Barron’s – Trump Rally Will Trigger Yellen Call, Warns Goldman .. Fed Chair Yellen has questioned the wisdom fiscal stimulus n at full employment. As she put it in her press conference: “…my predecessor and I called for fiscal stimulus when the unemployment rate was substantially higher than it is now.” Put more bluntly: fiscal stimulus… Continue reading Trump vs Yellen
The Wall Street Journal – World’s Largest Trading Floor Put on the Block Firm is hired to sell mortgage of former UBS office complex in Connecticut; sale expected at cut rate For sale cheap: the world’s largest trading floor. The property was part of a lavish development in Stamford, Conn., in the 1990s designed to lure… Continue reading Arena Football?
Comment On December 22, 2016 at 9 AM CT (10 AM ET, 7 AM PT and 15:00 GMT) Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Since Election Day the stock market, interest rates, the dollar and industrial commodities are all significantly higher. Many have… Continue reading The Reflation Trade: Real Growth Or Inflation?
The Wall Street Journal – James Macintosh: Reasons to Be Miserable Don’t Include Bond Yields Rising bond yields have been a symptom of improving expectations for the economy The Trump reflation optimism has gone a long way, and I doubt that the new president can deliver as much as investors expect when he takes office… Continue reading What Is The Bond Market Telling Us?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Stock Pickers’ Delight: S&P 500 Correlations Plunge Stocks continue to shed their conformist ways. S&P 500 stock-correlation readings last week fell to their lowest levels in nearly one decade. Correlation between individual stocks is a measure of their tendency to move up and down in… Continue reading S&P 500 Stock Correlation Continues To Fall Since Election
Bloomberg.com – IMF Head Christine Lagarde Convicted in French Negligence Trial Christine Lagarde was convicted of negligence by a Paris court over her handling of a multimillion-euro dispute during her time as France’s finance minister nearly a decade ago, raising questions about her role as head of the International Monetary Fund. The 60-year-old managing director of… Continue reading IMF Leader Convicted Of Negligence In France
The Wall Street Journal – 2016 Was a Very Good Year for Stock Market Contrarians Investors who bucked the market trend won big this year. By one measure, contrarian stock investors had returns of 31% so far this year, marking their biggest gains since 2009, according to Citigroup analysts, led by Robert Buckland. That’s nearly triple the S&P 500′s… Continue reading Contrarians Win Big In 2016
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Monte dei Paschi’s last-gasp attempt to raise capital in doubt A last-ditch attempt by Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the struggling Italian bank, to raise up to €5bn in capital was thrown into doubt after the country’s private bank rescue fund expressed “strong reservations” over… Continue reading Monte Dei Paschi
<Click on graphic for larger image> FactSet – Buybacks Decline for Second Consecutive Quarter Companies in the S&P 500 spent $115.6 billion on share buybacks during the third quarter, which marked the smallest quarterly total since Q1 2013. Aggregate buybacks in Q3 represented a 28% decline from the year-ago quarter, which was the largest year-over-year… Continue reading Buybacks
Barron’s – Best Bets for Bonds in 2017 Interest rates have risen much further and faster than expected since November. But don’t expect them to keep climbing in a straight line. The oft-cited words of Nobel laureate Bob Dylan—the times they are a-changin’—may never have been more apt for a column about the bond-market outlook. Interest… Continue reading Bond Outlook For 2017
CNBC – Yellen: Wage growth and low layoff rate help drive strongest jobs market in nearly a decade The U.S. has the strongest jobs market in nearly a decade thanks in part to accelerating wage growth and a low layoff rate, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday. In last week’s decision to raise rates,… Continue reading Fedspeak