Category Archive: Finance, No picture
Secular Trends In Residential Building Permits And Housing Starts – Thursday, Oct. 18
Yesterday, we reported separately on the latest residential building permits and housing starts in the government’s monthly report, courtesy of the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Despite the fact that both are monthly SAAR series (seasonally adjusted annualized rate), they are exceptionally volatile and subject to extensive revisions. Thus it is unwise to assign […]
3 Cyber Security Stocks To Focus On Following Facebook Breach
Cyber-attacks have become recurrent with major corporate giants falling prey to criminal hackers. The recent Facebook (FB – Free Report) security breach has been the talk of the town since September when the company announced that accounts of about 50 million users were hacked. Last week, Facebook reported that the graveness of the attack was less than what the […]
In Search Of The Allegedly Steepening Yield Curve
There has been a lot of commentaries recently about the steepening yield curve. Let’s investigate with pictures. The chart shows the spread between the 10-year treasury yield and the two- and five-year treasury yields. The steepening is hard to spot so let’s hone in. Detail of Yield Curve Steepening Wait a second you say. […]
Purchasing Power And The Exchange Rate
According to popular thinking, a key factor in the foreign currency exchange rate determination is the state of the balance of payments. Following this logic, an increase in imports gives rise to an increase in the demand for foreign currency. To obtain the foreign currency importers sell the domestic currency for it. As a result, […]
EUR/USD, GBP/USD Trade Lower After Underwhelming Brexit Progress
As the two-day EU Summit drew to a close Thursday, it would seem Brexit is still very much a work in progress. Although nothing was cemented either way – deal or no deal – officials from both parties expressed optimism and announced agreement over a few key issues. One such issue was the possibility of […]
Conference Board Leading Economic Index: “Economy Will Continue Expanding Through 2018”
The latest Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for September increased to 111.8 from 111.2 in August. The Coincident Economic Index (CEI) came in at 104.4, up from 104.3 the previous month. The Conference Board LEI for the U.S. increased again in September. Positive gains from most components, except for weekly hours in manufacturing and building permits, […]
5 Stocks To Make The Most Of A United Hawkish Fed
Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s September meeting confirmed that the central bank is most likely to continue hiking benchmark lending rates at a gradual pace this year and beyond. Rising interest rates are bad news for most stocks as it raises borrowing costs and squeezes profit margin. On the other hand, banks and other […]
Trump: The Federal Reserve Is My Biggest Threat
A discussion on the economy, the US Dollar, energy and transportation. Audio Length: 00:15:18
On Mondern Monetary Theory And Some Odd Twists And Turns In The Evolution Of Macroeconomics
Mainstream neoclassical economics is hooked on the idea of individual worker-savers as prime movers in capitalist market economies. As workers, individuals choose how much to work, determining the economy’s output; as savers, they determine how much of that output takes the shape of the economy’s capital investment. With banks as conduits channeling saving flows into […]
Weekly Unemployment Claims – Down 4K
Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor: In the week ending October 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 210,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 214,000 to 215,000. The 4-week moving average was 211,750, […]
