Weekly Unemployment Claims: Up 10K, Better Than Forecast
Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor: In the week ending October 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 233,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 222,000 to 223,000. The 4-week moving average was 239,500, […]
Spanish Stocks Soar On ‘Good’ Catalonia News
“Big league!” Not really, but the IBEX is up sharply on the day and is headed for a one-month high. Apparently, Puigdemont is going to call regional elections as opposed to declaring independence, which is obviously preferable if you’re long risk or otherwise hoping periphery spreads don’t explode, with God knows what kind of knock-on effects. Here’s […]
The Fed Balance Sheet Unwind Myth
Since the beginning of the year, the Federal Reserve has been heavily discussing, warning rather, they were going to begin to “unwind” their gargantuan balance sheet. As Michael Lebowitz recently penned in his subscription-only article “Draining The Punchbowl:” “Since QE was first introduced, the S&P 500 has gained 1,546 points. All but 355 points were achieved during periods […]
UK Q3 Growth Likely To Trigger Rate Rise
The unusual feature about the UK’s Q3 2017 performance is that the focus is not so much on an analysis of the underlying trends to see if a “Brexit” factor is dragging the economy back, or points towards an Eldorado for UK businesses as the nation moves into an unseen space and “leads the world” […]
The Latest Innovation In Inflation Targeting
In 2016, I wrote a piece at mises.org highly critical of inflation targeting. At that time the idea of a 2% inflation target was fast becoming mainstream. Since then it has become a routine yardstick for assessing economic policies.1 It was a hit with politicians, liberal economists, and borrowers around the world because with inflation running below that […]
ECB Halves Bond Buys To 30 Billion Through September 2018 –EUR/USD Crashes – Live Coverage
50% less QE: 30 billion instead of 60 billion from the beginning of 2018 through September, more or less as expected. The door is open for more bond-buying afterward. EUR/USD falls to a new low of 1.1760, basically erasing the gains seen in the past day. The high was 1.1835 The European Central Bank was […]
Morning Call For Thursday, October 26
OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS Dec E-mini S&Ps (ESZ17 +0.12%) this morning are up +0.06% and European stocks recovered from a 3-1/2 week low and are up +0.33% as a rally in Spain’s IBEX Stock Index leads European stocks higher. Spain’s IBEX Stock Index jumped +1.54% and gave European stocks a lift after people familiar with the […]
Twitter Surges After Beating, Adding 4MM MAUs Despite Admitting It “Over-Counted” Users For Years
In the first sign that President Trump’s favorite social network may be finally turning the corner, Twitter reported revenue, EBITDA and earnings all of which beat expectations, at revenues of $589.6MM (vs exp.$587.5MM), EBITDA of $207MM (vs exp.$161MM) and non-GAAP EPS of $0.10, better than the $0.06 expected. Monthly active users rose by 4% to […]
Winter Fuel Wake Up
Winter worries may start early as supply of distillate and natural gas are the tightest they have been in years with winter ahead. While in recent years Mother Nature has bailed out these markets with warmer than normal winters, this year even a normal winter could drive prices higher. Already the Energy Information Administration (EIA) […]
4 Chemical Stocks Well Poised To Top Earnings Estimates
The chemical industry has so far enjoyed a positive run this year, helped by an upswing in the world economy and continued strength across major end-use markets such as construction, automotive and electronics. The Zacks Chemicals Diversified industry has outperformed the broader market year to date. The industry has gained around 23.6% over this period, higher than […]
