<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – China’s Economy Stabilized in First Quarter GDP expands 6.7% as retail, factory output, investment pick up Credit surge raises question marks over growth sustainability China’s economy stabilized last quarter and gathered pace in March as a surge in new credit spurred a property sector rebound while raising… Continue reading Chinese GDP Growth
Dr. Ed’s Blog – Ed Yardeni: The Shanghai Conspiracy I love conspiracy theories. They help to explain puzzling developments that don’t make much sense unless there is a conspiracy behind them. The conspiracy theory du jour is that at the February 26-27 meeting of the G20 finance ministers in Shanghai, the Chinese threatened to devalue… Continue reading Is China Telling The Fed What To Do?
The Wall Street Journal – Negative Rates Around the World: How One Danish Couple Gets Paid Interest on Their Mortgage In Denmark and Sweden, savings accounts pay nothing and real estate is booming Central banks rely on benchmark rates to spur or cool their economies. They want inflation to be low but steady. When prices… Continue reading All About Japan’s Negative Rates
Bloomberg.com – Fixed-Income Investors Have 99 Ways to Trade and One Big Problem Number of electronic corporate bond trading platforms surges Dwindling market liquidity may undermine their success If investors are right that it’s getting harder to trade bonds, it’s not for lack of places for buyers and sellers to meet. The bond market now… Continue reading Trading Treasuries
Reuters – BOJ warming to idea of buying more stocks funds: sources Bank of Japan officials are growing more receptive to stepping up monetary easing measures by buying more exchange-traded funds (ETF) invested in shares, as a stock market tumble and weak global growth threaten the country’s fragile economic recovery. BOJ policymakers are wary of… Continue reading The BoJ Wants To Buy More Stocks
Bloomberg.com – Investors Pour $10.7 Billion Into Junk Bonds as Fears Fade Bond pickers at Pimco, BlackRock high-yield funds led gainers Defaults for U.S. high-yield bonds are rising in April Investors poured the most money in more than four years into junk-bond debt last month as memories faded of December’s collapse of Third Avenue Management’s… Continue reading The Return Of Junk Bonds?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Oil Falls Before Doha as Global Markets Brace for Weekend Risk Bonds advance, stocks in Europe halt five-day gain on Friday Kiwi, won lead currency gains after China’s economic data Oil fell for a third day before major suppliers meet in Doha to discuss an output freeze,… Continue reading The OPEC Doha Meeting Is Sunday
Blackrock – Larry Fink: To my fellow shareholders Investors today are facing tremendous uncertainty fueled by slowing economic growth, technological disruption and social and geopolitical instability. Particularly worrying is the adoption of negative interest rates by central banks attempting to spark economic growth. Their actions are severely punishing the world’s savers and creating incentives to… Continue reading Larry Fink Speaks
<Click on chart for larger image>
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – How Millennials and Low-Income Consumers Are Propping Up the U.S. Economy Younger consumers and those with lower incomes punched above their weight class in the final months of 2015 fueling a 2.35% increase in year-over-year spending in December in 15 U.S. metro areas, according to… Continue reading IRS vs. BLS And The Gig Economy
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – US chief executives talking down profits will work — but not for long What has happened to earnings forecasts so far this year goes far beyond earnings manipulation as usual. As it stands, only three sectors — consumer discretionary, healthcare and the now very small… Continue reading Has Earnings Pessimism Gone Too Far?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – NYC Pension Weighs Liquidating $1.5 Billion Hedge Fund Portfolio New York City’s pension fund for civil employees is weighing exiting its $1.5 billion portfolio of hedge fund investments because of lagging performance, high fees and the riskiness of the asset class. A vote to terminate the funds,… Continue reading Hedge Fund Performance