Japan Times – Kuroda approaching limit on JGB buying, says ex-BOJ official Speeding up the Bank of Japan’s purchases of Japanese government bonds would risk further distorting the world’s second-biggest sovereign debt market, said Yuri Okina, vice chairman at Japan Research Institute. “If additional easing is done using government bonds, it may have the considerable… Continue reading Central Bank QE Supply Problems
The New Republic – The Next Subprime Crisis Will Ride on Four Wheels—Unless the Government Stops It These factors have super-charged the market. Subprime customers took out $129.5 billion in auto loans in the first eleven months of 2014, over one-quarter of total auto sales, according to credit-reporting bureau Equifax. And just like in the… Continue reading Auto Loans
Comment Yesterday we hosted a conference call titled “Are We Off To A Disappointing Start?” Below are links to the audio, webcast, and handout: Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/022615.mp3|titles=Conference Call ] [hana-flv-player video=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/022615.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” /] Handout [pageview class=”PDFViewer” url=”https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/wp-content/plugins/PDFViewer/plugin.php?id=246″]
The Financial Times – Investors increase bet on junk bonds Investors are adding to their positions in the junk bond market at a brisk pace. Mutual funds and exchange traded funds investing in high yield corporate debt recorded $1.1bn of inflows in the week to February 25, the fifth consecutive week where flows into the… Continue reading A Rush To Credit
The New York Times – James B. Stewart: As Hedge Fund Returns Falter, Money Continues to Flow In Another year, and another mediocre performance by hedge funds, to put it kindly. The Barclay Hedge Fund Index gained a meager 2.89 percent in 2014, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained over 13 percent and… Continue reading More On Hedge Funds’ Poor Performance
The Financial Times – There are positives to negative yields Markets have entered a sort of Wonderland this year in which up is down and black is white. Negative bond yields, an anomaly some traders say they never expected to see in their lifetime, have spread across Europe, offering investors a guaranteed loss on their… Continue reading Negative Yields
The Wall Street Journal – Oil’s Big Swings Are the New Normal Market has rarely been more volatile; an end to the ‘Groundhog Day’ era Last year’s selloff was driven by unexpectedly strong U.S. oil output coupled with the decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep output steady, leaving the market… Continue reading Crude Oil Volatility
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Why isn’t the Fed worried about collapsing breakevens? An astute observer would notice that this measure of long-term inflation expectations tends to be pretty stable, with a few notable exceptions: the financial crisis, the period shortly before Bernanke telegraphed that a second round of asset… Continue reading Discussing TIPS Inflation Breakeven Rates
Bloomberg.com – Major Firms Are Saying the Stage Is Set for Another Crisis in the Bond Market The stage is set for another financial crisis to unravel years of relative calm in debt markets. At least that’s how firms from UBS Group AG to Invesco Ltd. see it. Here’s why: Prices in the world’s biggest… Continue reading Your Daily Dose Of Bond Market Hate
<Click on chart for larger image> Fortune – Forget Greece, Japan is the world’s real economic time bomb How Japan handles its government debt will have a bigger impact on the U.S. economy. Nevertheless, the situation in Japan, the world’s third largest economy, will have a greater impact on the global economy in the years… Continue reading Concern About Japan
<Click on chart for larger image> Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Greg Ip: ‘Good Deflation’? It Doesn’t Exist Deflation, narrowly defined, returned to the U.S. in January for the first time since 2009 as consumer prices fell 0.1% from a year earlier. Because this was due to cheaper gasoline, economists were quick to dismiss… Continue reading Deflation Is Upon Us