<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Yuan’s Appeal Wanes as It Joins IMF’s Reserve-Currencies Club The Chinese yuan’s entry into the International Monetary Fund’s elite club of global reserve currencies this weekend comes just as its progress in becoming a major international trading currency is stalling. The yuan is already the… Continue reading The Yuan Joins The Reserve-Currencies Club
Comment Today at 9 AM CT (10 AM ET, 7 AM PT and 15:00 BST) Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Join us today as we discuss the latest outlook for the markets following last week’s BoJ and Fed meetings and the changes in election… Continue reading Elections And Central Banks
The New York Times – Congress Votes to Override Obama Veto on 9/11 Victims Bill Congress on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to override a veto by President Obama for the first time, passing into law a bill that would allow the families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia… Continue reading A Look At Saudi Arabia’s Holdings Of U.S. Treasuries In Light Of News On 9/11 Bill
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – The Mystery of A Massive Junk-Bond Short It’s been a stellar year to own riskier debt. U.S. high-yield bonds have gained 14.7 percent, poised for their best annual return since 2009. And many on Wall Street expect the gains to keep building — JPMorgan analysts just boosted… Continue reading Shorting Corporate ETFs
<Click on graphic for larger image> Liberty Street Economics (NY Fed) – U.S. Real Wage Growth: Slowing Down With Age In Monday’s post, we described the estimation of real wage growth rates for different cohorts of U.S. workers. We showed that the life-cycle pattern of real wage growth is characterized by high growth early in… Continue reading More On Wage Growth
Reuters – Global monetary easing moves hit 200th milestone since Jan 2015 Armenia does not often take the global financial spotlight but a routine rate cut by the tiny former Soviet republic this week marked a global milestone – the 200th case of policy easing worldwide since the start of last year. Fifty seven central… Continue reading All Central Bank Activity Is Fungible
<Click on graphic for larger image> AQA – Peter Forbes: Tightening Relative Performance of Credit and Equity Among Sectors Our weekly US Credit Update noted a swiftly rising average 45-day correlation between the US credit sectors and the S&P 500. Digging a bit deeper, it appears that the broad US credit and equity markets are seeing… Continue reading Stocks vs. Credit
The Financial Times – Rhode Island cuts its hedge fund programme in half Rhode Island’s pension plan has decided to halve the money it puts in hedge funds, as retirement systems across the US re-evaluate their strategies for generating the returns they need to pay participants. Over the next two years, the $7.7bn Employees Retirement… Continue reading Another Nail In The Coffin For Hedge Funds
The Financial Times – Fed challenged over governor’s Clinton ties Republicans raise new questions over independence of central bank Janet Yellen was forced to fend off new questions about the Federal Reserve’s political independence on Tuesday as a Republican lawmaker asked her if one of the central bank’s governors was too close to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The… Continue reading Fed Independence Questioned
Bloomberg.com – Plosser Says Fed Faces Troubling Credibility Problem on Rates The Federal Reserve is creating a credibility problem for itself, according to Charles Plosser, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Policy makers failed to fully explain their decision to keep their benchmark rate in a range of 0.25 percent to 0.5… Continue reading The Fed’s Other Credibility Problem
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Atlanta Federal Reserve – GDPNow The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2016 is 2.8 percent on September 28, down from 2.9 percent on September 20. The forecast of third-quarter real equipment investment growth fell from 1.5 percent… Continue reading GDPNow Continues Lower