Oil rose over 3.0% yesterday as the markets digested the news of a larger than expected oil inventory draw down and stronger than expected Chinese growth....
The Minutes from the April FOMC meeting were a non-event. The Minutes stated that an interest rate hike in June is unlikely even though the Committee believes the first quarter slowdown is unlikely to persist....
The dollar rallied versus the euro amid a surge in housing data and from ECB comments the bank is “pulling forward” asset purchases....
In my view there is a potential disconnect between recent economic data suggesting weakness and the weekly jobless data suggesting strength. Weekly jobless claims are around 15 year lows but recent statistics is projecting second quarter GDP around 1.0%....
Treasuries rallied a second day as it appears the global bond rout is easing. The dollar extended a fifth weekly slide and oil was up for the ninth consecutive week, the longest weekly advance since 1983. Gold rose Friday, rising to a 12 week high...
I like many thought last year’s plunge in energy prices would translated into stronger retail sales. It did not happen. Bloomberg writes sales from 66 of the 84 companies in the S & P 500 that rely on discretionary consumer spending are only up 0.5%....
A constant theme is to expect the unexpected. April’s retail sales disappointed. Consensuses had expected a 0.2% increase but sales were flat. Sales are now flat or down four out of five months with March being the lone exception....
Since August 2014 I have been opining about the illiquidity of the bond market, a liquidity event I believe is the result of regulatory changes. Many times I have commented it could be ugly when selling commences under the simple guise if everyone already owns something...
Markets viewed April’s jobs data positively erasing the week’s decline. The report helped mollify bond investors as yields on Treasuries have surged during the last two weeks on oil’s unrelenting advance to over $60/barrel....
What do I first comment about? Do I remark about oil’s unrelenting advance spiking to over $62 barrel on a reduction in inventories? Or do I write about the bond market rout as the 30-year pierced the 3.0% level because of potential inflationary pressures from...