Zero Hedge (Blog) – Elliott’s Paul Singer Warns “Something Is Wrong And Dangerous” “The recent trading environment has felt something like walking into a place and having a sense that something is wrong and dangerous but not knowing exactly what will happen or when. “QE Infinity” has so distorted the prices of stocks and bonds… Continue reading Investing In Stocks Despite The Warning Signs
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Fed, Please Step Away From the Monthly Data Dump Financial markets have become increasingly dependent on the Federal Reserve. The Fed is dependent on data (just in case you didn’t know). The data for the next few months will be distorted by the federal government shutdown during the first half of… Continue reading Data Dependency
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Are Buybacks All They’re Cracked Up to Be? Forget fundamentals, investors have been rewarding companies that execute a simple piece of financial engineering: the stock buyback. Critics, however, say that this trend may have run its course. Companies which heavily repurchase their own shares have seen their stock prices outperform the… Continue reading Stock Buybacks
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – So, a Deer Walks Into the Fed This morning a deer in Cincinnati lost its way, and ran through a glass window at a Federal Reserve building. The econoTwittersphere jumped into action. First the news was disseminated by Washington Post Fed reporter Ylan Mui: Perhaps the deer shared markets’… Continue reading Deer Runs Into Federal Reserve Building, Bad Puns Ensue
Comment Today at 9 AM CT (10:00 AM ET, 7:00 AM PT, and 14:00 GMT), Bianco Research, in conjunction with Arbor Research & Trading, will be hosting a webcast/teleconference moderated by Jim Bianco. Markets are roaring ahead with the S&P 500 up over 23% year-to-date. This comes with a backdrop of disappointing earnings, up 2%… Continue reading Is It All About The Federal Reserve?
The Financial Times – High profits to keep equity bubble at bay The recent buoyancy in global equities has raised fears that the markets have entered a major bubble, driven by the unprecedented expansion in central bank balance sheets. To the extent central bank asset purchases have reduced government bond yields, they have certainly brought… Continue reading More On Valuations
The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: What to Watch for From the Fed The Federal Reserve concludes its two-day policy meeting Wednesday, and while no policy changes are expected, officials are likely to debate what to do next and when to do it. The official Fed statement, to be released at 2 p.m. EDT,… Continue reading What To Expect From The FOMC Meeting
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Jon Hilsenrath: Fed Balance Sheet Not Seen Returning to Normal Until at Least 2019 The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, which is fast approaching $4 trillion in total assets, won’t return to normal until sometime between mid-2019 and mid-2021, according to new projections prepared by… Continue reading Unwinding The Fed’s Balance Sheet
The Financial Times – Rivals take up battle stations for next phase of fiscal war The next phase in the US’s fiscal war begins on Wednesday, when 29 members of a budget conference committee will meet on Capitol Hill to try to forge a deal to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal… Continue reading Today’s Other Important Meeting – Budget Negotiations
The Wall Street Journal – ‘Skew’ Measure Points to Excessive Market Optimism, Say Some The latest record run for U.S. stocks is sending up caution flags in two corners of the options market that rack investor sentiment. Hefty demand for options that would benefit from a further rise in stock prices recently sent a measure… Continue reading Stock Market Sentiment
Bloomberg.com – BlackRock’s Fink Says There Are ‘Bubble-Like Markets Again’ BlackRock Inc. (BLK) Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink, whose company is the world’s largest money manager with $4.1 trillion in assets, said Federal Reserve policy is contributing to “bubble-like markets.” “It’s imperative that the Fed begins to taper,” Fink said today at a panel… Continue reading The Federal Reserve & Bubbles