By the time you read this Commentary, chances are the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, will have announced its decision to raise, if only by a slim quarter-percentage point, its key Fed funds interest rate. This is the rate banks charge one another in the interbank market for short-term funds – and it influences the…
I’ve had requests for stocks that are just beginning to recover so here’s 5. I used Barchart to sort the S&P 600 Small Cap Index stocks for those that have had the most advances in the last 20 trading sessions. My list includes Inland Real Estate (NYSE:IRC), Ultratech (NASDAQ:UTEK), ExamWorks Group (NYSE:EXAM), Epiq Systems(NASDAQ:EPIQ), and iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT). Inland Real Estate Barchart technical indicators: 100% Barchart technical…
But… “priced in”? “Non-Event”? 2Y yields are within a smidge of 1.00% for the first time since May 2010… As The Dow dumps off opening highs into the red for the day… But what do Treasuries know that stocks don’t… Charts: Bloomberg
PARIS – Well, this is the big day. The FOMC – the group within the Fed that votes on policy – is supposed to make an historic announcement. It is supposed to begin going “back to normal” with interest rates. Late at night, after hours of drinking, meditation, and prayer, we decided to get the…
In times like these, small investors actually have a leg up on the pros. I won’t fire myself if my portfolio of long-term investments drops between now and the end of the year. So why not take a chance on buying high-quality equities around Wednesday’s meeting. There are many solid companies trading at a discount, but one…
Today (Wednesday) marks the end of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week. Investors speculate that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates – the first rate hike since June 2006. At today’s FOMC meeting, the Fed will decide whether the U.S. economy is healthy enough for an interest rate hike. It will look closely…
With the Fed on the verge of making a rate move, Wall Street and big media pundits have missed the fact that rates have already moved. Various types of 30 day commercial paper has risen almost 20 basis points since October and nearly 30 bp since July. 90 day paper has risen by 25-30 bp since October…
Be careful in analyzing this data set with a microscope as the potential error ranges and backward revisions are significant. Also the nature of this industry variations from month to month so the rolling averages are the best way to view this series – and the data remains in the range we have seen over…
Three economic reports arrived this morning, presenting the last round of numbers ahead of this afternoon’s policy statement from the Federal Reserve that’s expected to roll out the first interest-rate hike in nine years. How do the latest figures stack up? Overall, it’s a mixed bag. Housing starts rebounded nicely in November, but industrial output continued to weaken last…
With two weeks left in 2015, the S&P 500 Index is flirting with its first down year since 2008. Much of the blame for its inability to push higher has been placed on the strength in the U.S. Dollar, which has appreciated against nearly every other global currency. The argument goes follows: a strong Dollar has…
