<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Equity volumes tumble Have investors simply given up? Trading volumes dropped in July to their lowest levels for the year across US equities, options and a series of derivatives exchanges. Add the dark pools used by institutions to shift large blocks of shares, and the… Continue reading Volume Still Anemic
Bloomberg.com – Caroline Baum: Squeezing the Rich Is a Poor Way to Spur Growth Thirty-six years after an academic economist named Arthur Laffer drew a curved line on a cocktail napkin, the debate over supply-side tax cuts paying for themselves is still going strong. Why, after all this time and an extensive body of data,… Continue reading Taxes
None Today
Charts of the Week Topics Covered This Week Include: Does Company Guidance LEAD The Economy? – 1 Does Company Guidance LEAD The Economy? – 2 What Is The Repo Market Telling Us? Leverage In The Markets: Bonds Vs Stocks Tax Revenues In 2008 ETF Assets Update Primary Dealer Activity Home Ownership The Mid-Term Elections And… Continue reading Untitled
We concluded a recent Market Fact with the following: The swift drive lower in USD LIBOR and the steepening of its forward rate structure, along with the prospects for further easing at the very shortest maturities, will not only fuel global carry trades but put them on an increasingly risky footing: Rolling a position along… Continue reading What Is The Repo Market Telling Us?
<Click on chart for larger image> The Financial Times – Backdoor quantitative easing Purchases of bonds issued by government-sponsored enterprises plus Treasuries swelled the Fed’s balance sheet from $900bn two years ago to $2,350bn today. The Fed’s buying of GSE paper has distorted the market but selling it too soon might cause a shock. Instead,… Continue reading More On The Federal Reserve
Telegraph.co.uk (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:Reckless Europe beats reckless America at property bubbles Once and for all, let us nail the lie that the global credit crisis was basically a US sub-prime property bubble that went wrong, and that Europe was merely an innocent bystander hit by shrapnel. This is the property bubble chart on Page… Continue reading Bubbles
The Wall Street Journal – Pimco’s Worah: Deflation ‘Extremely Unlikely’ A senior fund manager at bond-fund giant Pacific Investment Management Co. said Tuesday it is “extremely unlikely” the U.S. could see Japan-like deflation given that the Federal Reserve has the tools to combat a downward spiral in consumer prices. But Mihir Worah, who manages Newport… Continue reading Inflation vs. Deflation
Telegraph.co.uk (UK) – Interest rates will go up quicker than anyone expects, ex-Bank of England officials warn Markets expect rates to be between 1pc and 1.5pc this time next year, according to Consensus Forecasts. The respected Ernst & Young ITEM Club has predicted they will not rise until January 2014. Sir John added: “I think… Continue reading Controlling Inflation In The UK
The Wall Street Journal – Second-Quarter Slowdown Likely Worse Than First Thought The slowdown in economic growth recorded in the second quarter was likely even less robust than initially reported on Friday, according to new inventory data released today. Inventories have had a major impact on growth over the past few quarters, and the change… Continue reading The Economy
MarketWatch.com – Brett Arends: The biggest lie about U.S. companies Commentary: Healthy balance sheets? They owe $7.2 trillion, the most ever You could hear this great news pretty much anywhere — maybe from Bloomberg, which this spring hailed the “surprising strength” of corporate balance sheets. Or perhaps in the Washington Post, where Fareed Zakaria reported… Continue reading U.S. Companies Lie
The Wall Street Journal – Foreclosed On—By the U.S. It is an unprecedented test for the most powerful of 12 regional branches of the Federal Reserve System. In its 96-year history, the Fed hasn’t made or controlled loans to U.S. citizens and businesses outside of banking since the 1930s, when it was done on a… Continue reading How The New York Federal Reserve Deals With Their Acquired Bear Stearns Portfolio