Bloomberg.com – Lisa Abramowicz: Debt Traders to Fed: We Dare You to Try Raising Rates This Year Go ahead, Federal Reserve, keep trying to prepare markets for an interest-rate increase this year. It isn’t working. The longer U.S. central bankers wait to initiate their tightening cycle, the more traders push back their expectations for when… Continue reading New Low In Fed Funds Futures Implied Yield
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Tight Mortgage Market Keeps Lid on Americans’ Debt Levels Overall borrowings edge up 0.2% to $11.85 trillion; delinquency rates improve .S. borrowers are playing it safe this year, with overall debt levels largely flat in the first quarter amid tight mortgage lending and hints… Continue reading U.S. Debt
<Click on chart for larger image> Zero Hedge – The History Of Treasury Market Liquidity (And Lack Thereof) In One Chart Some more thoughts from Credit Suisse: Shallower depth at times of higher volatility is at once a symptom and a source of the extreme price moves. Historically, market depth – which we measure as… Continue reading Treasury Liquidity
Bloomberg.com – Dollar Bulls Wondering What Went Wrong in Drop to Four-Month Low Dollar bulls are dealing with yet another setback, leaving investors to ponder what’s left of the rally that had pundits talking of dollar hegemony just months ago. The U.S. currency is lingering at the lowest level in almost four months after a… Continue reading Euro Bears/Dollar Bulls
The Wall Street Journal – China Launches Stimulus Aimed at Local Debt Crisis China is launching a broad stimulus to help local governments restructure trillions of dollars in debts while prodding banks to lend more, as fresh data added to signs of a worsening slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. In a joint directive marked… Continue reading The PBoC Strikes Again
<Click on graphic for larger image> Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Top CEOs Make 373 Times the Average U.S. Worker The average U.S. worker has seen wages climb slowly over the past year. The average big-company chief executive has seen compensation jump far more substantially. CEOs at the nation’s largest publicly traded companies received… Continue reading CEO Pay
Chicago Business – Moody’s piles on, downgrades Chicago schools and parks Moody’s Investors Service dropped two other hammers on Chicago taxpayers today, downgrading debt on both Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Park District to junk levels … Both downgrades are three – level drops. And Moody’s left both on negative watch, meaning that further… Continue reading Chicago Downgraded
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Is Financial Stability Still The #1 Concern For The Fed? Is Financial Stability Still The #1 Concern For The Fed? – 2 The Bond Market Rout Labor Force Participation Rate Employment In Pictures Payrolls Retail Sales Disappoint Crude Prices Are Not Rising On A Massive Short… Continue reading Charts of the Week
The Wall Street Journal – Fed Officials Tell Markets the Training Wheels Are Off What the Fed wants to achieve is “well specified” and “market participants should be able to think right along with policymakers, adjusting their views about the prospects for normalization in response to the incoming data,” New York Fed President William Dudley… Continue reading Is Financial Stability Still The #1 Concern For The Fed?
Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC with Rick Santelli discussing the bond market. To view the interview, click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews, click here. The charts below show two measures of bond market sentiment. In the wake of the October 15 bond “yield flash crash”, hot money ran… Continue reading Discussing The Bond Market
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Retail Sales Flat in April U.S. retail sales barely budged in April, a sign of continued consumer caution heading into the spring. Sales at retailers and restaurants held steady from the prior month at a seasonally adjusted $436.8 billion, the Commerce Department said… Continue reading Retail Sales Misses Estimates Again