The Wall Street Journal – Global Stock Surge Mints More Than $9 Trillion in Market Value Almost every major yardstick for global stock prices ended the year with double-digit percentage gains Soaring stock prices across the globe added more than $9 trillion in market value to equity markets in 2017, the biggest one-year swell since the… Continue reading World Stock Markets
The Financial Times – Stockpickers’ fees set to suffer from ETF price war Ever cheaper index-tracking funds will sharpen the pressure on the active managers Asset managers are bracing themselves for an even tighter squeeze on fees this year, as an intensifying price war between exchange-traded fund providers raises the pressure on those who promise to… Continue reading Stockpickers In For Another Tough Year?
Each of the following PDFs contains three charts. The first shows the combined monthly mutual fund and ETF flows versus a benchmark index when applicable. The second chart compares the cumulative flows and assets of mutual funds to ETFs. The third chart shows the combined cumulative flows and assets of mutual funds and ETFs. The… Continue reading Untitled
Conditions are favorable for widening by U.S. TIPS breakevens given hefty economic data improvements and seasonal tailwinds to start 2018.
Reuters – Ineos sees Forties oil flows back to normal around new year Britain’s biggest and most important oil and gas pipeline Forties should resume normal flows around the new year, slightly earlier than previously flagged, its operator Ineos said on Thursday. Ineos had previously expected the pipeline, which suffered a rare unplanned shutdown because of… Continue reading Good News for Pipelines but Price Effects Linger
MarketWatch – Stock optimism swells as S&P 500 hits most overbought level in 22 years Following a year in which the U.S. stock market hit a record number of records and seen basically nothing in the way of pullbacks or volatility, investors have gone all-in on stocks. Exchange-traded funds, perhaps the most popular way to… Continue reading Stock Sentiment Remains At Extremes
The Wall Street Journal – Wall Street Traders Miss Out on Record Markets Markets boomed in 2017, but Wall Street didn’t share in the bounty. At big banks, a quiet December closes what turned out to be an unremarkable year for trading, a lifeblood of large firms. Lower revenues likely mean slim bonuses for many… Continue reading Banks Struggle Without Volatility
The Financial Times – Michael Hasenstab: Fed risks massive hangover as it begins ‘great unwind’ Only a strong economy can stop damage in Treasuries spreading to equities and credit In response to the global financial crisis, the US Federal Reserve took extreme but necessary measures to protect the American economy from collapse. It now faces a… Continue reading Unwinding The Fed’s Balance Sheet
Reuters – Goldman expects $5 billion hit to quarterly earnings due to new tax law Goldman Sachs Group Inc said on Friday it expects fourth-quarter earnings to decrease by about $5 billion due to the new U.S. tax law signed by President Donald Trump last week…Around two-thirds of the $5 billion decrease is due to… Continue reading The Cost Of Repatriating Cash
The Wall Street Journal – Why Commodity-Index Investing May Be Futile It’s harder to make money on commodity indexes over the long term than it is to profit from stock-index investing Commodity indexes haven’t provided that same kind of “significant persistent level of return over time,” says Amanda Agati, an investment strategist at PNC Institutional Asset… Continue reading Commodities As An Index
The Wall Street Journal – Italy’s President Calls National Elections as Country Grapples With Economic Pain For many European leaders, Italy is still the trouble spot in the continent’s rebound Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella dissolved parliament Thursday and called elections for early March, a vote that will highlight the economic and political problems still stalking Europe… Continue reading Italeave?