<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – China Buying Sparks Bitcoin Surge Crypto-currency adds $1 billion in market capitalization amid supply concerns Chinese investors are pumping up bitcoin again, sending prices up nearly 16% in the past four days, just two years after the country was at the center of a… Continue reading Is China Getting Better?
<Click on cartoon for larger image> Reuters – Most economists say Brexit will harm economy: poll Nine out of 10 of Britain’s top economists working in London’s City financial district, small business and academia believe the economy will be harmed if Britain leaves the European Union, a poll said on Sunday. The poll, which the… Continue reading BRexit
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Gerald F. Sieb: Economic Scars Help Explain Bizarre 2016 Race Polling suggests the recession scared and scarred the electorate in ways not understood until now The search for an explanation of this year’s bizarre political climate leads to a basic conclusion: The recession that… Continue reading Trump vs. Clinton Update
Factset – Earnings Insight For May 27, 2106 Earnings Scorecard: With 98% of companies in the S&P 500 reporting earnings to date for Q1 2016, 72% have reported earnings above the mean estimate and 53% have reported sales above the mean estimate. Earnings Growth: For Q1 2016, the blended earnings decline is -6.7%. The first… Continue reading An Earnings Update
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters – Fed’s Bullard says global markets seem well-prepared for summer rate hike St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Monday global markets appear to be “well-prepared” for a summer interest rate hike from the Fed, although he did not specify a date for the policy move.… Continue reading Timing The Rate Hike
The Wall Street Journal – When Bigger Isn’t Better: Banks Retreat From Global Ambitions The global financial supermarket is out of fashion, as CEOs jettison businesses and exit countries Eighteen years ago, Sanford Weill declared the dawn of a new era in banking. Mr. Weill, then chief executive of Travelers Group Inc., had agreed to… Continue reading Do Global Banks Work As A Business Model?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Barron’s – 5 Reasons the Stock Market Won’t Crash–Yet With the bull market now more than seven years old, many investors worry that a crash is imminent. Not so. Five reasons stocks still have room to run. Is the stock market headed for another crash? Of course it is.… Continue reading Don’t Worry, No Crash Is Coming!
The Wall Street Journal – Oil Driller Taps Different Well of Financing Fieldwood Energy sells about $390 million of new debt and is using proceeds to repay bank lenders Banks have been reducing their exposure to energy companies since oil prices started to collapse in 2014. Now, one oil producer, weary of its lenders cutting… Continue reading How Oil Companies Get Financing
Bloomberg.com – The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia’s 41-Year U.S. Debt Secret How a legendary bond trader from Salomon Brothers brokered a do-or-die deal that reshaped U.S.-Saudi relations for generations. It was July 1974. A steady predawn drizzle had given way to overcast skies when William Simon, newly appointed U.S. Treasury secretary, and his deputy,… Continue reading Saudi Treasury Holdings
The Financial Times- John Dizard: Something is not quite right in the market for physical oil Supply disruptions are not enough to create a really out of control bull market Something is not quite right in the market for what is called physical oil, the stuff stored above ground or aboard ships. Given the structure… Continue reading Supply Disruptions
The Wall Street Journal – Questions About New Saudi Energy Minister Likely to Dominate OPEC Meeting Domestic pressures mean Khalid al-Falih has less flexibility in group than predecessors As the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries prepares to meet this week, representatives say there is little mystery about the outcome of the gathering: Any coordinated… Continue reading Saudi Oil Minister
Barron’s – Alternatives Monthly: Andrew Lo’s Strategy The MIT professor uses behavioral science to build strategies at AlphaSimplex Group. Does evolutionary biology offer better insight into today’s markets than the immutable laws of physics? Andrew Lo, director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks so. Lo, also a finance… Continue reading Using Biology To Find Alpha