Barron’s – Relax, Bond Investors. The Grown-Ups Are Back The bond-market mayhem of recent weeks has been overdone. Central-bank moves seem likely to calm investors’ fears. Politics spooked the bond market in November, igniting inflation fears and driving interest rates higher and bond prices lower. But global central banks are back at the helm this month,… Continue reading Central Banks & Interest Rates
The Wall Street Journal – Italy Poised to Help Monte dei Paschi if Capital Raising Fails The Italian government would intervene to recapitalize troubled lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA should the bank fail to get the capital it needs to stay afloat from private investors, a Treasury official said on Monday. Late… Continue reading Monte Dei Paschi
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – More Stocks Joining Trump Rally Than Any Time Since 2013 Donald Trump’s election has fueled one of the broadest rallies in history as the number of stocks making new highs on the New York Stock Exchange climbed to the highest on a closing basis since May 2013.… Continue reading A Technical Look At The Post-Election Rally
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Hooked on QE: Hedge Funds See Dangerous Addiction Some of the world’s top hedge-fund managers are worried. They say central bank bond buying programs that are pumping trillions of dollars into global markets will end badly. The European Central Bank said Thursday it would… Continue reading This Just In: Hedge Funds Do Not Like QE
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Treasurys Face Threat From Mortgage Market But the dangers from ‘convexity’ hedging could have moderated since financial crisis The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note closed at 2.462% Friday. The rise in yields largely reflects an upturn in Wall Street’s fundamental outlook for the… Continue reading Is The Convexity Trade Back?
The Financial Times – Italy’s Five Star looks to prove its shine to centre ground Grillo’s movement has mastered politics of rejection but needs a positive platform For years, Ermanno Pergola, a 66-year-old ceramics salesman, backed Italy’s centre-right Forza Italia party, calling himself a “true believer” in its leader Silvio Berlusconi, the media tycoon and former… Continue reading The Populist Movement In Italy
The Wall Street Journal – For the Bank of Japan, a Tightening Squeeze In a Trump-fueled turnaround, the BOJ may have to lift its 10-year government-bond target from the recently set zero One of central banking’s most aggressive easers—the Bank of Japan—may soon have to think about tightening for the first time since 2007. The… Continue reading Will The BoJ Tighten?
<Click on chart for larger image> Dealb%k (NYT blog) – Small Investors Join China’s Tycoons in Sending Money Abroad China’s wealthy have long bought up properties around the world. Now, technology is opening the door for the small-timers. A new generation of smartphone apps and online lending platforms in China and around the world are… Continue reading Your Daily Installment Of Chinese Capital Flight
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Central Bankers’ Zeal for the ‘Natural Rate’ Draws Skeptics In steering their economies, central bankers are guided by a mysterious, hidden interest rate that critics say could be a figment of their imagination…Central bankers respond that their policies are merely tracking changes in the… Continue reading Searching For The “Natural Rate”
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<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – WSJ Survey: Economists See Fed Moving Faster on Rate Increases Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this week see the pace of Federal Reserve interest-rate increases picking up in the coming years for a variety of reasons. Some expect inflation to pick up on… Continue reading What Will The Fed Do In 2017?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Era of quantitative easing is drawing to a close ECB’s QE extension probably represents the last hurrah of this monetary measure We are now at the beginning of the end of arguably the greatest monetary policy experiment since John Law began dabbling with fiat paper… Continue reading Is The QE Era Ending?