<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – ECB: Walking the Bond-Market Tightrope The deeper the European Central Bank gets into markets, the more its success depends on linguistics rather than economics. President Mario Draghi must be careful with his promises. As bond yields fell, markets fretted about the ability of the… Continue reading The ECB’s List Of Eligible Bonds Dwindles
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – The Market’s $50 Trillion Safety Net If you want to get a sense of just how insecure investors are feeling, consider this: Investors worldwide are holding more than $50 trillion in cash. That’s according to BlackRock President Rob Kapito, who mentioned the startling statistic in an earnings call on… Continue reading Cash On The Sidelines
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Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/102016.mp3|titles=Conference Call ] Topics Covered This Week Include: Presidential Betting Hillary Very Correlated To Stocks Trump Not Correlated To Stocks Trump And The Peso Trump Betting Earnings Beat Rate Q3 2016 S&P 500 Earnings Expectations Q4 2016 S&P 500 Earnings Expectations All 2015-2016 Quarters S&P 500 Earnings Expectations All… Continue reading Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week
The Financial Times – The unwise war against low interest rates One kind of objection to present policies is mainly a howl of pain: low interest rates undermine the business models of banks and insurance companies, lower the incomes of savers, devastate the solvency of pension schemes, raise asset prices and worsen inequality. As Mark… Continue reading Criticizing Low Rates
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Central Bankers Liking It Hot Doesn’t Mean Mandate Rethink Listen to U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen or Bank of England Governor Mark Carney these days and you might conclude central bankers are rethinking their inflation targets. Not quite. Take Yellen. Having mused on Friday that a “high-pressure… Continue reading Central Bankers Keep Hoping For Inflation
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bespoke – CPI Ticking Higher While inflation may be trending higher, remember that it remains in what has been an extraordinarily low range. The chart shows prior streaks where the headline y/y print was at or below 1.5%. At 23 months and counting, the current streak is the longest… Continue reading Inflation’s New Normal
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – This Number Is a Misleading Indicator of U.S. Labor-Market Strength The fewest Americans in 42 years are filing applications for unemployment insurance, which on the surface looks like a sign of a historically hot U.S. labor market. The real picture is more complicated. The decline does reflect… Continue reading Gauging The Jobs Market
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Business – China Holdings of U.S. Treasuries Drop to Almost Four-Year Low China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries fell to the lowest level since November 2012, as the world’s second-largest economy draws down its foreign reserves to prop up the yuan. The biggest foreign holder of U.S. government debt had… Continue reading China’s Treasury Holdings Fall Again
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Are Fund Managers Doomed? Making the Case for Passive Investing’s Triumph .. Another knock on passive investing is that it gets a free ride on active managers’ stock analysis. If and when the shift in market share leads to a significant decline in active managers (so… Continue reading More On Active vs Passive Fund Management
Bloomberg Business – Broken Indicators Mean It’s Growing Harder to Spot Troubles in the Market It’s not hard to see the potential flash points on the horizon — the U.S. presidential election; Deutsche Bank AG’s mounting legal charges; the day central banks stop buying bonds. Yet when it comes to gauging risks in the world’s financial markets,… Continue reading Why It’s So Hard To Spot Trouble In The Market
Bloomberg Markets – Saudi Arabia Poised to Sell Record $17.5 Billion Sovereign Bonds Saudi Arabia is planning to raise as much as $17.5 billion in the biggest bond sale ever from an emerging-market nation, according to two people with knowledge of the offering, as it seeks to shore up finances battered by the slide in… Continue reading Saudi Arabia To Raise $17.5 Billion In Largest Emerging Market Bond Sale Ever