<Click on charts for larger image> <Click on charts for larger image> The Financial Times – Is it time to halt the rise of the ETF machine? Like any good gardener, the US financial regulator has decided that the rapidly expanding exchange traded fund market may need pruning to ensure healthy growth. Just a couple… Continue reading Too Many ETFs?
Bloomberg Business – Ameriprise Slumps After Client Pulls Funds in Liquidity Squeeze Asset manager’s stock slump extends to 18% this year Ameriprise Financial Inc. slumped in New York trading after reporting that profit fell as customers pulled more funds. The asset manager dropped $3.52, or 3.9 percent, to $87.59 at 12:50 p.m. in New York,… Continue reading Struggling Managers
<Click on graphic for larger iamge> The Economist – Buttonwood: The crazy world of credit Where negative yields and worries about default coincide According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), around €65 billion ($71 billion) of European corporate bonds are trading on negative yields; in other words, investors lose money by holding them. Yet… Continue reading Looking For Credit Stress
None Today
Comment Today at 9 AM CT (10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT, and 15:00 GMT), Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Join us today as we discuss how oil, China, the economy and the Fed are affecting the financial markets. Click here to… Continue reading On Oil, China, The Economy and The Fed
The Federal Reserve – Press Release: January 27, 2016 Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee currently expects that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace and labor market indicators will continue to strengthen. Inflation… Continue reading The FOMC Statement
Comment After each FOMC meeting, we highlight a St. Louis Fed study on the rising complexity of the FOMC statement. As the charts below show, both the word count and the Flesch-Kincaid level have come down from their peaks of the past couple years (the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measures the number of years of school… Continue reading Understanding Fedspeak
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Traders Still Disagree With the Fed on Rate-Rise Path The Federal Reserve didn’t change very many minds. Fed officials kept a March interest-rate rise on the table Wednesday, but a key market used to bet on central bank policy… Continue reading The Markets vs. The Fed
The Wall Street Journal – Greg Ip: Why China Should Welcome More Volatility China’s leadership prizes stability. Its economic growth always seems to hit the government’s target and its currency, the yuan, seldom fluctuated. Until now. After years of going only up, gradually, the yuan has become unpredictable and volatile. In the short run, this… Continue reading Volatility In China
CNBC – Apple begins to see signs of ‘softness’ in China Apple began to see “some signs of economic softness” in its Greater China region earlier this month, according to CEO Tim Cook. Despite boasting the company’s “best results ever” in the region (which also includes Taiwan and Hong Kong), Cook acknowledged “the turbulent environment.”… Continue reading Be Careful When CEOs Pontificate On The Economy
Bloomberg.com – Mark Buchanan: Economics Might Be Very Wrong About Growth Has the world entered a period in which economies simply won’t grow at the rate they once did? Radical as the thought may seem, it might not be radical enough. A few years ago, the economist Larry Summers stirred much debate when he suggested… Continue reading Revisiting The New Normal
<Click on graphic for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Justin Lahart: Why the Fed Has the Stock Market Spooked Investors have grown accustomed to getting help from the Federal Reserve. But in a world where American companies are tethered less tightly to the U.S. economy, that help may not be so forthcoming…One reason… Continue reading Raising Rates Despite Declining Corporate Profits