MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – No Bubble Here Warnings of an impending stock-market bubble are everywhere. But one important, and perhaps underrated, indicator says investors shouldn’t worry so much. Nine of the 10 biggest S&P 500 companies currently trade at price-to-earnings ratios of less than 20, according to Bespoke Investment Group. At the peak of the… Continue reading Quantifying Bubbles
The Wall Street Journal – New York Fed Looked at Foreign-Exchange Benchmark in 2012 U.S. Regulator Studied Whether Key Rate Could Be Manipulated; Took No Public Action at the Time The Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2012 studied whether a key foreign-exchange benchmark could be subject to manipulation, but it didn’t take any… Continue reading Rigging The Currency Market
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – US to release oil from strategic reserve The US has announced its first “test” sale of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, in a move that underlines its ability to respond to any energy market turmoil that might arise… Continue reading The Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The New York Times – Peter Eavis: Regulators Size Up Wall Street, With Worry Money laundering, market rigging, tax dodging, selling faulty financial products, trampling homeowner rights and rampant risk-taking — these are some of the sins that big banks have committed in recent years. Now, some government authorities are publicly questioning whether such misdeeds… Continue reading Corruption At The Big Banks
Business Insider – US Profit Growth Is Much Weaker Than Reported Net income is not without its issues. For example, net income could get distorted by a variety of nonrecurring or one-time items that aren’t part of an company’s ongoing business. These items include asset write-down, gains on asset sales, or restructuring charges. This is… Continue reading How To Measure Corporate Performance
Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Will Reverse Repo Become The New Funds Rate? 10- Year TIPS Breakeven Inflation Rate Corporate Issuance Corporate Bond Flows Updated Look At Credit Household Net Worth Household Assets The Myth Of Cash On The Sidelines Starting A Hedge Fund The “New” American Dream Flows Into Equities… Continue reading Charts of the Week
Bloomberg Brief – The Devil Lurking in the Retail Store Closure Details In last month’s Sears Holding quarterly earnings conference call, CEO Eddie Lampert noted, “Shoppers seem to be figuring out what they want online then making targeted trips to pick it up from retailers that offer the best price. Shoppers visited an average five… Continue reading More On Brick And Mortar Retailing
<Click on graphic for larger image> CNBC – Big hedge fund money warns about tech bubble Prominent money managers are warning of a bubble in some technology stocks and recommending investors avoid emerging markets in favor of Europe. “The high probability is when you look back on this period five years from now, you’ll say… Continue reading Big Name Managers Predict The Market
Reuters.com – Fed set to ditch ‘threshold’ guidance under Yellen Janet Yellen’s first policy-setting meeting as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve will focus on how to finesse a rewriting of the central bank’s promise to keep interest rates low without roiling financial markets. Fed policymakers will probably decide next week to scrap their threshold… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Will Scrap Their 6.5% Unemployment Threshold
The Wall Street Journal – WSJ/NBC News Poll: Obama’s Approval Rating Hits New Low President Barack Obama is struggling to overcome widespread pessimism about the economy and deep frustration with Washington, notching the lowest job-approval ratings of his presidency in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The results suggest Mr. Obama could weigh on… Continue reading Obama’s Approval Rating
The Financial Times – Martin Wolf: The spectre of eurozone deflation The ECB is failing. The aim must be to raise inflation, particularly in surplus countries The European Central Bank is failing to hit its own target for price stability. The difficulty is that the bank’s governing council may be unable to agree on effective… Continue reading Deflation Talk In Europe