The Wall Street Journal – Argentina Bond Battle Enters New Phase Argentina’s feud with a small group of creditors is poised to enter a critical phase. Argentina is on track to miss an interest payment on Monday, setting in motion a 30-day grace period for the country to make the payment and avoid its second… Continue reading Argentina’s Bond Feud
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Creator of ‘Fear Gauge’ Sounds Alarm Over Volatility-Linked ETFs The man who created a widely watched measure of stock-market volatility is sounding the alarm over exchange-traded products that try to track his index. Robert Whaley, the inventor of the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, warned that investors aren’t getting what they… Continue reading The Problem With Many Futures-Based ETFs
The Financial Times – US economy: The productivity puzzle To glimpse the miracle of productivity growth there is nowhere better to look than the bountiful fields of the US Corn Belt. A hundred years ago, an army of farmers toiled to produce 30 bushels an acre; now only a few hands are needed to produce… Continue reading The Limits Of Productivity
The Financial Times – Glass half full for the US economy Another reason why the markets are ignoring any recession risk in the US is that the GDP data are at odds with many other sources of information on the underlying growth rate in the American economy, including the improving employment data, buoyant business surveys,… Continue reading Another Story Dismissing Q1 GDP
The Wall Street Journal – Global Markets’ Strength Doesn’t Reflect Economic Outlook, Central Banks Say Buoyant financial markets are out of sync with the shaky global economic and geopolitical outlook, the Bank for International Settlements said in its annual report published Sunday. The warning from the BIS, a consortium of the world’s top central banks,… Continue reading Central Bankers Comment On Disconnect Between Markets & Economy
The Wall Street Journal – Mutual-Fund King Bill Miller Makes Comeback After 15 years as the best stock picker in the business, Mr. Miller destroyed his reputation during the financial crisis, walked away from the fund that made him rich and famous, and seemed likely to recede into oblivion as the manager of a much… Continue reading Bill Miller
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Stocks’ Biggest Gains Are an Inside Job Quick, what is the stock market’s biggest driver today? Corporate earnings? Interest rates? The Federal Reserve? Some say the correct answer is something people rarely discuss: companies buying back their own stock. Companies purchasing their own shares represent the single biggest category of stock… Continue reading More On Stock Buybacks
The Wall Street Journal – Europe Is Closely Studying Lessons From Japan If Europe is tilting toward becoming the next Japan, does that mean it needs its own version of Abenomics? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announcement last week of fresh measures to improve sluggish growth coincides with an intensified debate in Europe about whether… Continue reading Comparing Europe To Japan
The Financial Times – ‘Just 150 people’ will control UK funds “Just 150 people will hold the fate of the investment management industry in their hands,” said Andrew Power, a partner at Deloitte. In a report, “Seismic shifts in investment management”, published on Monday, Deloitte said more money was being steered into fewer, bigger funds… Continue reading Consolidation In Asset Management
None Today
The Financial Times – Connect the dots to second-guess the Federal Reserve Bond markets fall short of US central bank’s rate forecasts The dots in question relate to a chart that plots when members of the Fed’s open market committee expect future rate rises to begin. The median view among 16 Fed officials is that… Continue reading The Fed’s Dots
Bloomberg.com – Restrained Consumer Spending Curbs U.S. Growth Optimism Consumer spending grew less than forecast in May, putting a damper on the strength of the projected rebound in U.S. economic growth this quarter. Purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, climbed 0.2 percent last month after being little changed in April, the… Continue reading Q2 GDP Estimates Heading In The Wrong Direction