FRB Chairman Powell stated the healthy US economy has faced some “cross currents and conflicting signals” that officials in January decided warranted taking a patient approach to future interest rate changes. He stated with inflation pressures “muted” the FOMC decision last month to ...
Equities have traded to the highest level since November on trade optimism. Equities were also encouraged from Chinese policy that would focus on growth as opposed to leverage. Oil declined after the President tweeted that crude prices were too high. Several third tier statistics are...
Fortune Magazine commented in late January “Bond yields [are] historically low and inflation seemed negligible: Wages [are] going nowhere, companies dare not raise prices to avoid losing market share. Bond market vigilantes have been pounded into submission.” ...
Data posted yesterday was contradictory, perhaps the result of the shutdown. Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell to a four week low. Factory orders however declined more than expected. And then there were existing home sales which also missed their mark, the result...
In my view there is a distinct relationship between passive investing and politics. It was reported yesterday that BlackRock and Vanguard—the dominant purveyors of passive investing--captured 57% of net global equity inflows in 2018. Inflows however dropped 70% from 2017. Passive investing...
Equities surged on Friday on trade and consumer optimism. The markets ignored the controversies in Washington believing at this juncture DC is nothing but a freak show. Oil continued its advance, rising to three month highs on the belief that ...
Initial data indicate retail sales fell by 1.2% in December from the previous month, the most since 2009. Most had expected an increase. What is even more confusing there was a pullback in a measure based largely on internet sales, which had been...
Equities partially reversed course following a tweet from Senator Rubio that his introducing a bill to tax stock buybacks and equal footing with dividends. I recall reading about his proposal several days earlier in a report talking about how stock buybacks is greater than...
Many times I have commented that today is tectonic. Geopolitically I believe current events are similar to eras as to when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 or the ascension of the US as a primary global power in 1946. The EU is in shatters. It...
Many times I have commented life is stranger than fiction. Yesterday’s WSJ commented that over two thirds of Americans receive their news from social media. Google and Facebook control a large majority of the digital advertising market that used to be a major...