The Financial Times – Martin Wolf: Europe is stuck on life support Economic decision-makers are more optimistic than two months ago. The main reason is the belief that the European Central Bank, under the shrewd leadership of Mario Draghi, has eliminated the risk of a financial implosion in the eurozone. As Mark Carney, the respected… Continue reading Europe
<Click on chart for larger image> USA Today – Homeownership rates fall to 66% as downturn nears a bottom Fewer Americans own homes and many of them are continuing to see values decline. Falling homeownership — and prices — reflect the worst housing downturn since the Great Depression. And while there are signs that the… Continue reading Housing
CNBC.com – Is the Facebook IPO the Start of Another Tech Bubble? The hype surrounding the Facebook IPO, including the “pretty rich” valuation for the social network, is similar to that seen at the height of the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s, an investor told CNBC Wednesday. “It reminds me of the huge dotcom… Continue reading Will The Facebook IPO Start Another Tech Bubble?
The Wall Street Journal – Romney Wins Big in Florida Mitt Romney handily won Florida’s Republican primary Tuesday, riding a new, combative campaign style to a victory that returns him to his role as the favorite to win his party’s presidential nomination. Fueled by a nearly 5-to-1 spending advantage over his top rival, Mr. Romney… Continue reading No Surprise … Romney Wins Florida
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Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Here’s Another Reason To Fret Over Earnings: Corporate Guidance Not So Hot The lackluster quarterly earnings season has been well documented, but weak corporate guidance is perhaps the more important takeaway from this reporting period. With earnings season almost halfway over, more companies are offering… Continue reading Earnings Season
The Wall Street Journal – Romney’s Florida Lead Cuts Across Categories Ever since Mitt Romney launched his second White House bid, the former Massachusetts governor has pinned his hopes on Florida. If the polls are right and the Sunshine State delivers him a decisive win Tuesday, his breadth of support could prove more telling than… Continue reading The Florida Primary Is Today
Comment The chart below shows the yield of the 5-year Treasury note daily back to 1941 (71 years). It made a new all-time low yesterday at 73 basis points. As we have been noting recently, almost everyone is bearish on U.S. Treasuries. 99% of economists surveyed were bearish according to a survey by Bloomberg earlier… Continue reading 5-Year Makes A New All-Time Low
Zero Hedge – This Is Europe’s Scariest Chart Surging Greek and Portuguese bond yields? Plunging Italian bank stocks? The projected GDP of the Eurozone? In the grand scheme of things, while certainly disturbing, none of these data points actually tell us much about the secular shift within European society, and certainly are nothing that couldn’t… Continue reading European Youth Unemployment
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Stock-Fund Outflows Surged In 2011 So how much is the retail investor eschewing stock mutual funds? Investment Company Institute reports today that they had net outflows of $130.32 billion in 2011, nearly quadruple the amount posted in 2010, as taxable bond funds saw a net… Continue reading Stock Mutual Fund Flows
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Europe Tightens Fiscal Ties Leaders of 25 European Union governments agreed Monday night on what some billed as a historic pact to move to closer fiscal union and signed off on the details of a permanent bailout fund for the euro zone—yet Greece’s looming… Continue reading Europe
Bloomberg.com – Douglas Holtz-Eakin: Buffett Rule Fixes a Non-Existent Problem Last year, the president proposed that no household making more than $1 million a year pay a smaller share of its income in taxes than middle-class families. In support of this rule, he called for these earners to pay a minimum effective tax rate of… Continue reading More On The Buffett Tax