The price of gold is rallying on growing uncertainly about a Federal Reserve interest rate hike and fears companies may disappoint already low expectations with third quarter earnings reports. No wonder billionaire Paul Singer said every investor should buy gold. According to a Bloomberg report, Singer criticized monetary policy makers for a “staggered economic recovery”…
Reduced pace of revenue growth and rapidly mounting expenses have remained major concerns for U.S. banks during the third quarter. Fundamentally, revenue and earnings growth has become uncertain on the back of a stronger dollar, plummeting commodity prices, weak emerging markets, restricted business and consumer spending, persistent low rate environment and volatile capital markets. Banks…
Gold has broken above its 200-day moving-average and pushed back into positive territory for 2015 amid a notable surge in prices (after whipsawing around in the last 24 hours). As the USD Index suffers its first ‘death cross’ in over 2 years, perhaps Paul Singer’s comments are starting to gather momentum. …
Gold rallied 1.14% on Wednesday as the dollar retreated after disappointing retail sales data weakened the case for the Federal Reserve to end the era of record-low interest rates. The Commerce Department said retail sales edged up 0.1% last month and sales in August were revised down to 0% from a previously reported gain of…
Economic data released yesterday in the US confirmed that the slowdown in the economy is larger than expected. US retail sales failed to meet expectations of a 0.2% m/m growth and settled for 0.1%. Markets have now priced the expectation of a Fed rate hike in the coming months at the following levels: October: 6%…
Dell Inc has created quite a buzz by announcing its decision to acquire data storage giant EMC Corporation (EMC – Analyst Report) in a record $67 billion deal. It is the biggest tech deal ever signed. Speculations about a combination between Dell and EMC first surfaced in Sep 2014. EMC’s management had been under pressure…
If housing tanks, the last prop under the veneer of middle class wealth collapses. The Powers That Be have gone to extraordinary lengths to prop up housing by whatever means are necessary since the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008: the Federal Reserve has pushed mortgages rates down by buying mortgage-backed securities, the federal housing…
The last few months have been increasingly taxing for the global economy and financial markets across the world. The rapid decline in crude oil prices, uncertainty with respect to the timing of the Fed rate hike, macroeconomic headwinds looming large in China and a slowdown in global markets were some of the economic factors at…
The U.S. economy is showing signs of slowing down and the prospects for an interest rate hike by the end of the year are decreasing. According to the Commerce Department, retail sales barely rose in September, edging up only 0.1 percent last month largely due to cheaper gasoline which pushed gas station receipts down 3.2…
SKEW Goes Pear-Shaped Back in 1998, at the height of the Russian crisis, the CBOE SKEW Index reached its all time high of 146.88. Previously very high values were seen on the eve of the 1990 recession, and in March 2006 it spiked again when sudden worries about the housing bubble surfaced. “There are no…
