Questions, Questions – Will The Fed Raise Its Funds Rate?
I see that pundits and even Fed FOMC members are believing the labor market “improvement” will allow the FOMC to raise the zero bound federal funds rate when the Fed meets on December 15 later this year. Improvement?? The October BLS Jobs Report was well over expectations – which seems to me is the proximate cause […]
Narrow Markets Breadth And Companies With Negative Earnings Are Leading
Although this past week took the S&P 500 Index return for the year into negative territory (down 3.2%) any positive stock returns have been led by only a handful of stocks. For the week, the S&P 500 Index declined 3.7% and was the first weekly decline after six weekly gains. From The Blog of HORAN […]
The Class War Has Already Started
Pundits and apologists are quick to chastise anyone who even speaks of class war, as if the words alone might spark what the pundits and apologists fear. The pundits and apologists dread the words because they know the Class War has already started. The mainstream media’s hope is that denial will somehow suppress the broader recognition […]
Gold: Here’s What To Look For After This Historic Run
Gold prices fell for a fourth consecutive week with the precious metal down nearly 0.3% to trade at 1081 ahead of the New York close on Friday. The decline comes alongside a sharp sell-off in equity markets with the major indices off by more than 3.5% on the week. Despite declines in the greenback, bullion has […]
When China Sneezes, The Copper Market Catches A Cold
Whatever China seems to be trying to do, it doesn’t look like it’s working. When the country released some data on the amount of new credit, the results surprised everybody. Not only did aggregate financing fall to just $75B, which was lower than the number projected by all analysts, it was also just 45% of the median […]
Dollar Bull Move Remains Intact
The US dollar turned in a mixed performance in the week after the strong jobs data boosted expectations that the Fed’s liftoff would take place next month. The Fed funds futures imply a 20.5 bp effective rate in December.At the end of October, it was 19.5 bp. In contrast, the 2-year note yield eased 3 bp over […]
Peter Merrigan: Boston will recover from the real estate boom
Boston didn’t go nuts adding commercial space during the U. S. real estate boom, so it’s doing better now than other cities, Peter Merrigan and Frank Wuest, two top local builders say. Peter Merrigan, CEO of Boston-based real estate fund Taurus Investment Holdings, said the Hub’s strong university base, educated work force and good infrastructure […]
EURJPY: Bear Pressure Builds Up On Price Failure
EURJPY: The cross closed on a rejection candle after a failed intra day attempts on the upside. We now look for EURJPY to decline further. This view remains valid as long as it holds and trades below the 135.71/136.33 zone. Resistance is seen at the 135.50 level where a break will turn attention to the […]
One True Measure Of Stagnation: Not In The Labor Force
This is a stark depiction of underlying stagnation: paid work is not being created as population expands. Heroic efforts are being made to cloak the stagnation of the U.S. economy. One of these is to shift the unemployed work force from the negative-sounding jobless category to the benign-sounding Not in the Labor Force (NILF) category. But re-labeling stagnation does not […]
US Services Economy “Bounce” Dies As New Orders Crash Most Since Lehman
On the heels of China’s, Japan’s, Brazil’s, and Europe’s Services PMI weakness (and US Manufacturing PMI and ISM weakness), Markit’s US Services PMI printed 55.1 (missing expectations of 55.6) and dropping to its lowest since June. This catch-down to Manufacturing weakness suggests the mid-year bounce is well and truly dead as even Markit admits, “it […]
