<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Gold Bugs Return After Last Year’s Rout Bets on Rising Prices Jump as the Metal Regains Its Appeal Investors are buying gold again. Gold is up 11% this year, and wagers on rising prices are at a four-month high in the futures market. This… Continue reading Gold
Zero Hedge (blog) – Primary Dealers Will Not Be Happy With The Record Direct Bid In Today’s 7 Year Auction Just like in yesterday’s scorching 5 Year auction, demand for today’s $29 billion in 7 Year paper was blistering, with a yield of 2.105% stopped through the When Issued 2.108%, and the lowest since November… Continue reading More On The Primary Dealers Losing Market Share
Bloomberg – U.S. Retail Chains See First Profit Decline Since Recession U.S. retailers last quarter suffered their darkest days since the recession. With results in from 62 of 122 retail chains, the industry has posted its first profit quarterly drop since the economic contraction that ended in 2009, according to Retail Metrics Inc. Revenue also… Continue reading The Retail Sector Declines
Bloomberg – Yale Says ‘Alpha Is Not Dead’ as It Stands By Investment Model Yale University, the world’s second-wealthiest school with a $20.8 billion endowment, said it can still beat market returns, known as generating alpha, as it seeks to stand out from other investors. The university’s investment office, run by David Swensen, said in… Continue reading Generating Alpha
Bloomberg – Dimon Quip Leads Analysts to Blame Trading Slump on Weather Jamie Dimon was talking about the business climate, not the polar vortex that gripped much of the U.S. this winter, when he mentioned “weather” in a discussion about a slump in trading revenue at JPMorgan Chase & Co. The audience took him more… Continue reading Blame It On The Weather
<Click on chart for larger image> The Boston Globe – Boston Fed’s Rosengren says jobless rate still problematic The Federal Reserve must take a “patient approach” to withdrawing stimulus measures aimed accelerating economic growth because millions of Americans who want full-time work can only get part-time jobs, Eric S. Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve… Continue reading Is Part-Time The New Employment Threshold?
The Economist – How the West can help The turmoil in Ukraine is a chance for the West to prove that it is still a force for good By any historical measure, Ukraine is part of Europe. It borders four EU nations. Its great cities—Kiev, Lviv, Odessa—are ornaments of European civilisation. So its problems are… Continue reading Ukraine
Bloomberg.com – Bitcoin Derivatives Sprout as Regulators Play Catch-Up The closing of a major Bitcoin exchange in Japan not only focused attention on the digital currency’s risks, it also rattled a still-newer market that regulators are just starting to monitor: Bitcoin derivatives. George Samman, a former Wall Street investment adviser who in May helped start… Continue reading More On Bitcoin
Comment Today at 9 AM CT (10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT, and 15:00 GMT), Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Join us today as we discuss the degree to which the weather is affecting the economy, the latest regarding the Federal Reserve,… Continue reading Weather or a Slowdown?
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Jon Hilsenrath: Fed’s Yellen Back on Hill for Round Two of Testimony Yellen Unlikely to Shift Economic Outlook Since Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen last testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 11, she and her colleagues have had a chance to absorb another wave of disappointing economic… Continue reading Yellen Testifies Today, Hilsenrath Gives Us Her Testimony
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – The Toll of Taper Talk Won’t Break The Bank The taper—and taper talk—hurt. For the first time since the financial crisis, the balance sheets of U.S. banks ended the year with an aggregate unrealized loss on so-called available-for-sale securities, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s latest quarterly banking profile released… Continue reading Banks’ Unrealized Profits