The Wall Street Journal – Mom and Pop Run With the Bulls So far this year, U.S. stock-focused mutual funds—the traditional domain of mom-and-pop investors—have taken in a net of $33.6 billion, according to Lipper. That is a small reversal compared with the $445 billion that they pulled from domestic stock mutual funds from 2007… Continue reading Mutual Fund Flows
The Wall Street Journal – Stocks, Commodities Break Up the Band Commodities have been shut out of the stock market’s recent party. Even as the U.S. stock market notched record highs in recent weeks, prices of raw materials, often used as a barometer of the global economy, have languished. Commodities have posted their worst first… Continue reading The Correlation Between Stocks & Commodities
The Wall Street Journal – Era of Fed Stimulus Wanes As long as the Fed keeps injecting the economy with cheap-to-borrow money, traders say there is room for both stocks and bonds to perform well. But an eventual divergence will come when it becomes clearer the Fed is poised to pull back. One case is… Continue reading How Long Can Easy Money Last?
The Financial Times – Confessions of a Keynesian heretic Central banks and treasuries should intervene to reflate the asset bubble, says Roger Farmer I may be the only self-professed Keynesian who is not actively campaigning for large public infrastructure projects. Don’t get me wrong; I believe repairing a few bridges or building an oil pipeline… Continue reading Keynesian Economics
Nerd Wallet (blog) – Study: Only 24% of Active Mutual Fund Managers Outperform the Market Index Only 24% of professional investors beat the market over the past 10 years Index funds outperform actively managed funds by 0.80% annually, but active managers have lower risk Active managers outperform the index by 0.12% before fees, but charge… Continue reading Money Managers
The Wall Street Journal – Central Bank Details Losses at Bank of Cyprus Cyprus’s central bank spelled out the financial damage to big deposit holders at Bank of Cyprus PCL, the country’s biggest lender, saying they will lose almost 40% of their deposits as a result of a sweeping restructuring of the lender. Losses could… Continue reading Cyprus
Factset – Low number of S&P 500 companies issued EPS guidance in March For Q1 2013 overall, 86 companies have issued negative EPS guidance, while 24 companies have issued positive EPS guidance. As a result, 78% (86 out of 110) of the companies that have issued EPS guidance for Q1 2013 have issued negative EPS… Continue reading Q1 Earnings Guidance
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Treasuries’ Lure Abroad Grows in $3 Trillion Fed Account International investors bought more Treasuries last quarter than any other start to a year since 2009, with holdings approaching $3 trillion, as a new crisis in Europe weighs on the euro and Japan debases the yen. The Federal… Continue reading Foreign Holdings Of U.S. Treasuries
The New York Times – DAVID A. STOCKMAN: State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in America The Main Street economy is failing while Washington is piling a soaring debt burden on our descendants, unable to rein in either the warfare state or the welfare state or raise the taxes needed to pay the nation’s bills. By… Continue reading Krugman Takes A Shot At The New York Times
The Financial Times – Economics will catch up with the euro It is a question that I have been asking myself for a while: at what point does it become economically rational for a country to leave the eurozone? There are two things to consider. The first is whether the country’s banking system is viable… Continue reading Considering A Eurozone Exit
The New York Times – As Market Heats Up, Trading Slips Into Shadows As the stock market continues to climb, trading has increasingly migrated from established bourses like the New York Stock Exchange to private platforms, including dark pools, that are largely hidden from public view. The shift is helping big traders hide what they… Continue reading Dark Pool Trading
BBC News – How much gold is there in the world? Imagine if you were a super-villain who had taken control of all the world’s gold, and had decided to melt it down to make a cube. How long would the sides be? Hundreds of metres, thousands even? Actually, it’s unlikely to be anything like… Continue reading Measuring The World’s Gold