<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – ‘Jumbo’ Mortgage Rates Fall Below Traditional Ones Interest rates on mortgages for pricey homes have dropped below those on smaller mortgages, an event that lending executives say has never happened before. Borrowing rates for so-called jumbo mortgages, which are too big for government backing,… Continue reading Jumbo Loans vs. Traditional Mortgages
The Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Triple shocks threaten Europe’s sickly and deformed recovery Europe has not recovered. It has begun to stabilise, but only just, amid mass unemployment, with debt trajectories still spiralling out of control in Italy, Portugal, Spain and once again in Greece. The complacency of those dictating Euroland’s policies – though… Continue reading Europe’s Triple Threat
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Who Cares About Syria? The Fed Is Buying Fewer Bonds! Financial analysts might bleat about market nervousness over the likelihood of U.S. air strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but the brutal truth is that Wall Street doesn’t care about war. Right now, all it cares about is the Fed. No… Continue reading War & The Markets
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Wall Street Sees Debt-Limit Talks Past Lew’s Mid-October Target The U.S. Congress may have scope to extend debt-limit negotiations for weeks past the mid-October date when Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has said the nation will exhaust its borrowing authority, according to analysts at Credit Suisse Group… Continue reading The Looming Debt Ceiling Debate
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Can We Pay a Minimum Wage That Makes Everyone Rich? Last week, fast-food workers staged a one-day strike in 60 U.S. cities to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour, more than double the current federal minimum of $7.25. The nationwide effort, “Fight for 15,” was organized by the Service… Continue reading Looking At Minimum Wage From A Purely Economic Standpoint
MarketWatch – Mark Hulbert: You’re a sucker to believe Wall Street You’re a sucker to believe Wall Street’s current mantra that another Lehman Brothers-like collapse is not in the cards. I say that not because I think such a collapse is imminent, though I am less sanguine than many right now. The reason I say… Continue reading Predicting The Future Is A Tough Business
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Car Sales Show U.S. Shifting Gear Car dealers had a very good August. That may signal the U.S. economy is finally getting dealt a better hand. General Motors, Ford Motor, Toyota Motor and Chrysler Group on Wednesday all reported a strong increase in light-vehicle… Continue reading Auto Sales
The Wall Street Journal – EU Proposes Tough Rules for Money-Market Funds Europe-based money-market funds would have to comply with tougher rules than their U.S. counterparts under proposals unveiled on Wednesday by the European Union. The EU plans reopened a rift between the multitrillion-dollar money-market fund industry, which is strongly opposed to stricter oversight, and… Continue reading Money Market Fund Regulation
The Wall Street Journal – Nasdaq Suffers Another Glitch Just ahead of a meeting Wednesday to discuss last month’s unprecedented three-hour trading outage, Nasdaq officials got another unexpected jolt: The main data feed for Nasdaq Stock Market-listed stocks went down again. While Wednesday’s hiccup was far less severe than the Aug. 22 outage—when a software… Continue reading Another Hiccup At NASDAQ
MoneyBeat (WSJ Blog) – Should You Sell Rosh Hashanah, Buy Yom Kippur? The onset of the Jewish holidays comes with the age-old question on Wall Street: How should investors position themselves around Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? Over the past several decades, investors have typically benefited from selling stocks at the start of Rosh Hashanah,… Continue reading Seasonal Trends
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Speculating About The Federal Reserve’s Fixed Repo Facility Why Should We Pay Attention To Earnings Estimates? Home Prices Prices Continue To Rise …When Rates Were Still Lo Stock Market Seasonals Is Abenomics Working? Home Prices Prices Continue To Rise …When Rates Were Still Low An Updated… Continue reading Charts of the Week