The Wall Street Journal – Bond Bulls May Yet Have Reason for Cheer The bond-market limbo act goes on. At the start of 2011, bond-fund giant Pimco bet against U.S. Treasurys when the 10-year note was yielding about 3.3%. But Treasury yields ended the year under 2%, along with yields on German and U.K. government… Continue reading U.S. Treasuries
The chart above details the Greek bailout timeline. Click here for a larger image Speigel Online – Greece Urgently Requests Clarity on Bailout Deal On Tuesday, government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis told Greek television station Skai TV exactly what that means. Greece and the euro zone have to quickly reach agreement on the second, €130 billion… Continue reading Greece
The Wall Street Journal – Euro-Zone Private Sector Shrinks Private-sector activity in the euro zone shrank in December, a clear sign that the region is heading back into recession and complicating efforts to contain its long-running debt crisis. But a fall in inflation could give the European Central Bank some leeway to support economic activity.… Continue reading Euro-Zone Private Sector
Reuters – Returns of online holiday gifts to hit record After the holiday party comes the hangover for retailers: handling millions of returns this week. With a Christmas season that has seen record e-commerce sales coming to a close, returns should hit an all-time high on Tuesday for United Parcel Service (UPS.N). The delivery company… Continue reading Returns From Online Sales Will Hit Record
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – One Way Bank of America Is Better Than Apple, Goldman Sachs and GE Combined We mentioned earlier Adam Parker’s eye-popping note that Wall Street analysts think Bank of America alone will contribute 14% to the S&P 500′s earnings growth this year. Needless to say, this is an amazing concept, suggesting there… Continue reading BofA: The Stock To Own This Year?
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The Wall Street Journal – Iowa Race Down to the Wire Mitt Romney, seeking to cement his position as front-runner, sounded broad themes of patriotism and restoring America’s glory as he and five Republican presidential rivals crisscrossed Iowa Monday in a final blast of campaigning a day before the nation’s first nominating contest. Running atop… Continue reading The Iowa Caucus
The Wall Street Journal – Why Hedge Funds Tripped in a Volatile Year In 2011, hedge funds on average lost 5%, according to an estimate by Hedge Fund Research Inc., lagging behind the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, which gained 2.1% on a total-return basis. The net result was that hedge-fund performance, for the third… Continue reading Hedge Funds
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Year-end bets against euro hit record Hedge funds increased their bets against the euro to a record level in the last week of 2011, increasing pressure on the embattled European common currency as it enters the most testing year of its history. Many hedge funds… Continue reading Betting Against The Euro
The Wall Street Journal – ‘Dogs’ Strategy Paid Dividends for Second Year in a Row You didn’t need to teach one of investing’s old dogs any new tricks in 2011. It was a banner year for dividend-paying stocks at a time when investors scurried for cover from the market’s volatility. That meant one of Wall… Continue reading Betting On Dividend-Paying Stocks
The Wall Street Journal – New Stimulus Dovetails With Shift at Fed With the president having just nominated a new bipartisan pair of economists—Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell—to help appease Congress, it is possible the Fed board could be filled next year. That may have less impact on the Fed’s monetary-policy actions, however, than the… Continue reading The FOMC
The Wall Street Journal – New Hurdles Loom in Euro Crisis The coming year will be a make-or-break one for the euro zone, as a crisis that began two years ago in tiny Greece threatens to engulf larger countries at Europe’s core, sending ripples across financial markets and the global economy. After a brief holiday… Continue reading Upcoming Sovereign Debt Auctions