The Wall Street Journal – Fed Chief Gets a Likely Backer With Minneapolis President, Bernanke Looks to Have Majority for Bond Buying “The bar for dissent from the committee is going to be pretty high for me,” Mr. Kocherlakota, 47 years old, said in an extensive interview last week, his first with the national media.… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Supports The Federal Reserve!
The Wall Street Journal – Yellen Staunchly Defends Fed’s Bond Program Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen issued one of the strongest and most detailed defenses to date of the Fed’s controversial decision to buy more government debt to promote the U.S. economy’s recovery. Illustrating the results of Fed research to an audience of top… Continue reading The Federal Reserve Concludes The Federal Reserve Is Correct!
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Bond Distress at Three-Year Low on U.S. Refinancings The percentage of corporate bonds considered in distress is the lowest in more than three years as the U.S. economic recovery gives fixed-income investors the confidence to lend to the riskiest borrowers. The number of junk bonds trading at… Continue reading Distressed Bonds
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Bloomberg.com – U.S. Adds 103,000 Jobs in December, Unemployment at 9.4% Employers in the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in December and the unemployment rate dropped, partly reflecting a shrinking workforce, a sign the labor-market recovery will take time to develop. Payrolls increased 103,000, compared with the median forecast of 150,000 in a Bloomberg… Continue reading Unemployment Charts
On Wednesday we said: Consequently, we are not big fans of this report as a leading indicator of Friday’s payroll report. On a typical Friday afternoon there is a lot of agreement about the inaccuracy of this report. But 3 1/2 weeks later we all seem to forget about this report’s shortcomings and take it… Continue reading ADP Is Report Worse At Predicting Payrolls Than A Consensus Estimate
The Wall Street Journal – Corporations Selling Bonds at Brisk Clip Companies are taking advantage of investors’ hunger for yield to bring a flurry of new bond offerings to market. Corporations have sold more than $35 billion of investment-grade bonds so far this week, offering more than $8 billion on Thursday alone, led by a… Continue reading Corporate Issuance
Realpage.com – U.S. Apartment Rents Poised to Climb More Than 5 Percent in 2011 While apartment occupancy across the U.S. tightened enough to push rents up modestly during 2010, the stage is now set for a big bounce in pricing during 2011 according to projections from MPF Research, an industry leading market intelligence division of… Continue reading If Rents Rise, Will Core Inflation Follow?
The Source (WSJ Blog) – Are Rising Bond Yields Good Or Bad For Shares? Only when inflation expectations start to raise concerns about aggressive central bank policy responses do they then start to have a bearish impact on shares. But this isn’t likely to be the case now. The Fed is committed to a lower… Continue reading What Moves Bond Yields?
The Wall Street Journal – Bond Buyers’ Eyes Are on Illinois Lawmakers Edge Toward Income-Tax Increase That Could Cheer Investors As Illinois lawmakers huddle behind closed doors this week trying to find ways to plug the state’s $13 billion deficit, municipal-bond investors are sizing up how to wager amid the state’s woes. Investors who have… Continue reading Illinois Debt
<Click on chart for larger image> Euro Intelligence – And now the euro slumps – crisis back in full force Yesterday, we noted that at least the euro was still trading within its $1.31-$1.31 Christmas period trading range, but overnight it slumped below $1.30. Our daily chart of 10-year bond spreads has proof to be… Continue reading Europe Gets Worse
The Economist – Financial markets: The big mo Investors love to chase winning stocks. Policymakers should be wary of the momentum this creates At the overall market level, momentum effects help to explain why bubbles develop. Put that together with borrowed money and you have a disaster in the making, like the credit crunch. Too… Continue reading Stock Market Momentum