<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Fed’s RRP Facility Usage May Hit $500b at End-3Q, JPM Says (no link) While some factors pushing O/N RRP usage higher are calendar-related, others are more permanent and reflect “significant changes” attributable to shifting regulatory landscape, JPMorgan strategists led by Alex Roever wrote in weekly note Sept.… Continue reading The Fed’s Reverse Repo Facility
The Wall Street Journal – Companies’ Stock Buybacks Help Buoy the Market Share Repurchases Are at Fastest Clip Since Financial Crisis Companies are buying their own shares at the briskest clip since the financial crisis, helping fuel a stock rally amid a broad trading slowdown. Corporations bought back $338.3 billion of stock in the first… Continue reading Stock Repurchases
The Financial Times – Europe stock fund inflows reverse sharply European shares have lost their allure. Strong inflows into equity funds in the first half of this year have gone sharply into reverse. Western European equity investment funds saw outflows in nine of the past 10 weeks, according to an analysis for the Financial Times… Continue reading Are Investors Bailing Out Of Europe?
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Rouble tumbles to fresh record low The rouble fell to a new record low against the dollar on Monday, sliding for the sixth consecutive day as clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels continued despite a recent ceasefire. The… Continue reading Ukraine Still Matters
The Financial Times – US alarmed by prospect of Scottish ‘Yes’ in independence vote A “Yes” vote for independence would be an economic mistake for Scotland and a geopolitical disaster for the west, senior US figures – including Alan Greenspan – tell the Financial Times as Washington wakes up to the chance that its closest… Continue reading More On The Scottish Vote
The Financial Times – ‘Trend-following’ algo funds back in fashion They are the fashion victims of the hedge funds world: funds that make money by copying exactly what everyone else has been doing. But more recently “trend following” trading strategies were regarded by investors as distinctly passé. For most of the past decade, computer driven… Continue reading Silicon Based Traders Beat Carbon Based Traders
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Calpers to Exit Hedge Funds Pension Plan to Shed $4 Billion Investment to Simplify Its Assets, Reduce Costs The largest U.S. public pension plan is getting out of hedge funds as part of an effort to simplify its assets and reduce costs, a retreat… Continue reading Calpers Is Exiting Hedge Funds
Bloomberg Briefs – Making CDS Worth the Paper It’s Written On Now ISDA is trying to lift the fog. ISDA’s new legal CDS 2014 definitions will be adopted by the market on Sept. 22, which is the next “roll” date. The new definitions replace the decade-old 2003 definitions. Government bail-in is one ambiguity that will… Continue reading More On The Problem With CDS
FiveThirtyEight.com – Senate Update: Democrats Draw Almost Even. Is It The Money? When we officially launched our forecast model two weeks ago, it had Republicans with a 64 percent chance of taking over the Senate after this fall’s elections. Now Republican chances are about 55 percent instead. We’ve never quite settled on the semantics of… Continue reading Mid-Term Elections
The Wall Street Journal – Venture Capitalist Sounds Alarm on Startup Investing Silicon Valley Has Taken on Too Much Risk, Gurley Says Silicon Valley is a risk-driven place. But over the past year, it may have taken on more than it can handle, according to one prominent venture capitalist. “I think that Silicon Valley as… Continue reading A Venture Capital Bubble?
Bloomberg Brief – Bloomberg Estimate Shows China GDP Growth at Lowest Since 2009 The Bloomberg China monthly GDP estimate is constructed based on an econometric model of the relationship between quarterly GDP growth and a set of monthly activity indicators. The first es- timate incorporates industrial production, investment, retail sales and exports. The sharp drop… Continue reading China Slows