<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Portugal Reaches a Deal on Bailout Portugal agreed to a €78 billion ($116 billion) financial bailout program with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund over three years to help its ailing economy, in a deal caretaker Prime Minister José Sócrates described as… Continue reading Portugal Gets A Bailout
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Stocks and Bonds: Which Market is Wrong? As MarketBeaters know, stocks and Treasury bonds have been telling different stories lately. They still are. Investors are again bidding up the price of Uncle Sam’s IOUs Monday. Check out the yield of the 10-year note — which moves in the opposite direction of… Continue reading The Correlation Between Stocks & Bonds
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Memo to Bernanke: Supply Worries Aren’t Driving Commodities Contrary to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s steadfast assertion that high commodities prices are due mainly to supply/demand constraints, evidence in the Institute for Supply Management suggests supply isn’t an issue for most raw materials listed as rising in price. The April ISM data… Continue reading The Federal Reserve & Commodity Prices
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Housing’s Good News Is Federal Cash Shortage With U.S. home prices back down to their 2009 lows, you might be wondering what all the government programs to stabilize the housing market have accomplished. And for good reason. Various federal initiatives, especially the first-time homebuyer’s tax… Continue reading What Did The First Time Homebuyers’ Credit Accomplish?
The Wall Street Journal – Treasury Will Act to Avoid Default Treasury Department officials said Monday that they will begin to take extraordinary actions Friday to manage the government’s finances so the U.S. won’t default after hitting its borrowing limit on May 16. The moves come amid divisions among congressional leaders over how to raise… Continue reading The Debt Ceiling … From May 16 to August 2
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Matthew Lynn: Bond Vigilantes Ignore Next Stage of Euro Mess Greece? Been there. Ireland? Done that. Portugal? Got the T-shirt. For the past year, countries sharing the euro have been going bust one by one. So where’s next? Plenty of people will point the finger at Spain.… Continue reading Is France The Next Euro Country To Falter?
The Wall Street Journal – Banks Are Lending, but Pace Falls Shy The willingness of banks to lend money to consumers rose more than it has in 17 years, but sluggish loan growth is weighing on a key measure of profitability. Big banks eased lending standards and businesses sought more loans in the first quarter… Continue reading Bank Lending
None Today
Bloomberg.com – Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan, Obama Says Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of a radical Islamist movement that killed almost 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001 and recast global security and politics, was killed in Pakistan yesterday after a decade on the run in a firefight with a team of… Continue reading Is Bin Laden’s Death A Market Event?
Barron’s – RANDALL W. FORSYTH: Ben Lays an Egg There was no news from Ben Bernanke’s news conference—perhaps because the real tale of QE2 is not a happy one It wasn’t billed as a news conference, since the only news to emerge was that it took place. There were no obvious gaffes; the Fed chairman… Continue reading Bernanke Is A Fungus Off The Same Old Dead Tree
Barron’s – Silver Speculators, Look Out! Volume is surging in the iShares Silver Trust ETF, just as silver prices approach record levels. But some market pros see a sharp correction looming SLV saw volume soar late in the week by 400% from its first-quarter daily average, while volume in SPY fell about 30%, says the… Continue reading Silver