Bloomberg View – Mohamed A. El-Erian: The 2018 Outlook for Major Central Banks With the ongoing synchronized pick-up in global growth, systemically important central banks will likely be more willing and able in 2018 to start and, in one case continue, the normalization of monetary policy. But what is true for the central banking community… Continue reading Central Banks In 2018
The Financial Times – US yield curve flattens at fastest pace since financial crisis The difference between short-dated and longer-dated US Treasury yields has declined at its fastest pace since 2008, as investors anticipate a faster pace of policy tightening from the Federal Reserve next year. The difference between two- and 10-year yields has fallen 33… Continue reading The Flattening Yield Curve
The Financial Times – US tech-focused ETF duo hit by $1.57bn outflows A duo of closely tracked exchange traded funds focused on the US technology industry have faced $1.57bn in outflows over the past week, underlining the recent pullback in one of Wall Street’s star performers this year. The PowerShares QQQ fund has faced over the… Continue reading More On The Rotation Out Of Tech
Bloomberg Business – Wall Street Has No Idea What’s Going to Happen to Credit Markets in 2018 It’s the season for investment banks to try to predict the future in credit markets. The ritual is trickier than usual this time. Strategists know their year-end outlooks could come back to haunt them. There’s the unpredictable White House… Continue reading Low Volatility In The Credit Markets Have Wall Street Confused
The Financial Times – ETF providers better bet than products they sell Vast amounts of energy has been spent debating the merits of active stock picking versus low-cost tracker funds. The big news is that both sides have won, although possibly not quite in the way their advocates had envisaged. Since the start of the year,… Continue reading ETF Providers Are Outperforming The Market
The Wall Street Journal – Analysis: Recent Reserve Bank Picks Boost Consensus at the Fed The appointment of Thomas Barkin, a McKinsey & Co. executive, to lead the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond reinforces a gradual and subtle shift among central bank officials away from dissenters and toward consensus. Mr. Barkin succeeds Jeffrey Lacker, who frequently voted… Continue reading Retiring Fed Presidents Are Being Replaced By Less Extreme Candidates
The Hill – Senate panel approves Powell as Fed chair, with only Warren voting no The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of Jay Powell to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The panel voted 22-1 to recommend Powell, a Federal Reserve governor and Republican appointed by President Obama in 2012. Only Sen. Elizabeth… Continue reading Powell Approved By Senate, Elizabeth Warren Is The Lone Dissent
The Wall Street Journal – Move Over, Cushing: Houston Emerges as Key Oil Trading Hub “Cushing is becoming irrelevant,” said Philip Verleger, an energy economist who helped develop the Nymex oil futures contract in the early 1980s. Cushing, which describes itself as the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World,” remains a critical storage hub for crude and… Continue reading Houston Wants To Become the Center of Global Oil Trading
The Financial Times – Alberto Gallo: End of an era for irrational complacency in markets Ten years after the crisis, volatility and fear have disappeared from markets. A synchronous global expansion coupled with persistently loose monetary policy produced a Goldilocks era for asset prices, culminating in fantastic returns in 2017. Will it last for another… Continue reading Bearish Talk
Bloomberg Markets – NYSE Owner Says ‘We May Be Stupid’ for Waiting on Bitcoin Futures The owner of the New York Stock Exchange and some of the largest futures markets in the world said he may regret not creating a futures contract based on bitcoin as competitors CME Group Inc., Cboe Global Markets Inc. and Nasdaq… Continue reading NYSE To Regret Waiting On Bitcoin Futures?
Weakness in technology stocks has gone global. In the U.S., ETF investors are flowing into the financials and other sectors sensitive to positive news on tax reform.