Bloomberg View – Broken Benchmarks Libor, the global borrowing rate that became a byword for corruption, is headed for the grave. While rules around several other benchmarks have been tightened, regulators will phase out the London interbank offered rate completely by 2021. They say there isn’t enough data to produce reliable figures for the rate, which underpins more… Continue reading LIBOR’s Slow Death
Bloomberg – The Quant Fund Robot Takeover Has Been Postponed For computerized strategies that are supposed to be making people obsolete, quants are looking decidedly human in 2017. Program-driven hedge funds are stumbling, a promising startup has closed, and once-reliable styles are showing weakening returns. A handful of investment factors, the wiring of smart-beta funds,… Continue reading Quant Funds’ Underperformance Continues
Bloomberg – Hedge Funds Seen Gaining Market Influence in Passive Money Boom The decade-long growth of cheap index-tracking funds is giving hedge funds an unexpected influence in setting market prices. As investors hand more of their money to passive fund managers and active stock pickers get sidelined, hedge funds’ heft is being magnified. Active fund… Continue reading Concerns Over Price Discovery In The Passive Investing Boom
Bloomberg – In Debt We Trust for U.S. Consumers With $12.7 Trillion Burden After deleveraging in the aftermath of the last U.S. recession, Americans have once again taken on record debt loads that risk holding back the world’s largest economy. Household debt outstanding — everything from mortgages to credit cards to car loans — reached… Continue reading Consumer Debt
MarketWatch – These 7 billionaires are worried about a stock-market correction Listen to Jeff Gundlach, Carl Icahn, Howard Marks, Warren Buffett, George Soros, David Tepper and Paul Singer By now, all investors should know the research about the follies of market timing. But similarly, all investors should admit that a quest for outperformance by stock picking and… Continue reading Bearish Billionaires
The Wall Street Journal – Investors Question Oil Output in Permian Basin, America’s Fastest-Growing Field Investors helped turn West Texas’ Permian Basin into America’s fastest-growing oil field, but their confidence is cracking over whether drillers can keep production rising. Questions mounted last week after Pioneer Natural Resources Co. reported that its Permian wells are producing… Continue reading Crude Oil Supply/Demand
Bloomberg – A Record Percentage of MBAs Don’t Want to Work on Wall Street A new survey shows that jobs outside of Wall Street are becoming increasingly enticing to recent MBA graduates. According to data from Training the Street, bulge bracket banks were a top employment choice for just 19 percent of respondents. Not only… Continue reading Top Talent No Longer Wants To Work On Wall Street
Not sure who to credit for this absolute gem. Nails it. pic.twitter.com/s1bdGWOR5E — Julie Owen Moylan (@JulieOwenMoylan) August 9, 2017
Handout, mp3 replay and webcast replay for our conference call titled What Moves Rates on August 10, 2017. The handout can be found here (starts with the second post). A transcript of the Q&A from this call can be found here. Mp3 replay can be heard below: Webcast replay below:
Bloomberg – Fed Neutral Rate Estimate Drops, Lowest in Over Two Years The so-called neutral U.S. interest rate fell in the second quarter by the most since 2010, according to a widely-cited estimate produced by Federal Reserve economist Thomas Laubach and San Francisco Fed President John Williams. The theoretical rate known in economic circles as “r-star”… Continue reading ‘Neutral’ Rate Dropping, Are Tighter Financial Conditions Finally on the Way?
Mauldin Economics – (October 18, 2016) Brace Yourself for the Quadrillion-Dollar Reckoning … To tap the wisdom of Jim Bianco of Bianco Research, central bank bond buying has become fungible. As long as the buying continues, it really doesn’t matter who’s picking up the QE tab. To that end, over $2 trillion in global QE purchases have taken… Continue reading ECB Likely the Most Watched Central Bank in 2018