We start off the overnight wrap up with the usual place, China, where in a mirror image of Wednesday’s action, stocks once again started off uneventful, then gradually rose in the afternoon session and meandered near unchanged territory until the last half hour, when out of the blue they tumbled to close near the day’s…
The U.S. economy continues to improve with decreasing unemployment and improvement in the housing sector. This according to Chairman Janet Yellen who made the report at Wednesday’s FOMC meeting. The statement sent U.S. stocks rallying for the second straight day. Yellen is looking for ways that would justify the Fed initiating the first rate increase…
The primary reason why a gold standard never worked was simply because the “money” supply can increase based not upon economic conditions, but simply due to new discoveries. The 19th century was plagued by the gold discoveries in California, Alaska, and Australia. Likewise, the discovery of gold in South America by the Spanish created massive…
The idiom “politics makes strange bedfellows” is certainly true when it comes to the opposition to the proposed Iran nuclear deal: the hard-liners in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States. The Iranian opposition still thinks of the United States as the “Great Satan” that Iran shouldn’t have dealings with. And, of course, much of…
Vizio Inc., a leading consumer electronics manufacturer, is going public and has filed a prospectus with U.S. regulators for listing its shares on NYSE. The company has proposed to raise up to $172.5 million at an undisclosed offering price in an initial public offering. Vizio will trade under the ticker ‘VZIO’. Founded in 2002 and…
On July 29, 2015, Nightly Business Report included a poignant segment featuring the painful story of a busted stock trader in China. The path from hope (greed?) to despair sounds like a classic with a twist. At least this particular trader took too many cues from the Chinese government, a government whose policies have clearly help lead…
The US dollar is broadly firmer in the wake of the FOMC statement, but there are some notable exceptions. The market appears reluctant to sell sterling ahead of next week’s MPC meeting, where hawkish dissents are likely. There will also be the immediate release of the minutes, and new macro-forecasts. The Australian dollar is resilient in…
Gold prices remain coiled within the recent trading range during today’s Asian session as the Federal Reserve meeting gave investors few new clues as to when interest rates may rise. The markets were looking for some more specifics in terms of timing but policy makers didn’t hint of a September policy move – they didn’t…
Even though the FED seemed optimistic about the US economy, the FOMC statement did not drop any hints on whether an interest rate rise in September is a possibility or not. EURUSD spiked up to $1.1078 and then dropped down to $1.1003 during the statement. Continued USD strength is the order of the day so…
Almost a year in the making, healthcare insurance giants Anthem (ANTM) and Cigna (CI) have finally struck a deal. And what a deal, too. Anthem will acquire Cigna for a whopping $48 billion. And with a combined 53 million insured people, the Anthem-Cigna alliance would be the largest health insurer in the United States (second in revenue), behind UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and ahead…
