The Financial Times – George Soros: Europe’s future is not up to the Bundesbank The Bundesbank has seen the danger. It is now campaigning against the indefinite expansion of the money supply, and it has started taking measures to limit the losses it would sustain in a break-up. This is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy: once… Continue reading George Soros Takes Germany To Task
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Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Dividend Paying Stocks Dividend Paying Stocks – 2 Spanish Yields On The Rise Once Again A Look At Employment In Pictures Revisions To Initial Claims Primary Dealer Holdings Volume Fear In The Markets Treasury And Mortgage Yields Fall The Daily Effective And Repo Rate The Federal… Continue reading Charts of the Week
<Click on image to view video> Comment Jim Bianco was on Reuters TV on Monday discussing gas prices. To view the interview click on the image above. To view any of our recent interviews click here. <Click on chart for larger image> USA Today – Gas prices, now averaging $3.92 a gallon, may have peaked… Continue reading Discussing Gas Prices
<Click on chart for larger image> The Telegraph – Spain’s ‘lose-lose’ struggle reignites euro crisis Markets took no notice of fresh austerity pledges from premier Mariano Rajoy, including new cuts worth €10bn in health and education – seen as a belated move to salvage Spain’s credibility after a spat with Brussels over fiscal slippage. Mr… Continue reading Spain
Bloomberg.com – The Fed Needs a New, Simpler Mandate Last Friday’s disappointing U.S. jobs numbers came as less of a surprise to Ben Bernanke than to many others. The Federal Reserve chairman had warned that the earlier pace of improvement in the labor market might tail off. Unfortunately, being right about that won’t make his… Continue reading The Federal Reserve
<Click on chart for larger image> CNBC.com – Where Has All the Trading Gone? Volume Hits 4-Year Low It’s one of the biggest mysteries on Wall Street. How can stocks be in their fourth year of a bull market and trading activity be so low? During March, average daily volume in equity shares was at… Continue reading Volume In The Stock Market
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – VIX Rises a Record Eighth Day as Europe Concerns Increase The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX) advanced for a record eighth day as surging Spanish and Italian bond yields intensified concern about the European debt crisis. The gauge known as the VIX, which measures the… Continue reading Fear In The Markets
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – S&P 500 Caps Longest Drop Since November on Europe Woes Ten-year Treasury yields would have to rise about 120 basis points to track the estimated price-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 as they did during the first three quarters of 2011, Chadha wrote in an April 5… Continue reading Are Stocks A Bargain?
The Wall Street Journal – Time to Cast More Light on Finance’s ‘Shadows The unusual advice, contained in a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2010, sums up the regulatory efforts around “shadow banking”—the vast amount of financial transactions such as mortgage-backed securities and “repo” deals among banks that take place… Continue reading Shadow Banking
Fortune – Hedge funds lag the market, again Hedge funds have rebounded in 2012, but the funds’ highly paid managers are still lagging the market. So far in 2012 investors would have done better putting their money in a low-cost stock index fund than the average hedge fund. In the first three months of year,… Continue reading Hedge Fund Performance
Bloomberg.com – Profit Drop at U.S. Banks Imperils Rally The six largest U.S. lenders, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co., may post an 11 percent drop in first-quarter profit, threatening a rally that has pushed bank stocks 19 percent higher this year. The banks will post $15.3 billion in net… Continue reading U.S. Banks