Bloomberg – Options Imply Little Risk of Market Corrections Anytime Soon Rather than any severe declines, investors should be more concerned that the upside in markets will be quite limited for some time. Options are signaling that this is not the time to take exaggerated risks because of a lack — if any — of upside… Continue reading Investor Flows Dictated by the Rhythm of Economic Data Releases
Houston Chronicle – Drillers choke off dollars to Permian Basin operations Rising production costs, high acreage prices and a shareholder push for financial discipline have dramatically slowed the land rush in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most active oil fields. Drillers spent $35 billion in West Texas over a nine-month period that ended in early… Continue reading Pipelines are a Bright Spot in the Energy Sector
The Financial Times – Be active, not passive, in fixed income Fixed income benchmarks have frequent turnover. Bond markets are highly dynamic, characterised by steady streams of new issues, repayments, maturities and rating changes. Over the past three years, the turnover rate for the US Aggregate has been roughly 40 percent, while the S&P 500 has… Continue reading Why Active Bond Managers Have An Advantage Over Passive Investing
Bloomberg Business – Trump Aides Deliver Him a Shortlist of Fed Candidates President Donald Trump’s advisers have given him a final list of people they’re recommending as candidates to lead the Federal Reserve and have ended the search, according to seven people familiar with the matter. Two of the people said Fed Chair Janet Yellen remains… Continue reading Is It A Warsh/Powell Race For Fed Chief? (Yellen Now In Fifth Place)
Reuters – Trump says Puerto Rico’s debt will have to be wiped out President Donald Trump said on Tuesday while on a trip to Puerto Rico to observe hurricane recovery efforts that the island’s massive debt will have to be wiped out. “They owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street and… Continue reading Puerto Rico’s Debt
Barron’s – Is Bitcoin Stealing Gold’s Thunder? The future looks tarnished for the venerable safe-haven investment. Blame weak inflation—and crytpocurrencies. The skyrocketing popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has introduced a whole new level of uncertainty to gold’s price movements. In early September, gold approached the $1,350 level, nearly $200 above where it stood last December. Judging… Continue reading Bitcoin vs Gold
The Financial Times – JPMorgan: Central bank normalisation may spark next financial crisis As central banks begin shrinking their balance sheets, they risk triggering another financial crisis, something that may be sharpened by the shift away from active investing, JPMorgan’s top quant strategist has warned. Central banks are expected to begin next year the process of… Continue reading Central Bank Normalization
Bloomberg Gadfly – Stephen Gandel: Nope, Hedge Funds Are Still in the Dumper Hedge funds are having just as bad a year as ever, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from plowing money into the overpriced and underperforming investment vehicles or some hedge fund cheerleaders from saying, erroneously, that the industry’s performance has improved. Last year,… Continue reading Hedge Fund Performance
The Financial Times – Corporate bond demand sends index to 10-year record Expectations of US tax cuts boost interest in CDX investment grade index The cost of protecting against default by the highest rated US companies dropped to a 10-year low on Tuesday, as expectations of tax cuts boosted investors’ confidence in corporate America’s ability to… Continue reading Investors Show Confidence In Corporate America
The Financial Times – Martin Wolf: A lost chance for reform of US corporate taxes Trump has missed an opportunity, though globalisation makes corporate taxation hard The Trump administration’s “unified framework for fixing our broken tax code” is a breathtakingly thin document. But one can draw conclusions: it is regressive; the reductions in business taxation are… Continue reading More On Corporate Tax Reform
Bloomberg View – Daniel Moss: The Fed Has Freed Emerging Markets From Uncertainty The U.S. central bank now conveys its intentions so clearly that its counterparts elsewhere don’t have to guess and react. Emerging market officials are listening to the Federal Reserve very carefully — but they are no longer imitating its every move. This discretion… Continue reading Transparent Fed Has Helped Emerging Markets
Bloomberg View – Mohamed A. El-Erian: The Jobs Report’s Deeper Meaning The hurricanes will affect the data, but only temporarily. The U.S. jobs report for September, to be released Friday, will be affected by Hurricane Irma and, as a result, the data are unlikely to shed decisive light on developments in the underlying economy. Also,… Continue reading Will Hurricanes Affect The Payroll Report?