I was chatting with an acquaintance the other day about the resilience of credit in the face of multiple political land mines that, under normal circumstances, would have caused spreads on IG and HY to widen materially. [What? Isn’t that something you talk to your friends about?] We both agreed that while suppressed equity vol. […]

As central banks have pumped trillions of QE liquidity into the financial system since 2008, money supply (green) increased along with household debt (in red), but economic output (green) has maintained its downward trend along with wages and salaries (black). This is a big problem, because credit bubbles have always burst–every one (see chart below)–evaporating […]

Barclays downgraded Seagate (STX) to Underweight, its equivalent of a sell rating, from Equal Weight. The company’s cost cutting initiatives have largely come to an end, while it is losing share to its rival, Western Digital (WDC), in the high margin hard disk drive market, Barclays believes. Furthermore, Western Digital looks increasingly like it could […]

Although I cover my retail stocks early this morning (M, JWN, DDS) I am still cheerfully short a different kind of “retail”, which are casual dining establishments (AKA places I would never, ever want to eat). Here they are……….Fiesta Restaurant Group: Brinker International……….  And, home of the Grand Slam, Denny’s……….. 

US equity markets are ramping higher (aside from Small Caps) this morning as it appears the word “uncertain” – uttered ubiquitously by Fed Chair Yellen in the last two days – has a different meaning in stock-land… VIX hammered to a 9-handle, sending stocks soaring… Oh, and decliners are outpacing advancers…    Headlines: Everything is […]