The 8th largest economy on the entire planet is in a state of turmoil right now. The shocking collapse of the price of oil has hit a lot of countries really hard, but very few nations are as dependent on energy production as Russia is. Sales of oil and natural gas account for approximately two-thirds…
OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS March E-mini S&Ps (ESH15 +0.56%) this morning are up +0.61% ahead of the outcome of today’s FOMC meeting, while European stocks are down-0.92%, led by a decline in bank stocks on concern of their exposure to Russian debt. The Russian ruble has stabilized temporarily near 66 per dollar, above yesterday’s record low…
The plunge in the oil price is starting to make victims. Russia is the first to earn first page notoriety but others will follow. The collapse on the commodity markets is going to make more victims. The 2008 commodities price spike promoted a worldwide expansion of production capacity that is now starting to inundate the…
It’s no surprise that revenues came flooding in, but corporate taxes are even better than expected. I had been thinking $+10B would be good, we are currently at $+$20B through 15 days as 2014 has $78B of corporate tax deposits vs $58B in 2013. Offsetting the upside in corporate taxes…withheld taxes are down 4% ($4B)…
The global economy is under pressure these days, suffering from a troubling mix of heightened geopolitical risk and wobbly macro reports. Despite the challenging environment, the US economy still looks resilient, based on the current numbers through November. Tracking a diversified set of indicators shows that macro momentum was solidly positive through last month. But…
All socialists just see money and justify their taking of other people’s money. The German Socialists are no different. They cannot understand how an economy even how it functions. All they want is to take other people’s money for themselves no different than a thief in the night except they do it while justifying themselves…
Vector Group (VGR) is the 4th largest tobacco company in the US. Vector Group has a market cap of just $2.3 billion, making it significantly smaller than its larger rivals. The company sells discount tobacco products under the Pyramid, Liggett, Eagle20’s, Grand Prix, and Eve brands. In addition, Vector Group has significant real estate investments totaling…
Previewing today’s market: near record low liquidity, with chance of ridiculous volatility in the Ruble, energy and equity markets. While no doubt today’s main event will be the “considerable” FOMC announcement and the Fed’s downward-revised economic projections followed by Yellen’s press conference, what traders will be most excited by is that, finally, Jim Bullard will…
Major magazine publisher Time Inc. just announced a partnership with Coinbase that will enable readers to pay for their subscriptions in Bitcoin. Time stated that are very excited about the partnership and will work closely with the Bitcoin industry in order to provide greater value to its subscribers. Many industry experts believe that the announcement…
A few days ago, a broken clock atop a local row of shops caught my eye. It wasn’t so much that the clock showed the wrong time but that someone had added decorative holiday bows at its base. This means that the individual had to have seen that something was wrong but looked the other…
