No ‘Plan B’ In Greece Debt Talks
Greece can’t seem to see the light at the end of its financial tunnel. No matter what moves it makes, it isn’t enough to get the country out from under its pile of fiscal woes. Despite its payment last week of a 200-million euro (US$224 million) interest payment to the International Monetary Fund, which it […]
When Hyperinflation Hits In Japan, Robot Suits Will Help You Move Your Yen
It’s no secret that Japan is in the midst of what is perhaps the greatest (or most terrible, depending on whether you have a penchant for Keynesian madness or not) monetary experiment the world has ever known. With the blessing of PM Shinzo Abe and under the heavy hand of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, the BoJ […]
Will The Nasdaq & Russell 2k Drag The SPX Back Down? – Weekly Market Outlook
You have to give credit to the bulls – they’re not going down without a fight. In fact, last week’s market rebound right from the brink of disaster was another impressive comeback. On the other hand, as impressive as Friday’s bounce was, stocks still aren’t over the big hurdle that’s been holding them back since February. Will […]
Merkel’s Own Party Ready To Give Up On Greece; Another Week Of Deadlines; Reflections On Can Kicking
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is increasingly isolated in her stance on Greece. Growing Pressure From Within the ranks of her own party bloc to give up on Greece for the sake of the euro. Members of Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc are openly challenging her stance of keeping Europe’s most-indebted country in the 19-nation currency region. Even some […]
Energy Market Dislocation Impacting The Economy
We now see more evidence of the energy market dislocation impacting the economy. Here is the job cuts report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showing a pickup in layoffs. Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas Of course it’s not just the energy sector that is being hit. As discussed before the impact on other areas […]
Up Periscope: I See The Future Of Video
The fight over people using Periscope to watch Mayweather/Pacquiao was more interesting than the actual fight. Just for fun, I duked it out with Richard Quest on CNN. But this particular storyline misses the point. We’re about 10 minutes away from a paradigm shift in over-the-top (OTT) video that is so all-encompassing, it will change the way we […]
Weekly Wrap-Up + Market Forecast + Sector Watch: SPX, Nasdaq – May 11, 2015
We came into last week sitting on mostly cash, expecting a pullback. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we got that pullback. But, buyers came in on Thursday, and Friday saw a strong rally after an encouraging jobs report! Except for a couple of trades, we had a very nice week. TSLA and YELP calls gave us […]
China’s Falling Interest Rates
Expectations are building up that China’s central bank will soon announce more easing actions. But it’s not what the PBoC is saying that matters to the economy as much as what’s actually going on in the short-term rates markets. And short-term rates continue to fall. This is a form of easing without the central […]
Chart Of The Day: Record Stock Buybacks Hit Escape Velocity
As regular readers are no doubt aware, the persistent bid under the US equity market during Q1 came courtesy of price insensitive corporate managment teams who, in a rush to take advantage of rock-bottom borrowing costs just in case the Fed decides to go crazy and actually raise rates later this year, have issued a record amount of […]
