The Financial Times – King’s defence of low interest rates during ‘The Great Stability’ Mervyn King gave a “personal assessment” of the inflation targeting regime over the past twenty years at a lecture at LSE on Tuesday night. He seemed to suggest that it was best to allow UK inflation to over-shoot the 2 per… Continue reading Mervyn King Defends Low Interest Rates
The Wall Street Journal – Jack Welch: Jack Welch: I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report Unfortunately for those who would like me to pipe down, the 7.8% unemployment figure released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last week is downright implausible. And that’s why I made a stink about it. Before I… Continue reading More On Jack Welch And The Jobs Report
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – U.S. Downgrade Seen as Upgrade as U.S. Debt Dissolved U.S. debt has shrunk to a six-year low relative to the size of the economy as homeowners, cities and companies cut borrowing, undermining rating companies’ downgrading of the nation’s credit rating. The U.S. faces a so-called fiscal cliff… Continue reading Fiscal Cliff Update
The Wall Street Journal – Merkel Sees Hope as Greeks Protest Cuts I hope and I wish that Greece remains as part of the euro,” she said. “We really can see light at the end of the tunnel.” Analysts and political commentators said they see Ms. Merkel’s six-hour trip to Athens as a vote of… Continue reading Greece
The Guardian (UK) – Central banks, faced with paltry bond returns, buy more stocks Central banks, among the most conservative asset managers in the world, are buying more stocks because of the paltry returns and negative yields available from top-rated sovereign bonds. It is a move that may at first seem counterintuitive given that most… Continue reading Central Banks Buy Stocks
MarketWatch.com – Bear market may begin Tuesday Commentary: Oct. 9 the anniversary of two major trend changes Will the bull market come to an end on Oct. 9? Don’t laugh. It turns out that two of the most prominent market turning points of the last decade occurred on this very date. The first was the… Continue reading Did A Bear Market Start Yesterday?
Bloomberg.com – IMF Sees European Banks Facing $4.5 Trillion Sell-Off The International Monetary Fund said European banks may need to sell as much as $4.5 trillion in assets through 2013 if policy makers fall short of pledges to stem the fiscal crisis, up 18 percent from its April estimate. Failure to implement fiscal tightening or… Continue reading How Far We’ve Come
Bloomberg Businessweek – Best Bond Firms Split on Year-End Storm: Credit Markets Debt strategists at top-ranked Wall Street firms can’t agree on what investors should do as yields on everything from government to corporate and asset-backed bonds plunge to record lows. While JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) forecasts a “year-end storm in the market for… Continue reading Credit Markets
CNN Money – Wall Street still spooked by Spain The European Central Bank may be doing “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro, but Wall Street remains uneasy about Europe’s future and its nearly three-year-old debt crisis. Market strategists and money managers surveyed by CNNMoney are most worried about contagion from Spain, which has become… Continue reading The Correct Answer Is China
None Today
Reuters – Who knew jobs data could be so exciting? The September jobs report ignited a firestorm when Jack Welch, former General Electric chief executive officer and Reuters contributor, asserted (or implied, or wondered if) the unemployment rate had been politically doctored to give President Barack Obama an electoral advantage. After all, how can the… Continue reading One More Look At The Jobs Report
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Bullish Sign for Stocks: Leverage Is Up Investors are leveraging up again, a phenomenon one technical analyst sees as another bullish development for the stock market. Leverage in August, as measured by NYSE margin debt, rose 5.4% on a year-over-year basis, increasing for the first time since November 2011, according to… Continue reading One Measure Of Leverage On The Rise