<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Junk Bonds Beating U.S. Stocks by 53% Shows No New Recession Junk bonds are poised to extend their lead over U.S. equities into a fifth year as debt investors bet that the American economy will keep expanding even if profit growth slows. Speculative-grade debt has beaten the… Continue reading High Yield Versus Stocks
Bloomberg.com – Dealers See Fed Buying $545 Billion Mortgage Bonds in Third Ease The biggest bond dealers in the U.S. say the Federal Reserve is poised to start a new round of stimulus, injecting more money into the economy by purchasing mortgage securities instead of Treasuries. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his fellow policy… Continue reading What Will QE3 Look Like?
Bloomberg.com – Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in… Continue reading The Federal Reserve’s Secret Loans
Bloomberg.com – Thanksgiving Sales Beat Record in Chase for Early Deals: Retail U.S. consumers stormed the malls and took to the Web during Thanksgiving weekend, spending a record $52.4 billion at a pace that may be hard to sustain as the holiday shopping season gets under way. Retail sales climbed 16 percent, and shoppers spent… Continue reading Black Friday Weekend Sales
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Complex Financial Bets Rise Ahead of Overhaul The size of the over-the-counter derivatives market rose by 18% in the first half of the year, to a record $708 trillion, according to figures released Tuesday by the Bank for International Settlements. Unlike contracts that are… Continue reading Derivatives Boom Again
Bloomberg.com – Schwarzman Backs Romney as Wall Street Turns Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the world’s largest private-equity firm, will host a fundraiser for Mitt Romney at his Park Avenue apartment next month, in a sign that Romney is closing the sale with Wall Street’s wealthiest donors. The fundraiser marks Schwarzman’s inaugural step to help Romney… Continue reading Betting On Republicans
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<Click on chart for larger image> Reuters – German 10-year bond auction a ‘disaster’ In one of the least successful debt sales by Europe’s powerhouse economy since the launch of the single currency, the low returns offered — just 2 percent annually over 10 years — deterred investors made uneasy by the escalating cost of… Continue reading “Disastrous” German 10-Year Auction
The Wall Street Journal – Problems in Ireland and Portugal Pose Broader Risks The euro zone’s focus is on turmoil in Italy, politics in Germany and the multifaceted mess that is Greece. But Ireland and Portugal, the overshadowed bailout recipients, are still far from success—and any failure could roil the euro zone yet more. A… Continue reading Portugal And Ireland Are Not Out Of The Woods
The Economist – Buttonwood: Gloom descends European banks are becoming the focus of concern INVESTORS began 2011 with high hopes. Bob Doll of BlackRock, a fund-management group, expected double-digit gains from the American stockmarket; the strategists at Barclays Capital expected a 22% return from European shares. Instead Wall Street is flat and European investors have… Continue reading European Banks
The Telegraph (UK) – Germany unmoved by French pleas for more ECB action French appeals for Germany to sanction extra powers for the European Central Bank have been firmly rejected, despite warnings from politicians, economists and even the Vatican that it is the only way of “averting a catastrophe Angela Merkel was unmoved by another… Continue reading No ECB Money Printing
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, center, German Chancellor Angela Merkel andItaly’s Prime Minister Mario Monti attend a news conference after a meeting to discuss the euro-zone crisis in Strasbourg, France on Thursday. Comment Does the picture above not perfectly describe the European crisis? The Wall Street Journal – Germany, France, Italy to Propose EU Treaty Changes… Continue reading No Eurobonds