The Financial Times – Music shifts for credit investors in 2015 The music kept playing in credit markets in 2015, but the tune definitely changed. The return of corporate credit shocks jolted bond investors over the past 12 months, with portfolio managers in both European high-grade and US junk and investment-grade debt nursing considerable losses… Continue reading Corporate Credit
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – US dollar on track for worst month since April Well, this is counter-intuitive: last week the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The result: the US dollar is on track to have its biggest decline in eight months.… Continue reading The Dollar Has A Bad Month
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Global dealmaking breaks 2007 record Overall, dealmakers appeared confident there was scope for more M&A, as merger activity in 2015 as a percentage of market value was below the percentage for 2007. Thomson Reuters’ figures also show the median multiple of deal value to earnings… Continue reading M&A Hits A New Record
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Gas Is So Cheap You Could Drink It (But Don’t) The decline in fuel costs over the past year returned gasoline prices to their rightful place: cheaper than a gallon of milk. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell below… Continue reading Gas Prices Fall Below $2
CNBC – Can last-minute shoppers save the holiday season With the deadline to get gifts under the tree creeping closer, procrastinators around the U.S. provided a much-needed boost to retailers during the final weekend before Christmas. But as steep discounts continued to percolate, analysts said the lift was likely too little too late to salvage… Continue reading Retailers Are Having A Slow Holiday Season
Bloomberg View – Mark Gilbert: Fed and Greece Could Defy the 2016 Bears At the start of this century, the so-called Goldilocks economy — with both growth and inflation not too hot, not too cold — was lauded as a thing of wonder and a joy to behold. The boom-bust cycle would become the province… Continue reading The Markets In 2016
Institutional Investor – Is Unicorn Just Another Word for Subprime? A number of privately held tech companies have generated valuations over $1 billion. Some experts see that as a problem. Plenty of ink has been spilled over the mushrooming number of young, privately held technology companies valued at more than $1 billion. These companies are… Continue reading Unicorns And Subprime
The Wall Street Journal – Justin Lahart: Why Markets Aren’t in the Holiday Spirit There is more than pricey stocks behind this tepid month With the S&P 500 down about 3% this month, the stock market is having one of its worst Decembers on record. Absent a late comeback, what has tended to be the… Continue reading Stocks Continue To Have A Bad Month
The Wall Street Journal – Investors in Carlyle’s Claren Road Sought to Withdraw $1 Billion in Quarter Nearly $2 billion in such requests were made in third quarter; repayments will be delayed Investors in Carlyle Group LP’s Claren Road Asset Management asked to withdraw nearly $1 billion in the fourth quarter, according to people familiar… Continue reading More Withdrawals At Claren Road
<Click on chart for larger image> CNBC – Volatility is spreading like a virus: Strategist While broad measures of market volatility aren’t showing outlandish readings, volatility is being transmitted among subsets of the market like a virus. So observes Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex. “We’re seeing risk filter through in ways that aren’t… Continue reading Volatility In The Markets
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<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Money-Fund Yields Are Rising After the Fed Move Investors in some money funds may not see the full increase in short-term market interest rates The yields on money-market mutual funds already are starting to tick up in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s boost… Continue reading Money Yield Rising