FT Alphaville (FT Blog) – The death of volatility? Central bank puts have done a great job of removing tail risks. Such is the conclusion of the team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch upon analysing the remarkable drop in trade conviction of late…As the analysts note, four years since the 2008 financial crisis the… Continue reading Volatility
Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Fiscal Cliff Worries Stock Market Myths Equity Mutual Fund Outflows A Rare Sighting …A Bond Bear Reconsiders Weak Revenues Added To The List Of Worries The Repo Market The U.S. Deficit Measuring Gold’s Correction Mortgage Rates, Purchases And Refis Credit Market Update Retail Gas Prices 2-Treasury… Continue reading Charts of the Week
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment Currently the Treasury is just $81 billion from the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling limit. This limit is expected to be reached in the next two weeks. After that the Treasury will run down its cash balances and “borrow” from government trust funds and pension funds. This should allow… Continue reading Worried About The Fiscal Cliff
<Click on chart for larger image> CNBC – Exodus From Stocks Grows: ‘Investors Are Turning Tail’ Fear of the “Fiscal Cliff” is causing the biggest exodus from U.S. stocks this year as investors essentially put their money under the mattress rather than trust Congress to come up with a compromise. U.S. equity stock funds had… Continue reading Equity Mutual Fund Outflows
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – Reports of economy’s death premature Lakshman Achuthan’s recession prediction from 14 months ago has arguably been the most celebrated economic forecast of modern times. Unfortunately for him — though fortunately for the rest of us — a recession has yet to come to pass. And therein lies… Continue reading A Look At The September 2011 ECRI Recession Call
Bloomberg Businessweek – Is This Greek Deal for Real? “Greece could probably not have expected more from the agreement, which gives Greece some breathing space to effect structural reforms that should have been implemented at the beginning of the crisis in 2010,” says Dimitris Sotiropoulos, a political science professor at the University of Athens. “This… Continue reading Greece
The Wall Street Journal – EU Approves Spanish Banks’ Restructuring Plans The approval allows the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, to disburse the funds to Spanish authorities, after Madrid requested funding of up to €100 billion from the ESM in June. “What we’ve approved today means that the funds for the… Continue reading Spain
The Wall Street Journal – Now, Homes Fuel Economy The U.S. housing market, which plunged the economy into recession five years ago and was a persistent drag on the recovery, is now a key economic driver at a time when other sectors are slowing. Economists project U.S. gross domestic product growth will slow in the… Continue reading Is The Housing Market Now Helping The Economy?
Reuters.com – Fed’s Evans wants more easing, Fisher wants limits Deep divisions at the Federal Reserve were on display on Tuesday, just two weeks before the U.S. central bank’s next policy-setting meeting, with one top Fed official pushing for more easing, and another advocating limits. The divide underscores the hurdles Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke faces… Continue reading Evans vs Fisher
Bloomberg.com – Credit Rating Firms in EU to Face Sovereign-Debt Limits Credit rating companies face curbs on when they can assess government debt and restrictions on their ownership under draft plans agreed upon by the European Union to limit the industry’s influence and tackle conflicts of interest. Investors will also get the right to sue… Continue reading Restrictions On Credit Rating Firms
MarketWatch.com – Stocks dead, bonds deader till 2022: Pimco Big money managers are warning investors. They’re now citing the Bible: “Seven lean years.” No recovery till 2016. That was Jeremy Grantham back a few years ago. His GMO firm manages $104 billion. Now Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian, the co-CEOs at the $2 trillion Pimco… Continue reading Zero-Growth World