Comment Jim Bianco was on CNBC on Friday discussing the Federal Reserve, mortgages and interest rates. To view the interview click on the image above (Jim starts speaking around the 6:40 mark). To view any of our recent interviews click here.
The Financial Times – The eurozone’s three deadly sins Friday’s actions from Standard and Poor’s were hardly the biggest surprise in the financial universe: the ratings agency warned in December that eurozone nations were in danger of being downgraded. Germany is, in effect, the last man standing. Others have succumbed to a mixture of three… Continue reading Europe’s Downgrades
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Dollar Parity May Be Euro’s Last Chance The euro has dropped about 13 percent against the dollar since the sovereign-debt crisis hit Italy seven months ago. To a large extent, the decline reflects the increased likelihood of an Italian default, which would destroy the single currency. Yet… Continue reading The Euro
MarketWatch – Euro’s ‘funding’ role far from assured It’s the big question captivating currency markets in 2012: Is the euro becoming a popular funding currency for carry trades?…combine low and falling euro-zone interest rates and very strong bearish consensus on the euro and it’s no surprise that it is increasingly seen as a potential funding… Continue reading The Euro Carry Trade?
The Wall Street Journal – ECB Seeks Plan B The European Central Bank is looking for a possible alternative to its current bond-buying program, the Securities Markets Program, or SMP, ECB Governing Council Member Ewald Nowotny told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. “We are discussing other possible alternatives. This discussion is however not so… Continue reading The ECB Mulls Its Options
The Wall Street Journal – Plan B for Greece One intriguing idea knocking around European political and financial circles is a four-step plan that begins with Athens inserting collective-action clauses into the existing stock of domestically issued Greek debt (some 93% of the total). Under a collective-action clause, a group of bondholders (typically two-thirds or… Continue reading Greece
The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Steps Up S&P Inquiry Federal prosecutors are stepping up their probe of Standard & Poor’s financial crisis-era ratings of troubled mortgage securities, according to former analysts questioned by prosecutors and another person familiar with the situation. The probe is focusing on whether the firm’s managers ignored its own standards… Continue reading The Rating Agencies
The Wall Street Journal – Crisis Causes Shift in Use of Bond Indexes Credit downgrades last week of France, Austria and other European countries throw a spotlight on a dilemma investors have been wrestling with for months: how best to build a safe portfolio of European government bonds. Big investors such as pension funds and… Continue reading European Bond Benchmarks Under Scrutiny
Below is an interesting post stating the FOMC was laughing its way right into the real estate peak. Well, being a data nerd with nothing better to do on a Thursday night, I looked into it. To be precise, I went back for just the last six years (2001-06) and searched for how many times… Continue reading Laugh A Minute At The FOMC
None Today
Yesterday we hosted a conference call titled “Why 2011 Was A Bad Year For Money Managers.” If you missed it, here are links to the handout and audio and webcast. Next week we will publish a transcript here.
<Click on chart for larger image> Comment As the chart above shows, bank stocks are up 20% in the last three weeks on very little news. In fact, most of the bank stocks have not even reported Q4 earnings. While it is possible this rally was holiday-induced noise, there is one story under the surface. … Continue reading Why Banks Are Rallying in 2012