<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – The Market Is Flashing an Inflation Warning Sign. Should Anyone Care? The market is craving inflation. By one measure, it isn’t expected anytime soon. After trending downward for more than a year, the inflation gauge known as the five-year, five-year forward inflation break-even rate… Continue reading Inflation Expectations
Comment Yesterday Jim Bianco was interviewed on Bloomberg Radio. The topics of conversation included oil prices and the future of FOMC policy. To hear the interview, click on the button below. Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/0120JimBianco.mp3|titles=Bloomberg Radio ] <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on table for larger image>
<Click on chart for larger image> The New York Times – U.S. Hedge Funds Boast Lower Losses as Markets Tumble Further More broadly though, hedge funds, which oversee $2.9 trillion in assets for pension funds, governments, and wealthy private investors, have lost only 2.5 percent, Hedge Fund Research data show, besting the benchmark stock indices’… Continue reading Active Managers Do Well In A Falling Market
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Credit Strains Intensifying as Carlyle, Staples Meet Resistance The riskiest parts of corporate debt markets are inching closer to panic mode. Just ask Mark Heron, head of distressed debt at hedge fund Ellington Management Group. A dealer offered to sell him a loan at 97 cents on… Continue reading Credit Market Strains
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Oil Glut Pushes Russia’s Ruble to New Low Currency slides past psychologically important threshold of 80 to the dollar. The Russian ruble reached all-time lows on Wednesday, driving home a new reality for the country’s oil-dependent economy: life at $30 a barrel. The ruble… Continue reading The Collapsing Ruble
The Wall Street Journal – Greg Ip: Markets’ Panic Incongruent With Economic Reality—For Now Financial markets are in a panic over a sharp economic downturn that has yet to make an appearance—and may never. Many of the world’s biggest stock markets, including the U.K.’s and Japan’s, are now in bear-market territory, that is off 20%… Continue reading The Markets vs. The Economy
The Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Fears of global liquidity crunch haunt Davos elites Rising Fed interest rates means “liquidity could drop dramatically, and that scares everyone”, warns IMF deputy The International Monetary Fund is increasingly alarmed by signs that market liquidity is drying up and may trigger an even more violent global sell-off if… Continue reading Liquidity Concerns
The Wall Street Journal – PBOC Makes Aggressive Cash Injection China’s central bank this week made its most aggressive move in four years to pump cash into the country’s financial system, in an effort to pre-empt a holiday-induced funding squeeze at a time of rapid capital flight. The People’s Bank of China offered 400 billion… Continue reading Chinese Intervention
The New York Review of Books – The EU Is on the Verge of Collapse’—An Interview The following is a revised version of an interview between George Soros and Gregor Peter Schmitz of the German magazine WirtschaftsWoch Gregor Peter Schmitz: Merkel used to be very cautious and deliberate. People could trust her. But in the… Continue reading Scary Europe Talk
Reuters – Gundlach: Declines not stopping anytime soon, suggest ‘margin calls’ taking place In a telephone interview, Gundlach said he did not expect the high-yield junk bond market to bottom out unless the volatility index rises over 40. “This is not stopping any time soon,” Gundlach said. The CBOE Volatility Index was up more than… Continue reading Gundlach Warns Of More Declines
Bloomberg.com – Gross Says Global Selloff Shows Failure of Central Bank Efforts Dow’s 3 percent plunge opens opportunities from liquidations Market’s deleveraging is behind `Wile E. Coyote’ style selloff The rout in global markets is being triggered by investors seeking to reduce leverage as central bank efforts to prop up economies have little effect, according… Continue reading Bill Gross Critiques Central Banks
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Hang Seng Index Sinks Below Net Assets for First Time Since 1998 Hong Kong’s benchmark stock index deepens bear-market rout Concern over capital outflows, weaker dollar spurs selloff Hong Kong stocks fell below the value of their net assets for the first time since 1998 as concerns… Continue reading The Hang Seng Index