Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Worry About Inflation! More Worry About Inflation! Is The BoJ About To Make It’s Balance Sheet Expansion Permanent? JGBs And Japanese CDS Hedge Fund Performance Too Much Stock Market Optimism? Corporate Bond Spreads Financial Profits Continue To Rebound More Measurements Of NIPA Profits The Falling Dollar… Continue reading Untitled
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – Where are the traders? Stock volume drops Low volume can show a lack of conviction, and is often described as a worrying sign during a stock run-up. But it’s not necessarily spelling doom and gloom now, suggests Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist for LPL Financial. “Those wishing… Continue reading Low Stock Volume, High Treasury Volume
CNBC – Could 2011 Be Worse Than 2008? Don’t Rule It Out 2011 is beginning to look very like 2008 before the collapse of Lehman Brothers—except the numbers involved are much bigger this time around, according to Simon Derrick, the chief currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. Comment For the contrarians trying to… Continue reading 2008 Redux
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketWatch.com – Deals up: Wall Street is dealing again Commentary: With cash, debt and confidence, M&A is about to boom The stakes in Wall Street’s biggest parlor game, mergers and acquisitions, are about to go up. Not only will there be more deals, they will be bigger and riskier.… Continue reading Mergers & Acquisitions
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Holman W. Jenkins: The Inflation Solution? Austerity and inflation will go together You can hardly turn over an investing advice newsletter without finding a recommendation to buy TIPS, or Treasury inflation-protected securities, to preserve the purchasing power of your dollar-denominated savings. Economists and investment… Continue reading Worry About Inflation!
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Gold May Go Even Higher on Fed’s Stimulus, Bianco Research Says: Tom Keene Gold remains an attractive investment even at record prices, fueled in part by the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion of Treasuries purchases through June, according to Bianco Research LLC in Chicago. “I think the path… Continue reading Commodities And QE2
The Financial Times – Treasuries face being caught in QE2’s wake The US bond market is starting to feel the heat from the war of words between Federal Reserve officials about rate hikes once quantitative easing draws to a close in June. In the coming months, every word by Fed officials and the bank’s actions… Continue reading What Will Happen To Treasuries After QE2 Ends?
Real Time Economics (WSJ Blog) – Fed’s Bullard to Push for Curtailing QE2 at April Meeting James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said he would push at the Fed’s upcoming two-day policy meeting (April 26 and April 27) to reduce the central bank’s quantitative easing program by $100 billion, but… Continue reading Dissent At The FOMC Meeting
Real Clear Markets – John Makin: Has the Fed Eased Too Much? The Federal Reserve’s latest easing move, a $600 billion purchase of US government bonds, known as QE2, has elicited much criticism from Congress and some members of the Fed’s own policy board. It has been labeled by critics as inflationary and contrary to… Continue reading QE2 Criticism
Bloomberg Businessweek – Fed’s Biggest Foreign-Bank Bailout Kept U.S. Muni Bonds on Track A European bank that received the most Federal Reserve discount window help during the financial crisis also took $381 billion in aid from its home countries and owned subsidiaries implicated in bid-rigging that prosecutors say defrauded U.S. taxpayers. Details of Fed lending… Continue reading Did The Federal Reserve Save The Muni Market?
Bloomberg.com – Geithner Says Failure to Raise Debt Limit Would Trigger a Financial Crisis Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. would face a crisis worse than the one it just experienced if Congress fails to raise the debt limit promptly. “You will shake the basic foundations of the entire global financial system,” Geithner… Continue reading The Debt Ceiling
The Wall Street Journal – Related to Buy Stake in Fannie Apartment Portfolio Fannie Mae is planning to sell a stake in scores of apartment buildings to Related Cos., the New York private real-estate company controlled by Stephen Ross, according to people familiar with the matter. Under terms of the deal, Fannie would sell to… Continue reading Fannie Looks To Sell Part Of Its Portfolio