The New York Post – John Crudele: US stock market is just way too riggin’ easy The stock market is rigged. When I started making that claim years ago — and provided solid evidence — people scoffed. Some called it a conspiracy theory, tinfoil hats and that sort of stuff. Most people just ignored me.… Continue reading The Stock Market Is Rigged!
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: The Anomaly That Is The Payroll Report The Anomaly That Is The Payroll Report – 2 Slumping Crude Oil Slumping Crude Oil – 2 Crude Oil: The Asset That Everyone Loves Examining The Port Slowdown’s Effect On GDP Examining The Port Slowdown’s Effect On GDP –… Continue reading Charts of the Week
Goldman Sachs – David Mericle: Has Employment Growth Been Running Too Hot? (No Link) We use the model to project employment growth through 2016. To do so, we use our baseline growth and investment forecasts and assume that the recent rate of multi-factor productivity growth remains unchanged. To be clear, we assume that GDP growth… Continue reading The Anomaly That Is The Payroll Report
Bloomberg View – Megan McArdle: Where Have All Our Wages Gone? Many theories have been advanced for why unions, and median wages, aren’t growing very fast. Some say there’s a causal link, which runs something like this: The Reagan administration gutted union protections, making it harder to organize workers. Without a powerful union to represent… Continue reading More On Wages And Productivity In The U.S.
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> Zach’s – Previewing the Q1 Earnings Season Overall, total earnings for the index are expected to be down -5.3% from the same period last year… Continue reading Previewing 2015 Earnings
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up A pickup in consumer prices and higher demand for new homes point to a firming in two areas of recent concern for the economy, potentially reassuring the Federal Reserve as it considers raising interest rates later this year. The… Continue reading Inflation In The U.S.
MarketWatch.com – Fed’s Bullard sees Europe’s QE pushing U.S. closer to rate hike St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the European Central Bank’s 60-billion-euro-a-month (or $65.5 billion) bond-buying has already provided a boost to the U.S. recovery and could help spur the first rake hike in the U.S. since 2006. “It drove U.S.… Continue reading Bullard Speaks
Bloomberg Business – Banks Offload Crisis Debt Relics in Sign of European ABS Revival European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s plan to stimulate Europe’s economy by buying asset-backed securities is starting to show signs of working. The ECB’s purchase of 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) of notes since November is pushing prices to the highest… Continue reading Is Draghi’s Plan Working?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg Business – The 20 Million Barrels of Pure Profit Sitting in U.S. Oil Tanks Just as Wall Street says the U.S. is running out of room to store oil, it turns out there’s another 20 million barrels of empty space. Where? Right at the top of the tanks.… Continue reading The “Contingency” Storage Space In U.S. Oil Tanks
The Financial Times – Low returns drag down US shale oil industry In the boom years of the US shale oil industry, profitability was something of an optional extra. Companies were focused on growth, it was easy to raise capital, and making a decent return on investment could be put off for another day. Now… Continue reading The U.S. Shale Oil Industry Continues To Suffer
Bloomberg Business – Iran Has a Little Surprise for Oil Market Lifting oil sanctions on Iran could hit global markets long before the nation starts pumping more crude. That’s because the OPEC member has been stockpiling oil onshore and in supertankers in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While estimates of the… Continue reading Oil Sanctions In Iran