Historic Devaluation The Mexican Peso has been under significant pressure over the last year, and the current level of devaluation in the currency is historic in both nominal and real terms.In the first 8 trading days of 2017, the Peso lost just under 14% of its value against the US Dollar. The sell -off, which…
The US dollar is mostly firmer against the major currencies but is confined to narrow ranges, and well-worn ranges at that, but the focus has shifted to the strong advance in equities. Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrials finally rose through the psychologically-important 20k level, and the S&P 500 gapped higher to new record levels. The…
Crude oil prices continue to mark time in familiar territory. A larger-than-expected inventory build reported by the EIA applied a bit of selling pressure but failed to push prices out of recent ranges. The data showed stockpiles added 2.84 million barrels last week, much more than the 1.47mb gain projected by economists. Gold prices declined as US Treasury bond…
US economic growth is widely expected to decelerate in tomorrow’s “advance” GDP release for the fourth quarter after a strong increase in Q3. Most forecasters see output rising in the low-2% range, roughly unchanged from last month’s review and well below the robust 3.5% expansion in Q3 (based on the seasonally adjusted annual rate). The Wall Street…
With global stock markets basking in the afterglow of Dow crossing 20,000 for the first time, on Thursday they propelled higher in sympathy with the US, as Asia and Europe are trading solidly in the green, as is the dollar which rebounded strongly off a 5 week low. Copper touched the highest price since November…
Another View On The Inflation Argument There is little evidence that current levels of inflation are stable. As I wrote in “Inflation: The Good & The Bad”, outside of just two areas, rent and health care, there remains a broader deflationary trend currently. Importantly, as I noted, there are two types of inflation: “Inflationary pressures can…
Though recovering now, the US Dollar continues to be shaky and earlier struck a 7-week trough as concerns grow over a perceived protectionist stance by the US President. Yesterday, President Trump gave the green light to begin construction on a wall to separate the southern border of the United States and Mexico in an effort…
We examine the EIA Data this past week, and it is interesting what a difference a year makes psychologically speaking as we have more inventories in storage across the board yet we are almost double the oil price versus this time last year in $53 a barrel versus $26 a barrel. There is a lot…
Gold prices ended Wednesday’s session down $8.85 as a renewed appetite for riskier assets pushed market players to lock in profits and roll their funds into equities. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 20000 for the first time, the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.99% while the dollar index fell…
Concluding weeks of speculation, overnight Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced it agreed to acquire Actelion Pharmaceuticals (ALIOF), Europe’s biggest biotech company, for $30 billion, or CHF280 per share, expanding the U.S. pharma giant’s portfolio of rare-disease treatments as its top-selling drug faces new competition. The deal, announced and agreed on Thursday by both companies, ends…
