The Wall Street Journal – Apartment Rents Rise as Incomes Stagnate Apartment landlords continued to push through hefty rent hikes in the second quarter, squeezing U.S. households that already are struggling financially after four years of steady increases. The average monthly rent for an apartment rose to $1,099 in the second quarter, up 0.8% from… Continue reading Rents Rise As Income Remains Unchanged Since 1990
The Financial Post – David Rosenberg: The Fed is ‘playing with fire’ First, the unemployment rate, with all its imperfections, is at just about the same level today as it was when the Fed began to move off its zero real interest rate policy of the prior two cycles, which began in 1994 and 2003.… Continue reading How The Fed Is Playing With Fire
The Hill – Another financial meltdown on the horizon? A report issued on Sunday by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warns that policymakers have failed to address the root problems that caused the 2007-2008 financial meltdown. Instead of taking a long-term perspective aimed at increasing real economic productivity and output — the kind that… Continue reading More On The BIS Warning
The Financial Times – Vix market fear gauge goes global Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ is going global. After success in the US, where betting on share price swings has become firmly established, the Chicago Board Options Exchange is rolling out its Vix equity volatility index into new markets. Ed Tilly, the exchange’s chief executive, says… Continue reading The VIX Goes Global
The Financial Times – Active management is alive and kicking Some argue active management is a corpse waiting to be buried. In the past three years, actively managed domestic equity funds underperformed the S&P total stock market index by 78 per cent. Investor sentiment shadowed this gain, with more than $127bn flocking to mutual funds… Continue reading Active Money Management Is Not Dead
Bloomberg.com – Admitting Problem Is First Step as HSBC Ditches ‘Optimism Bias’ If recovery starts by admitting you have a problem, then HSBC Holdings Plc economists are taking the first step. They say they’ve overestimated global growth prospects for each of the last three years by being too upbeat after the 2008 financial crisis. They’re… Continue reading HSBC’s Optimism Slows
USA Today – How robots will write earnings stories for the AP The Associated Press is going robotic. The news service revealed Monday it will employ the story-writing software by start-up Automated Insights to automate the production of U.S. corporate earnings stories, the quarterly bane of the existence of many business reporters. The AP typically… Continue reading Robots To Write Earnings Reports
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<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters – UPDATE 1-Fed awards record amount of reverse repos The Federal Reserve awarded a record amount of reverse repurchase agreements to banks, money market funds and mortgage finance agencies on Monday, according to the New York Federal Reserve. Investors piled money with the U.S. central bank on Monday… Continue reading New Record For Reverse Repos
<Click on chart for larger image> New York Post – Hot market is just a lot of bull On Wall Street, there’s an adage, “Don’t confuse brains with a bull market.” Fed chief Janet Yellen should have that crocheted and framed and hang it in her office. On Wednesday, the final first-quarter GDP was announced… Continue reading The Fed’s Errant Forecast … Again
Zero Hedge – BIS Slams “Market Euphoria”, Finds “Puzzling Disconnect” Between Economy And Market “… it is hard to avoid the sense of a puzzling disconnect between the markets’ buoyancy and underlying economic developments globally…. Despite the euphoria in financial markets, investment remains weak. Instead of adding to productive capacity, large firms prefer to buy… Continue reading The BIS Warns About Markets
Money Beat (WSJ Blog) – Economists Haven’t Been This Upbeat About Jobs Since 2010 Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal predict the economy added 218,000 jobs in June. During the five-year economic recovery, the only time that the consensus estimate was higher was in May 2010, a month in which figures were sharply inflated… Continue reading Economists Are Bullish On Jobs!