The Wall Street Journal – Strong Dollar Hammers Profits at U.S. Multinationals The soaring dollar is crunching profits at giant U.S. multinationals, prompting Wall Street analysts to make their deepest cuts to earnings forecasts since the financial crisis and boosting the appeal of smaller, domestically focused companies…Analysts, citing the dollar’s strength as a key factor,… Continue reading The Dollar’s Effect On Foreign Sales
The Financial Times – Currency wars rebound on the Fed It is now alleged that almost all the major central banks are engaged in weakening their currencies, if not against each other then certainly relative to commodities, goods and services. Unlike in the 1930s, when all currencies were eventually devalued from the gold standard, monetary… Continue reading Currency Wars
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – No Risk Too Big as Bond Traders Plot Escape From Negative Yields In the negative-yield vortex that is the European bond market, investors are discovering just what lengths they’re willing to go to generate returns. Norway’s $870 billion sovereign wealth fund said this month that it added… Continue reading Negative Yields
Bloomberg Business – Fed May Not Hit Neutral Until 10th Anniversary of Lehman Collapse The Federal Reserve is signaling there will be no neutral for interest rates until at least 2018. Even as Fed Chair Janet Yellen paved the way on Wednesday to higher borrowing costs this year, policy makers cut their median estimate for… Continue reading Critiquing The Central Banks
The Wall Street Journal – Alex Pollock: It’s High Time to ‘Audit’ the Federal Reserve The calls in Washington to “audit” the Federal Reserve are not for a narrow, bean-counting review of the institution’s financial statements. The audit’s goal is more fundamental: to assure that the checks and balances in a democratic government also apply… Continue reading Audit The Fed
The Economist – A leap in the dark How will investors react to America’s first rate increase in nine years? As long as the European Central Bank is buying government bonds in its own QE programme, those yields are likely to stay low. That will probably keep the lid on Treasury yields, too, since income-seeking… Continue reading How Will The Markets React To A Rate Hike?
Bloomberg – Markel Mocks ‘Brainless’ Index Funds, Sees Unhinged Markets Piling money into such baskets of securities is “a relatively brainless activity,” the company said in its annual letter on Friday. “We’ll try to use brains and common sense to avoid the excesses of index strategies while at the same time competing toe-to-toe with them… Continue reading Passive vs. Active Investing
The New York Times – Heads Aren’t Inflated at the Fed, With Playful Parting Gifts From Yellen Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, delivered a clever parting gift to a pair of retiring reserve bank presidents who have repeatedly warned that she is leading the Fed down a path that may unleash dangerous inflation. Charles… Continue reading Yellen’s Sense Of Humor
None Today
Comment Yesterday we hosted a conference call titled “The FOMC Meeting, the Economy & Earnings“. Below are links to the audio, webcast, and handout: Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/031915.mp3|titles=Conference Call ] [hana-flv-player video=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/031915.flv” width=”600″ height=”495″ description=”” player=”3″ autoload=”false” autoplay=”false” loop=”false” autorewind=”true” splashimage=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/splash.jpg” /] [pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=248″]
Comment Jim Bianco was on Bloomberg TV yesterday discussing the Federal Reserve. To view the interview click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews, click here. <Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Fed ‘dot plot’ is latest key to rate rise views The Federal Reserve junked its… Continue reading Is The Dot Chart Now The Fed’s Most Important Form Of Guidance?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg – Fed’s Evans Says Rate Rise Should Wait Amid Economic Uncertainty ederal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans, who votes on policy this year, said in a research paper that interest rates should remain near zero for longer amid “substantial uncertainty” about inflation and employment. “The biggest… Continue reading The “You Cannot Be Serious” Dot