<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch – Gold futures extend losses to a fifth-straight session Gold futures on Tuesday extended their declines to a fifth-straight session, but stuck to a tight trading range, as traders looked to U.S. economic data for clues on the demand outlook for the metal… “With gold’s strong first quarter,… Continue reading Gold
Bloomberg.com – Gross Worst as Volatility Spikes in Fund: Riskless Return Bill Gross is taking investors in his $232 billion Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX) for a rough ride. The world’s largest bond fund produced the worst risk-adjusted return over the past year among 16 U.S. intermediate-term funds with at least $5 billion in assets,… Continue reading The Bad Press Continues For Pimco
The Wall Street Journal – High-Speed Trader Virtu Delays IPO Launch Amid a growing clamor over the role of high-frequency traders in the markets, Virtu Financial Inc. has delayed the start of its pitch to investors on its initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The high-speed trading firm decided late Tuesday… Continue reading The Award For Poor Timing Goes To…
The Federal Reserve – Chair Janet L. Yellen: What the Federal Reserve Is Doing to Promote a Stronger Job Market Since late 2008, the Fed has taken extraordinary steps to revive the economy. At the height of the crisis, we provided liquidity to help avert a collapse of the financial system, which enabled banks and… Continue reading Did Yellen Really Say Anything New Yesterday?
<Click on chart for larger image> Zero Hedge (Blog) – $242 Billion: That Is How Much Record “Window Dressing” Banks Got Today Thanks To The Fed The last time banks scrambled to pad their books into the quarter end, and come begging at the front door of the NY Fed’s Liberty 33 office, was on… Continue reading The Fed’s Fixed Rate Reverse Repo Facility
<Click on chart for larger image> <Click on chart for larger image> Investing.com – April Markets: Playing The Seasonal Patterns The month of April is the best month for the S&P 500 based on percentage change for the month, with an average monthly percent change of +2.09% since 1993. The month of April is second… Continue reading Market Seasonality
<Click on chart for larger image> Business Insider – Corporate America Continues To Be Super-Negative About Earnings Guidance “For Q1 2014, 93 companies in the S&P 500 have issued negative EPS guidance and 18 companies have issued positive EPS guidance,” noted FactSet’s John Butters. “If these are the final numbers, it will mark the second… Continue reading Corporate Guidance
Project Syndicate – Nouriel Roubini: The Changing Face of Global Risk For starters, there is the risk of a hard landing in China. The rebalancing of growth away from fixed investment and toward private consumption is occurring too slowly, because every time annual GDP growth slows toward 7%, the authorities panic and double down on… Continue reading Nouriel Roubini Speaks
The Wall Street Journal – OECD, G-20: Inflation Slows in World’s Largest Economies The continuing decline in the rate of inflation across developed countries will worry central bankers, since many regard annual price rises of 2% as consistent with healthy economic growth. The decline in the inflation rate was driven by lower energy prices, while… Continue reading Falling Short Of Inflation Targets Across The Globe
The Financial Times – Returns from corporate debt beat equities It is the first time since the second quarter of 2012 that Bloomberg’s corporate bond indices have enjoyed better returns than their equity counterparts, casting a dismal light on the slew of analyst predictions earlier this year that stock returns would leave bonds trailing again.… Continue reading Corporate Debt Outperforms Equities In Q1
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Eurozone unemployment refuses to budge from near-record highs Unemployment in the eurozone has stayed close to record highs, despite signs the currency bloc’s recovery is on a stable, if lacklustre, footing. The jobless rate for the currency bloc remained at 11.9 per cent, with estimates… Continue reading Europe’s Unemployment Rate Remains High