The Wall Street Journal – Central Bankers Hone Tools to Pop Bubbles In Seoul’s upscale Gangnam neighborhood, made famous by pop star Psy’s viral music video, government curbs on real-estate lending froze a market in which home prices had been rising as fast as 25% a year. In Toronto, housing prices reversed their rapid rise… Continue reading Central Bankers See Problems Everywhere, Except With Themselves
The Wall Street Journal – NYSE Euronext to Take Over Libor British Authorities Started Looking for New Owner Last Year The London interbank offered rate won’t be owned by London much longer. Banks May Have Reported Flawed Interest Data for Libor Libor, the benchmark that underpins interest rates on trillions of dollars in financial contracts,… Continue reading Why LIBOR Can Never Be Fixed (In Its Current Form)
The Financial Times – Henry Kaufman: The Fed must change itself as well as its policies The US Federal Reserve may soon have a new chairman – and what a time to take over. Assuming Ben Bernanke leaves his post this year, his successor will inherit a serious policy challenge: disengaging from quantitative easing. Returning… Continue reading Advice For Bernanke … From Other Famous Economists
The Financial Times – US companies: financial fortresses? Chinese equities. Coal. Emerging market equities. Gold. US Treasuries. US high-yield bonds. They have all joined the joyless parade of assets gone bad or threatening to go that way. In contrast, American equities lead the shrinking procession of assets still performing reasonably well. June employment numbers, released… Continue reading US Companies: Financial Fortress?
The Financial Times – Lex: Bond investors: setting sun May’s inflows bonanza was followed by June’s exodus The darkest hour may be just before the dawn – but the brightest part of the day is not immediately before sunset. It is for investors, though, who regularly pile into an asset class in maximum numbers just… Continue reading Bond Flows
Value Walk – High Flying Hedge Funds Stumble In June; Loeb, Dinan, Cooperman All high flying managers including James Dinan, Dan Loeb and Leon Cooperman took in their first losses last month. Loeb‘s Third Point recorded a decline of -1.8 percent in June, and his event driven strategy did not do well when both equity… Continue reading More On Hedge Funds’ Struggles
The Wall Street Journal – Horror Story: Rude Awakening Awaits Western Economies Mr. King’s thesis — outlined in an interview at The Wall Street Journal — is that we in the West are in line for a shock when we discover that the high-growth rates to which we’re accustomed aren’t coming back. In the U.S.,… Continue reading Stephen King Speaks
Zero Hedge (blog) – CNBC Viewership Collapse Continues; Cramer, Kudlow Audience At Record Lows Adding insult to the injury that is laughable viewership back at 2005 levels despite countless promo dollars and trillions in dollars spent on bailing out fake and artificial markets, were the following data points from Nielsen Media Research: Squawk Box had… Continue reading More On CNBC’s Ratings Collapse
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The Financial Times – Bond investors fear sharp rise in Treasury yields Having been weaned on record low bond yields thanks to the Fed’s huge purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities, investors are now focused on one crucial question: how high can bond yields rise? Already, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield has zoomed as high… Continue reading The Bond Selloff In Perspective – Updated
Barron’s – Earnings: Low Expectations, High Hopes As earnings season gets under way, negative earnings preannouncements are running at the highest level since 2009. Time for some upside surprises? Even a market flattered by a reduced share count, however, doesn’t look like a million bucks. John Butters, FactSet’s senior earnings analyst, expects only 1% year-over-year… Continue reading Q2 Earnings Season
Reuters – Poll: Majority of U.S. primary dealers see Fed slowing bond buying in Sept The Federal Reserve is likely to begin shrinking the size of its debt purchase program, intended to prop up economic growth and support the labor market, by September of this year, according to the majority of economists at large Wall… Continue reading Timing The Taper