again. Stocks remain at high levels, however, with global inventory estimated… Continue reading Crude Oil Has A Good Year
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg View – Don’t Count Out Seasonal Patterns to Predict Rates Bond strategists use many tools in attempting to forecast the path of interest rates, ranging from straightforward data analysis, to parsing the statements of Federal Reserve officials, to looking for trading patterns. The challenge lay in weighting these methods… Continue reading Seasonal Patterns In Interest Rates
<Click on graphic for larger image> Comment The chart above is from our colleagues at AQA. It shows the year-over-year change for their global inflation index rose to its highest level since June 2011. This index measures inflation releases relative to one-year averages, similar to Citigroup’s data/surprise indices. This index is likely one of the… Continue reading Is Global Inflation Returning?
Bloomberg Business – China Said to Consider Options to Back Yuan, Curb Outflows China has studied possible scenarios for the yuan and capital outflows this year and is preparing contingency plans, according to people familiar with the matter. The offshore yuan surged the most in a year. The authorities have used stress tests, models and field… Continue reading Does China Understand Why Capital Is Leaving The Country?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Manhattan Home Prices Fall as Sellers Concede to Slowing Market Median for previously owned apartment drops 6.3% to $900,000 Manhattan resale home prices tumbled by the most in more than four years, a sign that sellers are lowering their expectations in a slowing market where buyers have… Continue reading Home Prices In Manhattan Fall
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters.com – ETFs globally gather record cash in 2016 -BlackRock Investors funneled $375 billion into exchange-traded funds in 2016, investment manager BlackRock Inc said on Tuesday, a global record that came as investors looked to cut costs. The total, which is preliminary, compares with $348 billion in 2015 and… Continue reading ETF Assets Rise
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – That Bubbling Sound Coming From U.S. Factories May Be Inflation Champagne wasn’t the only thing bubbling at the start of 2017 for U.S. manufacturers: So was inflation, a potential warning sign in an otherwise broadly positive report on American factories. The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday… Continue reading ISM Factory Gauge Index Rises
Bloomberg Business – No One Questioned This Hedge Fund’s Madoff-Like Returns Red flags abounded while hedge fund claimed 17% annual gains In the years before Mark Nordlicht was arrested for what’s alleged to be one of the biggest investment frauds since Bernie Madoff’s, U.S. authorities had plenty of reasons to suspect something might have been fishy… Continue reading Hedge Fund Fraud
Bloomberg Gadfly – Europe’s Bond Market Time Bomb It’s a bad start to 2017 for the European Central Bank. The collateral freeze that plagued the 5 trillion-euro ($5.2 trillion) securities lending market at the end of last year is still very much with us, and in fact has got worse. It’s not as if it didn’t try. At their… Continue reading Europe’s Bond Market