Bloomberg.com – Jonathan Weil: How to Run Your Hedge Fund From a Prison Cell As if America’s hedge-fund elite didn’t have enough crises to worry about — riots in Spain, the fiscal cliff, Lindsay Lohan’s hotel brawl — the parade of underlings copping pleas to insider-trading crimes just keeps growing. Every week it seems another… Continue reading Hedge Funds And Prison, A Likely Combination?
The Telegraph (UK) – Price of gold could reach $2,400/oz Quantitative easing could cause a rally in the gold price, with the precious metal hitting $2,400/oz by next summer. Gold could hit an all-time high of $2,400 by next summer, driven up by a third round of quantitative easing in the US. The first round… Continue reading Gold
The Wall Street Journal – Karl Rove: Can We Believe the Presidential Polls? In the past 30 days, there were 91 national polls (including each Gallup and Rasmussen daily tracking survey). Mr. Obama was at or above the magic number of 50% in just 20. His average was 47.9%. Mr. Romney’s was 45.5%. There were… Continue reading How Did The Candidates Fare In Last Night’s Debate?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Draghi Stares at Spain as Brinkmanship Keeps ECB Waiting Mario Draghi is waiting for Spain to get back to him on whether his plan to save the euro is needed. One month after the European Central Bank president unveiled an unprecedented bond purchase program to rescue Europe’s… Continue reading Negotiating Spain’s Bailout
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – ADP Jobs Data In ‘Statistical Doghouse’ Considering ADP’s uneven track record, it’s no wonder today’s better-than-expected jobs data didn’t generate much of a response in the markets. Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased by 162,000 in September, according to ADP and Macroeconomic Advisers. The job gain was slightly higher than the… Continue reading Just A Reminder: The ADP Report Does Not Accurately Predict The Payroll Report
The Wall Street Journal – Burdened by Old Mortgages, Banks Are Slow to Lend Now A battle over who gets stuck with tens of billions worth of bad housing loans made during the boom years explains why many Americans still can’t get a mortgage as interest rates hit a new low. The average rate on… Continue reading Mortgage Put-Backs
The Wall Street Journal – ETFs Seen Moving Market as ‘Tail Wags the Dog’ When midsize stocks retreated as their large and small counterparts rose Monday, traders scratched their heads about the unusual activity. The culprit, traders later surmised, was heavy selling in two exchange-traded funds—underscoring the rising influence such funds have on the market.… Continue reading ETFs
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Researchers Aim to Quantify Impact of Fed Rate Guidance Researchers at the New York Fed are working to get a handle of the hard-to-quantify effects of the central bank’s rising reliance on forward monetary-policy guidance, noting existing models don’t appear up to the task…The New York Fed paper looks… Continue reading Quantifying The Effect Of The FOMC’s Forward Rate Guidance
The Financial Times – Nasdaq suffers fresh high-profile gaffe Nasdaq suffered its second high-profile embarrassment in six months when it was forced to cancel trades in Kraft Foods after a trading glitch caused the company’s shares to soar nearly 30 per cent. The error marred the completion of the recently split group’s switch to Nasdaq… Continue reading More Problems For Nasdaq
Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Mortgage Rates In The Wake Of QE3 Credit Spreads Will There Be Another Crash This Month? Mutual Fund Flows Q3 and Q4 Revenue Expectations Are Still Lousy Q3 and Q4 Earnings Expectations Are Still Lousy The State Of The U.S. Economy Election Update Central Bank Balance… Continue reading Charts of the Week