Looks like the bitcoin is making headlines again. The crypto-currency zoomed up Wednesday to its highest levels since early November but the reasons for the zip up remain as mysterious as the currency itself. Some theorists claim that the unknown creator of the bitcoin has finally been uncovered. Two publications—Wired and Gizmodo—came out with separate…
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims The market (from Bloomberg) was expecting the weekly initial unemployment claims at 260 K to 300 K (consensus 270,000) vs the 282,000 reported. The more important (because of the volatility in the weekly reported claims and seasonality errors in adjusting the data) 4 week moving average moved from 269,250 (reported last…
Here’s why the economy isn’t recovering: According to the latest PEW Poll, the middle class has gone from 61% of the population to less than 50% of the population in the past 4 decades and, even worse, now make 33.8% less income share than they used to. The bottom 30% make the same 9% of…
Barron’s recently had a favorable write up on closed end funds that one way or another use a covered call strategy as a means of providing income. Where the article focused on CEFs, the yields can be quite high because of the leverage that CEFs often use as well as returning capital, when necessary to maintain…
The Dow Jones Transportation index since 2009, has remained inside of rising channel (A) above. No doubt, the trend is up! The 6-year rising channel trend is being put to a critical test of support, right now at (1) above. Transports peaked over a year ago and have declined nearly 17%, since November of 2014….
Forex seasonality is the term used for the tendencies that certain currencies might have exhibited to move in particular directions at certain times of the calendar year. Are there any seasonal patterns that have influenced Forex markets? For example, if the U.S. dollar shows a tendency statistically to increase in value during the month of…
The financial industry in New York City is far from booming, but after several years of negative or very slow growth, Wall Street is having a reasonably good year in 2015. According to an October report from the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, business in the Big Apple is is good, profits and compensation are…
The latest confirmation that the oil cartel formerly known as OPEC is effectively non-existent, came a little over an hour ago when in its latest November monthly report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reported that total monthly crude output for the member nations rose to 31.695 million barrels per day, the highest amount produced in…
The latest confirmation that the oil cartel formerly known as OPEC is effectively non-existent, came a little over an hour ago when in its latest November monthly report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reported that total monthly crude output for the member nations rose to 31.695 million barrels per day, the highest amount produced in…
