The Financial Times – Gillian Tett: The corporate debt problem refuses to recede Non-financial leverage is higher today than it was before the crisis The financial world faces at least three key issues, with echoes of the past: cheap money has fuelled a rise in leverage; low rates have also fostered financial engineering; and regulators are… Continue reading Corporate Debt
The Wall Street Journal – Economists Stick With Optimistic U.S. Outlook Despite Market Turmoil Forecasters see the U.S. economy gathering steam this year and the Federal Reserve raising short-term interest rates three or perhaps four times by the end of 2018. Economists surveyed in recent days by The Wall Street Journal on average predicted U.S. gross… Continue reading Economists Are Still Optimistic!
Bloomberg View – Tim Duy: Be Thankful for the Stock-Market Selloff The meltdown on Wall Street in recent days might have an upside: It could help extend the length of the expansion. I had three primary concerns about the extent of the equity rally of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. The first was that… Continue reading Why The Correction Is A Good Thing
The Financial Times – Financiers ‘keep skills sharp’ by trading cryptocurrencies “In a day’s worth of cryptocurrency movement you have a week or a month of equity market movement and a decade of country debt,” he says. The stunning rise of cryptocurrencies in 2017 took the world of finance by surprise. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn called… Continue reading The Allure Of Trading Cryptos
Volatility Sellers Now Understand
The volatility of U.S. equities rocketed higher in February but has thus far been mostly an isolated event away from U.S. Treasuries, foreign equities, and currencies
Bloomberg – Big Investors May Be Dragging Bitcoin Toward Market Correlation Morgan Stanley clients see cryptocurrency as risk barometer It may just be a coincidence that Bitcoin’s plunge preceded the latest equities selloff, but Morgan Stanley clients are watching the digital currency as a potential leading indicator for risk in the broader stock market. “The idea… Continue reading Bitcoin as a Risk Asset Barometer
Bloomberg – Jim Bianco: Stock Bulls Better Be Careful What They Wish For This week has featured extreme volatility tied to derivatives based on the VIX. These types of unwinds do not create a trend, they merely exacerbate it. The VIX started higher on concern that inflation would force central banks to reduce their balance… Continue reading Inflation: Be Careful What You Wish For
OPEN Webcast: U.S. Treasury Yields Most Reliant on Inflation Since Pre-crisis In the webcast above, Ben Breitholtz discusses his recent post titled U.S. Treasury Yields Most Reliant on Inflation Since Pre-crisis.
The New York Post – John Crudele: DC ‘Plunge’ team may have halted unprecedented Dow Jones spiral Did Washington save the stock market on Monday? It may be hard to make the case that anyone or anything helped Wall Street as stocks lost about 4 percent of their value and the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 1,175 points —… Continue reading The Tin Foil Hats Are Back!
Bloomberg – Macro Hedge Funds Rediscover Their Mojo Hedge funds that try to earn a crust from speculating on the market impact of shifts in the economic and political background have starved in recent years. But the global macro gang is back. Three of the best-known macro fund managers had a great January, according to… Continue reading Hedge Funds Have Opportunity As QE Subsidies, But Let’s Not Claim They Are Back Just Yet
Bloomberg – Losing Interest in Bitcoin Investors in Bitcoin counting on a rush of fresh money to lift the cryptocurrency’s slumping fortunes may face a new obstacle: disinterest from the mainstream. Global online searches for the term “Bitcoin” have tumbled alongside the price since both peaked in mid-December, according to Google Trends data. While the… Continue reading Interest In Bitcoin Plummets