DXY Bottom Not In Place Yet After ECB, Trump Walk Back
Video Length: 00:10:36 The Euro and the US Dollar had a particularly volatile Thursday (at least by recent standards) thanks to policymakers on both sides using rhetoric to influence price action. Yet where we stand almost 24-hours later, it’s evident that not enough has changed to justify looking at yesterday’s price action and concluding that […]
Gallup: Half Of Small-Business Owners Give Trump Administration High Marks
Gallup has done a deeper dive into the data in its latest poll, which I highlighted last night. The numbers show small businesses content with the state of the economy, giving the Trump Administration high marks in this area. From an overall economic perspective, the chart that matters most is the top-level one, which shows small […]
In A Bearish Place
We’re hearing a lot about Bitcoin these days. The stories range from fortunes made on the currency to the idea that this is the biggest bubble in history. What we’re not seeing much of are analyses of the Bitcoin market, and even less so of Bitcoin users. Now, in an article on the Fortune website, […]
Technology Continues To Lead US Sectors As Healthcare Heats Up
Shares of technology stocks remain the trend leader but healthcare’s recent strength suggests a changing of the guard may be near, based on a set of sector ETFs ranked by one-year return. Meanwhile, telecom is the only US sector nursing a loss for the year-over-year change, although real estate stocks are close to dipping into […]
EC At Davos, Geopolitics And Business Dance A Winding Waltz
It’s that other time of year again. The time when the world’s business and political elites gather at an Alpine resort in Davos, Switzerland, to compare notes on the challenges they face. The top risks under discussion this year, released in advance by the World Economic Forum, are cybersecurity and “a deterioration in the geopolitical situation.” […]
Cryptocurrencies Tumble After Popular Japanese Exchange Halts Withdrawals
All major cryptocurrencies tumbled on Friday morning after Tokyo-based Coincheck – one of Japan’s biggest crypto exchanges – abruptly halted withdrawals, triggering a panic as investors feared the exchange may have experienced a Mt. Gox-style hack. “Coincheck is a very well-known exchange in Japan,” said Hiroyuki Komiya, Chief Executive Officer of Tokyo-based Blockchain Technology Consulting. “We’ve seen […]
Gilead Upgraded To Buy From Hold At Jefferies
Jefferies analyst Michael Yee upgraded Gilead Sciences to Buy and raised his price target for the shares to $95 from $87. The drugmaker closed yesterday down 11c to $81.19. Gilead “has had it tough since 2015,” but he worst is “generally moving behind them,” Yee tells investors in a research note. The analyst sees consensus […]
Mnuchin Is Not Wrong: Secular Stagnation And The Value Of The Dollar
A couple of days ago Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin touched off a firestorm by saying something that is obviousy true. He said that a lower valued would reduce the trade deficit. As I pointed out yesterday, this is based on the radical concept of downward sloping demand curves. The idea is that when the dollar falls […]
Tilting Slightly Defensive In This Melt-Up Stock Market
The allocation between Owning, Loaning and Reserving will determine 80% to 90% of your portfolio return. Selections within Own, Loan and Reserve will determine the rest. OWN: The stock market Bull is very strong, but its sustainability is in question. Momentum is high, and profits are growing, but valuations are stretched and partially dependent of […]
A Note On December Existing Home Sales
First of all, sorry for the light posting this week. While existing home sales are about 90% of the entire housing market, they are the least important economically, because of their much more limited impact since they do not involve any new construction. That being said, December’s existing home sales, at 5.57 million annualized, were […]
