The Wall Street Journal – Apple’s Billions May Not Be Enough to End Earnings Recession The S&P 500 has seen profit contract for five straight quarters. So far in this third-quarter reporting season, earnings are seen declining 0.3%, according to data from FactSet. That would extend the earnings recession, but it’s such a narrow loss, it’s… Continue reading Apple’s Impact On S&P 500 Earnings
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Saudi Arabia Faces Tough OPEC Equation With Mounting ‘Exemptions’ OPEC must reduce output by at least 1.3 million barrels a day Saudi Arabia faces the prospect of much deeper — and financially painful — oil production cuts after Iraq joined the queue of group members seeking immunity… Continue reading More On OPEC and Saudi Arabia
The Financial Times – Draghi hits back at critics of QE and negative rates ECB president dismisses Theresa May’s criticism that bank actions widened inequality Mario Draghi hit back on behalf of monetary policymakers around the world, dismissing growing criticism that their aggressive actions to support the economy had widened the gap between rich and poor.… Continue reading Draghi Fights Off Critics Of QE
Bloomberg Business – Ratings Inflation Is Back, Subprime Style A decade after the triple-A failures of the subprime era, grade inflation is back on Wall Street. This time, Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings Inc. are cutting companies slack on mergers and acquisitions, an analysis of credit-ratings data by Bloomberg News found. Over the past… Continue reading Ratings Inflation Is Back
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Oil Companies Shift Exploration Tactics, Curb Spending In June, oil giant BP PLC announced what it deemed an “important” new discovery in Egypt. It turned out to be a modest natural-gas find that didn’t even rank in the top 50 discoveries since 2012. The fact… Continue reading The Search For New Oil Dwindles
Forbes.com – It’s Time To Move Past The Election And Focus On The U.S. Stock Market We can expect Trump’s electoral votes to be significantly fewer than the 270 needed to win. Currently, the state-by-state betting shows all swing states going to Clinton by a wide margin and some normally Republican states going Democrat or on… Continue reading Election Update
<Click on chart for larger image> The Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Inflation: next year’s ticking time bomb The last time sterling fell off a cliff we were in the midst of global financial crisis from 2007 to 2008. The currency shock sent inflation shooting up to 5.2pc, abruptly squeezing on real living standards. On that… Continue reading Is Inflation About To Return?
The Wall Street Journal – Kate Davidson and Jon Hilsenrath: Fed’s Task Next Week: Signal December Rate Rise Officials expect to raise rates before the end of the year, but they aren’t in a rush Federal Reserve officials, wary of raising short-term interest rates amid the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential election, are likely to stand… Continue reading What Will The Fed Do Next?
The Financial Times – US Treasury urges transparency for nation’s $13tn debt market Public reporting call the most radical effort yet to open sector up to scrutiny The US Treasury has called for trading in the country’s debt to be publicly reported in the most radical effort yet to bring transparency to a $13tn market that… Continue reading The Treasury Bond Market
Bloomberg Business – Yellen Seen Resisting Pressure to Resign If Trump Wins Election Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will resist pressure to step down should Donald Trump be elected president next month. That’s the firm conviction of people who’ve known and worked with her over the years. They described speculation in financial markets to the contrary as… Continue reading Yellen In A Trump Administration
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Goldman Tempers Earnings Outlook for Tech, Telecom Through 2018 There’s still not much to look forward to Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. issued a dire outlook for third-quarter earnings. Now the firm is darkening its prediction all the way through 2018. “Low interest rates and peaking margins constrain profit… Continue reading Goldman Cuts Earnings Forecasts