A Repeat Of The Plaza Accord
Forecast A strong dollar will undermine U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to reduce the United States’ trade deficit. If the dollar’s value continues to rise, Trump may consider unilateral or, failing that, multilateral currency interventions to bring it back down. Negotiating a new coordinated monetary intervention in the spirit of the 1985 Plaza Accord will […]
Gold: Driven By Central Bankers And Geo-Political Chaos
Background This year gold’s fortunes will be influenced by the actions of the Central Bankers and the Geo-Political chaos which is simmering in various parts of the world. We are all aware that there are many factors that influence the precious metals sector; however, today we will only look at these two as I believe […]
Trump Effect: ADP Employment Surges Near Most In 6 Years On Record Goods-Producing Job Gains
Following January’s surge in employment (biggest gain in 7 months), February’s ADP print exploded higher to 298k (5 sigma above all expectations). This is the third biggest monthly employment gain of the expansion. It appears the ‘Trump Effect’ is the biggest driver as the ADP payroll surge was mostly due to a record surge in employment for […]
Accelerating Reform Execution In China
After political consolidation, China is ready to begin a broader implementation of structural reforms. That is vital to double per capita income in 2010-20. After President Xi assumed office in fall 2012, Chinese leadership has steadily moved toward more comprehensive structural reforms. As evidenced by the recent Two Sessions in Beijing, these reforms are about […]
February US Jobs Report Blows Away Markets Expectations, Confidence Surges
The latest United States job numbers are in and they are huge, seeing the economy adding 298,000 new jobs in February alone! This has massively blown out the market expectations of 190,000. Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute had the following to say; “February proved to be an incredibly strong month for employment with […]
The Wall Street Syndicate Is Still At Work
Maybe they benefited from divine intervention… or maybe they were just lucky. Either way, the students and staff of St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California must be pretty happy right now. In 2012 the school took a chance, investing $15,000 in a small, little-known app maker called Snapchat. Last week the school sold […]
2017 IPO Prospects: Spotify Delays Again
Music streaming company Spotify has been thinking about its IPO for a while. A year ago, analysts were expecting it to take the plunge in 2017. But recent reports suggest that the company may be delaying the IPO again, as it works on improving its operations and financials. Photo Credit: Andrew Mager/Flickr.com Spotify’s Financials Stockholm-based Spotify was […]
Firm-Specific Information And Momentum Investing
When it comes to momentum investing, everyone is always looking for a better way to implement a momentum-based stock selection strategy (the same goes for a value strategy). We highlight a few methods in our book, Quantitative Momentum, as well as on our blog. We recently came across a paper from 2006 that has an improvement on a baseline momentum […]
Trading The GBPJPY Currency Pair This Week
The GBP/JPY currency pair is a baffling one to watch. It spiked tremendously after the US presidential elections but has consolidated in a tight trading range as it retreats beneath its 50-day moving average, and hovers around its 200-day moving average. On Monday this week, The Dragon attempted to break out above the 140 level but found […]
Bitcoin Is Reaching The Point Of No Return – Buy Side Should Take Note
Many bitcoin aficionados are waiting with baited breath as the SEC is to announce by this Friday whether they will approve the first registered bitcoin ETF. This is not the make or break event that many think it is, though. As a matter of fact, if the ETF is denied and the bitcoin drops, I’ll consider […]
