Bloomberg Businessweek – Oil Prices Become a Problem for U.S. Steelmakers … Helping explain the capacity decline is faltering demand for steel pipes and drill bits used in the energy industry after the price of oil plunged 66 percent in the past 18 months. Previously, sales of high-margin products to oil and gas companies had… Continue reading Low Oil Prices Now A Problem For U.S. Steelmakers
<Click on table for larger image> MarketWatch.com – This may be crude oil’s most bullish signal As it stands now, that would mark the worst 18-month decline for Nymex-traded crude since the period ended March 1986, according to Kimble. A whisker lower over the next two trading days would represent the worst 18-month stretch for… Continue reading A Reason To Be Bullish On Crude Oil?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Arbor Quantitative Analytics – S&P 500 – Econ Data Stuck at One-Year Averages = Flat Equity Returns We look for # of crosses above/below one-year averages by economic data as a whole (US Citigroup Economic Data Change Index) on a rolling one-year basis. We have seen 10 such crosses… Continue reading Economic Data And Stock Prices
Real Time Economics – What Economic Forecasters Got Right, and Wrong, in 2015 To assess the predictions, we looked back at the forecasts made in January’s Wall Street Journal survey of economists. The forecasts are presented here, in approximately the order of worst forecast to best. Crude Oil -Average forecast for December 2015: $63/barrel –… Continue reading How Economists Performed In 2015
The Wall Street Journal – Funds That Sought to Cut Risk With Bonds Are Having to Think Again All-in-one mutual funds for people nearing retirement face tough decisions on how much risk—and which risks—to take in search of decent returns. When the stock market tumbled in 2008, “target date” funds for people planning to retire… Continue reading Defining The Bond Market
The Wall Street Journal – A Swan Song for the Fed Dove Who Once Was a Hawk For Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, move from academia to government drove a shift in economic perspective Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, leaves office at the end of this month best known for… Continue reading A Fed Dove Who Was Once A Hawk
The Financial Times – Larry Summers: The Fed and financial reform Bernie Sanders had an oped in the New York Times on Fed reform last week that provides an opportunity to reflect on the Fed and financial reform more generally. I think that the Democratic senator is right in his central point that financial policy… Continue reading Larry Summers Agrees With Bernie Sanders
Wealth Of Common Sense (Blog) – Why Long/Short Funds Have Performed So Poorly? Interest rates. When you short a stock — betting that it will fall in price — you get cash back in return because you are selling the stock in hopes that you will buy it back at a lower price and keep… Continue reading Why Hedge Funds Have Performed Poorly
<Click on chart for larger image> The Washington Post – $2 gasoline isn’t having the economic impact everyone thought it would If low oil prices are a gift to U.S. consumers, why isn’t the U.S. economy growing faster? After all, cheap crude pumps money into consumers’ pockets much the same way a tax cut would.… Continue reading Gas Prices
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Charts of the Week This week we assembled a collection of about 90 of our favorite long-term charts. To view the entire presentation, click on the open button above. For a quick look at the new charts we created for this presentation, click here. Please enjoy. Topics Covered This Week Include: Long Term Interest Rates… Continue reading Charts of the Week
The Wall Street Journal – J.P. Morgan to Increase Deposit Rates for Some Big Clients in January Bank is among first of big peers to boost deposit rates after Fed decision on interest rates J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will raise deposit rates for some of its biggest clients in January, according to a person… Continue reading Banks Offer Depositors Higher Rates