MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Investors Keep Gobbling Up Treasurys The world’s appetite for U.S. government bonds is insatiable — even with yields near their all-time lows. The $23 billion sale of benchmark 10-year Treasury on Wednesday set a new record for indirect bidding, a proxy for demand from foreign investors. The 73.5% measure of such… Continue reading Treasury Auction Sets Indirect Bidding Record
<Click on graphic for larger image> Zero Hedge – According To JPM’s Quant Guru, This Is The “Main Risk For The Market” Right Now In short, someone has been aggressively preparing for the next vol spike episode, even as VIX itself has barely budged while the VXX recently hit fresh split-adjusted record lows. All of… Continue reading Betting On Spiking Volatility
Time – Carl Icahn Is Betting Big on a Stock Market Crash Carl Icahn is putting his money where his mouth is. Last month, the billionaire investor took to CNBC’s airwaves to argue that “a day of reckoning” was coming for American stock markets unless the federal government stimulates the economy with more spending. In… Continue reading Bearish Billionaires
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: HY ETF Update HY ETF Update – 2 Earnings Earnings – 2 Company Guidance When Is The Next Hike? Election Betting Update Election Betting Update – 2 When Is The Next Hike? – 2 Will The Oil Market Get DUC-ed? Will The Oil Market Get DUC-ed?… Continue reading Charts of the Week
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – High Rollers Are Flocking to ‘Hotel HYG’ in Record Numbers A nice place for a short-term stay. When the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF–better known as HYG –began trading more than a decade ago, it was mostly thought of as a buy-and-hold product used by financial… Continue reading Is HYG Now The Biggest Bond ETF?
Bloomberg.com – Goldman Sachs Calls the Bottom for the Dollar Greenback gains almost 3 percent after falling to one-year low Goldman sees U.S. currency advancing 15 percent over two years A gauge of the greenback has rallied almost 3 percent from a one-year low reached last week, extending gains even after April payrolls data showed… Continue reading More On The Next Fed Hike
<Click on chart for larger image> DealBook (NYT Times) – Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Fiasco Is a Harbinger of Mainland Woes The blame lies with what economists call “deferred costs.” Generous pension promises made decades ago, without enough funding, are now coming due as baby boomers retire. Bonds issued in the distant past to build bridges,… Continue reading Munis: A Look At Puerto Rico, Illinois And New Jersey
Comment The first two charts below show the Republican and Democrat nominations are more or less settled. Both Trump and Clinton’s odds are at or above 90% according to Predictit.org. <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> The probabilities of each frontrunner winning the Presidency is shown in the chart… Continue reading Election Betting Update
Reuters.com – Stuck with dangerous dollar dominance The world is getting an object lesson on the problems of having one dominant global currency and even the supposed prime beneficiary, the United States, can see the downside. Alarming bouts of volatility in world financial markets over the past 12 months have been rooted in a fear… Continue reading The Dollar
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Crop Prices Rally as Report Points to Easing of Glut The big surprise was a projection that U.S. soybean inventories would fall by a steep 24% U.S. crop prices surged Tuesday, extending an unexpected run in agricultural prices that has drawn in big investors… Continue reading Soybeans Rally
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Home Prices This Year Post Steady But Not Spectacular Gains Median prices for single-family homes rose 6.3% in the first quarter, down from the same period last year Home prices grew moderately in cities across the U.S. in the first quarter, as the market… Continue reading Median Home Prices