Equites advanced yesterday on “relatively” light volume as data indicated consumer spending buoyed the economy in the third quarter. Oil halted its decline for a second day on the prospect of greater stimulus from China....
Friday was an ugly day; a trading day I believe that was again entirely influenced by HFTs. Friday the WSJ editorial page commented about the bifurcation between hedge funds/active management and passive investing....
Equites retraced their Fed induced advance. The dollar rallied and commodities were crushed further sending them to a fresh 16 year low. I believe trading was entirely dominated by HFTs as everyone knows higher short term interest rates suggests a higher dollar and lower commodity...
As widely accepted the Federal Reserve increased interest rates for the first time since 2006. The Fed also stated any future increases will be “gradual,” signaling four quarter point increases during 2016....
The narrative is beginning to rise about liquidity issues within the fixed income market, the result of Dodd Frank. These new rules imposed in the wake of the financial crisis made it more expensive and more difficult for banks to hold corporate bonds on their...
Perhaps suggesting a bottom on both interest rates and oil is the perhaps one of the most missed calls in recent years. I rhetorically ask, are both in the bottoming process, an incredibly dangerous question given the 99.8% error rate of answering this question?...
Oil tumbled to a six year low, touching off a rout in the equity markets as energy related shares tumbled with currencies of commodity producing nations. The dollar rallied. In other words, trading was similar to that of the last 10-12 months….long the dollar and...
Did the unexpected again occur Friday? Commenting first about OPEC, OPEC did not decrease production but rather increased the production target to 31.5 million barrels from 30 million barrels a day....
Always expect the unexpected. Yesterday the dollar tumbled even after FRB Chair Yellen strongly inferred a rate hike is all but assured in 2 weeks. Oil gained ahead of an OPEC meeting where most believe a production cut will not occur. German bond yields rose...
Yesterday I spent considerable time driving, passing the hours flipping between CNBC and Bloomberg. Perhaps 99.8% of all “reports” were focused upon oil and the economy, universally declaring oil will stay low forever and the economy will be stuck where it has been for the...