The Wall Street Journal – Fed Hawks Wary of Bond Buying The Federal Reserve’s inflation hawks stirred Tuesday, signaling caution about the central bank’s program to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury bonds as inflation worries again affected bond markets. The Fed still seems likely to complete its plan to purchase $600… Continue reading The Federal Reserve And Global Inflation
T he Associated Press – Bernanke to face sharp questions from Republicans Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s first appearance before the House since Republicans took control last month is likely to be a tough one. And much of the grilling will probably come from members of his own party. Bernanke is a Republican who served… Continue reading Celebrity Death Match, Ron Paul v Bernanke
Spiegel Online (Blog) – SPIEGEL Interview with Pimco CEO El-Erian ‘Germany Finds Itself in a Very Delicate Situation’ The European Union is still struggling to find a long-term strategy to deal with the crisis that has befallen its common currency. SPIEGEL spoke to Pimco CEO Mohamed El-Erian about how Greece can get back on its… Continue reading The Debt Crisis
The Wall Street Journal – Home Affordability Returns to Pre-Bubble Levels Home affordability returned to pre-bubble levels in a growing number of U.S. markets over the past year as price declines laid the groundwork for a housing recovery. Data provided by Moody’s Analytics track the ratio of median home prices to annual household incomes in… Continue reading Housing
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – China’s Yuan Seen Reaching 17-Year High on Rate Increase China’s yuan may hit a 17-year high in the coming week as stocks rise and bonds fall after the central bank raised interest rates for the third time in four months to curb inflation, if history is a… Continue reading The Yuan
Bloomberg.com – Fannie, Freddie Could Be Phased Out Under Treasury Housing Plan U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will present Congress with three options for reducing the government’s role in the nation’s decades-old housing finance system and shrinking the footprint of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to two people familiar with the… Continue reading Fannie And Freddie
MarketWatch.com – A new high for the stock market? It wasn’t that many weeks ago when only the lunatic fringe were even willing to ask this question. But, thanks to a stock market rally that keeps chugging along — and a Dow winning streak that now stretches to seven straight sessions — and even otherwise… Continue reading How High Will Stocks Go?
MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Depressing Chart of the Day: Stocks Vs. Treasurys This is one of the more disheartening charts we’ve seen today. It’s a FactSet chart showing the 10-year performance of the S&P 500 total return index (blue line) versus the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Treasury total return index (orange line). (Total return =… Continue reading Stocks vs. Bonds
Bloomberg.com – Investors’ $102 Billion Metals Wager Showing Bull Market Intact After the worst January for precious metals in two decades, investors still have a $102 billion bet on higher prices, hoarding more gold than all but four central banks and more silver than the U.S. can mine in almost 12 years…While hedge funds cut… Continue reading Gold
The Wall Street Journal – Take This Job and … Add to the Good News Quitting isn’t always a bad thing. Unlike in battle or sport, it can actually be a sign of confidence—at least when it comes to the labor market. Workers aren’t likely to leave jobs unless they have a better offer elsewhere,… Continue reading The Jobs Market
Bloomberg.com – Fed’s Fisher Says He’s Unlikely to Support Further Accommodation Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard W. Fisher said he’s unlikely to support further monetary accommodation and that he’ll vote against any new quantitative easing beyond the $600 billion program of Treasury purchases. Fisher said today it is difficult for him to imagine… Continue reading Federal Reserve Dissension