The New York Post – CNBC set on Smith CNBC is close to bagging former CBS News anchor Harry Smith for a new talk show, which is almost certain to replace “The Kudlow Report” at 7 p.m., The Post has learned. Smith is already signed to NBCUniversal. “If we could figure out a way to… Continue reading Goodbye The Kudlow Show, Next Up Mad Money?
None Today
Comment Bernanke spoke last night in Cambridge, MA. In part, he said: So you put that all together, and I think you can only conclude that highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future None of the rest of his statement is relevant to current policy. But this sentence was enough. As we note below,… Continue reading Bernanke Calls Off The Taper
The Wall Street Journal – Key Passages From Fed Minutes Is the Fed worried about rising long-term interest rates? Just a little: In their discussion of financial market developments over the intermeeting period, participants weighed the extent to which the rise in market interest rates and increase in volatility reflected a reassessment of market participants’… Continue reading The FOMC Minutes
Since bonds started declining, we have heard the same thing by the Wall Street chorus over and over. Namely: The public is avoiding stocks by keeping their money in bonds They are taking too much interest rate risk Lets look at weekly mutual funds flows during the bull market from March 2, 2009 through June… Continue reading Three Myths About Bond Funds
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Smarter stockpicking rewarded as correlations decline Wall Street is already challenging record highs as the second-quarter corporate earnings season slips into gear. And with investors more sanguine – the CBOE Vix index, at about 15, remains well below its historical average – stockpickers are rewarded… Continue reading Stock Market Correlations
The Financial Times – Mohamed El-Erian: Enter the sci-fi world of central bank action In some science fiction movies, humans enter a distorted zone and undergo changes that affect them both in that strange world and in the more traditional one. Well, behavioural change is what happened to the traditional capital structure during its sojourn… Continue reading Are Stocks A “Safer” Asset Than Bonds?
The Telegraph – The wheels are coming off the whole of southern Europe Europe’s debt-crisis strategy is near collapse. The long-awaited recovery has failed to take wing. Debt ratios across southern Europe are rising at an accelerating pace. Political consent for extreme austerity is breaking down in almost every EMU crisis state. And now the… Continue reading Trouble In Europe
<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters.com – Japan plans to switch inflation gauge; may up pressure on BOJ Whereas the central bank targets a 2-percent year-on-year rise in the core consumer price index, a measure that excludes volatile prices of fresh food, the government plans to use “core-core” CPI, which also excludes energy costs.… Continue reading Japan Now Makes Up Its Own Inflation Statistics
The Wall Street Journal – Why Individual Investors Are Fleeing Stocks A Gallup survey conducted in April found that just 52% of Americans were invested in “an individual stock, a stock mutual fund, or in a self-directed 401(k) or IRA.” This is the broadest ownership of capital in the world, but it is down from… Continue reading Investors Still Don’t Trust The Markets
The Wall Street Journal – Rate Surge Catches Banks Off Guard A swift, steep rise in long-term interest rates since early May, stoked by comments from the Fed chairman, is presenting challenges and opportunities for the largest U.S. banks as they struggle to overcome lackluster loan demand, a weak economy and a slew of new… Continue reading Adjusting To A Rising Rate World
Bloomberg.com – Broken Systems Plus Bad Ideas Equals Lame Recovery Five years after the financial meltdown, the global economic recovery is hardly worthy of the name. The International Monetary Fund has just revised its forecasts for the world economy down — again. Growth almost everywhere could and should be faster. What’s holding it back? The… Continue reading The Lame Recovery