MarketWatch.com – A breakdown of how the market performs after midterm elections As you may already know, Republicans have a lot of momentum going into Tuesday’s midterm elections. But what you may not know is how the market performs in the wake of these hard-fought midterm election battles, which are held at the midpoint of… Continue reading Gridlock Is Good!
Polling Error In The Top Senate Races 538 Blog – Nate Silver: Senate Polls Had A Significant Democratic Skew The pre-election polling averages (not the FiveThirtyEight forecasts, which also account for other factors) in the 10 most competitive Senate races had a 6-percentage point Democratic bias as compared to the votes counted in each state… Continue reading About The Political Polls
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Oil Prices Fall to Three-Year Lows Saudi Arabia’s surprise price cut reverberated through the oil market for a second day, with U.S. crude plunging to a three-year low as producers showed no signs of moving to reduce a global supply glut. U.S. oil… Continue reading Crude Oil Plunges
The Financial Times – Martin Wolf: Warnings from Japan for the eurozone Europe has been unwilling to address the structural excess savings of creditor countries Japan is no longer governed by consensus. This is true at least of its monetary policy. Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan, launched still greater “quantitative and qualitative… Continue reading Japan
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Gold Falls to 4½-Year Low Gold prices in Europe slumped on Wednesday, as negative sentiment returned due to the Federal Reserve’s hawkishness, the dollar’s rosy prospects and economic strength in the U.S. Spot gold was trading down 2.0% at $1,144.99 a troy ounce in… Continue reading Gold Falls
The Wall Street Journal – Fed’s Bullard Upbeat on Economy, Sees No Need for New Stimulus Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said in a television interview Tuesday that he is upbeat about the economy and doesn’t think any new central bank stimulus is needed to help keep the U.S. on track… Continue reading The Federal Reserve
The Wall Street Journal – Investors Pulled Record Amount From Pimco’s Flagship Fund in October Amount of $27.5 Billion Marks Mutual-Fund Industry Record Investors yanked an industry record $27.5 billion from Pacific Investment Management Co.’s flagship fund last month as the surprise exit of co-founder Bill Gross took its toll on the firm he co-founded.… Continue reading Pimco Withdrawals
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – EU Cuts Eurozone Growth Forecast Commission Cites Tensions in Ukraine, Middle East The European Commission on Tuesday cut its growth forecasts for the eurozone and the European Union, citing the tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East along with a lack of investment. The… Continue reading A Very Predictable Event: EU Cuts Its GDP Forecast
Bloomberg.com – GPIF’s Strategy Shift Means Adding $187 Billion to Stocks Japan’s public retirement savings manager is set to pump $187 billion into stock markets across the globe as the world’s biggest pension fund implements a new investment strategy aimed at enhancing returns. The Government Pension Investment Fund will have to buy 9.8 trillion yen… Continue reading Japan’s Government Pensions Buy Stocks
The New York – U.S. Oil Prices Fall Below $80 a Barrel The benchmark American oil price fell below the symbolic $80-a-barrel threshold on Monday, swooning to two-year lows, after Saudi Arabia aimed to shore up its dwindling exports to the United States by cutting its selling price for the American market. The Saudi move… Continue reading Slumping Oil Prices
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Gold Bulls Retreat With $1.3 Billion Pulled From Funds Speculators cut their bullish gold bets before prices tumbled to the lowest since 2010 as demand for a hedge against inflation diminished. The net-long position in New York futures and options declined for the first time in three… Continue reading Gold Continues To Slump