<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Gold Shines Again as Hedge Funds Boost Wagers on Advance Gold is precious again. After investors sent bullion tumbling in 2013 by the most in three decades and kept dumping the metal earlier this year, demand is now up and prices are defying bearish forecasts. Money managers… Continue reading Hedge Funds Bet On Gold
<Click on graphic for larger image> Fortune – Carol Loomis: BlackRock: The $4.3 trillion force Larry Fink has spent 26 years building BlackRock into the manager of the most assets on the planet. Now he’s finding that size (and power) can be a mixed blessing Assuming he stays healthy, his style is likely to be… Continue reading BlackRock
Bloomberg.com – Mohamed A. El-Erian: The Upside of Brazil’s Defeat ‘Brazilians might feel that their team’s lack of leadership on the pitch reflects something much bigger — namely, lackluster political leadership at the national level. Their disappointment is likely to be visible quite soon in President Dilma Rousseff’s popularity ratings. With campaigning for the presidential… Continue reading Why Brazil’s Loss Is Bullish!
Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week Audio [audio:https://www.biancoresearch.com/bianco/SubscriberArea/071014.mp3|titles=Conference Call ] Topics Covered This Week Include: Lousy Growth This Is How The Economy Rebounds From Bad Winters What “Bounce?” Potential GDP Job Growth How Useful Is Initial Claims? What Does ISM Measure? Bifurcated Housing Market Why Is The Fed Tapering? End Of Forward Guidance And On… Continue reading Conference Call Presentation/Charts of the Week
Comment On July 10, 2014 at 9 AM CT (10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT, and 15:00 BST), Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. In recent months the economy and markets have been giving mixed signals. While GDP and earnings have been poor,… Continue reading Mixed Signals: The Economy And The Markets
Investor’s Business Daily – Warmer Weather Improving Q2 Earnings Forecasts Businesses don’t have the weather to kick around anymore. That has led analysts to expect improved but not spectacular profit and revenue growth as the second-quarter earnings season kicks off this week. Although the first quarter’s abysmal gross domestic product decline of 2.9% was blamed… Continue reading Q2 Earnings Season Officially Underway
Comment The chart above shows all the expected paths of the fed funds rate since 2009. Remember that the funds rate has held steady at 0.25% throughout this entire period. Restated, opinions on when the Fed will raise rates have been terribly wrong through every part of this recovery. Keep this in mind as you… Continue reading The Federal Reserve’s Forward Guidance
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – This M&A boom is going to end badly Analysis: And stocks will suffer as a result, history shows Splitting up is just the opposite of merging, of course. And, yet, the company’s stock promptly jumped on that news, and today is more than 12% higher than it… Continue reading How The M&A Boom Will End
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg View – Barry Ritholtz: A Correction Is Coming 1) Corrections are a normal part of any market cycle: Every market has regular pullbacks and consolidations. Since the market made its lows in March 2009, it has had nine corrections from more than 6 percent to almost 22 percent,… Continue reading Is The Stock Market Near The Top?
Real-Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Fewer People Are Quitting Their Jobs, And Why That’s Not Good Payroll growth finally has taken off this year, rising solidly above 200,000 jobs per month in the first six months. But what lies beneath the headline number says a lot about the economic outlook. Economists at Goldman Sachs set… Continue reading Less Turnover In Jobs
The Financial Times – Pimco: Lex in-depth Allianz has done well out of Bill Gross’s firm but after 15 years should consider spinning it off Of late the bond fund manager, for so long the group’s golden child, has looked like a troubled teen. Allianz’s management faces awkward questions about where Pimco is going, and… Continue reading Discussing Pimco