Asian shares are higher today as Japanese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Nikkei 225 is up 0.4% while the Hang Seng is up 1.2%. The Shanghai Composite is trading up by 0.9%. US stocks climbed on Monday, led by shares of technology companies. However, the gains were limited as President Donald Trump indicated that a decision was imminent…
While officials from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were busy on Monday, deciding whether Ethereum (ETH) should be subjected to the same standards and regulations as securities, the cryptocurrency tested a key support level before erasing intraday losses. Could Ethereum break the key resistance level? Read…
Ben Casselman’s NYT piece on economist Tim Kane’s run for a congressional seat in Ohio called my attention to an economists’ poll that I had missed. The poll posed the following question to a group of elite economists: “An important reason why many workers in Michigan and Ohio have lost jobs in recent years is because US presidential administrations…
The primary example of globally synchronized growth has been Europe. Nowhere has more hope been attached to shifting fortunes. The Continent, buoyed by the persistence of central bankers like Mario Draghi, has not just accelerated it is actually booming. Or so they say. Last September, politicians were lining up to confidently declare as much, often…
Just Because You Can Invest in an IPO, Doesn’t Mean That You Should Sometimes it feels like the best time to invest in stocks is 50 years ago—not an encouraging thought for someone looking to get started investing in 2018! Since it seems like everything good is already too expensive to start investing in, you…
About a year ago, Argentina – which has inflated away and/or defaulted on its currency every few decades for the past century – issued 100-year government bonds. And the issue was oversubscribed, with yield-crazed developed-world institutions throwing money at the prospect of a lifetime of 7% coupon payments. A contemporaneous media account of the deal: Argentina…
Despite misguided economic policies and rising geopolitical tensions, the long market expansion has prevailed. But times may be changing. With the Trump fiscal policies and rearmament, America is taking more debt than in decades, even though its sovereign debt now exceeds $21.2 trillion, or 106 percent of the GDP. As fiscal stimulus kicks in (read:…
Another Disappointing ISM Report The April non-manufacturing ISM PMI was 56.8 which missed expectations for 58.4. Just like the manufacturing ISM report, it even missed the low end of the range which was 57.3. I’m starting to look for some signs of green shoots in the economy, but we aren’t seeing any in the ISM…
After a slow start early this morning, natural gas prices attempted to rally with the June contract leading the whole strip higher from $2.7 to $2.77. The high of the day was set just after 9 AM Eastern on that price spike, however, with the strip gradually pulling down the June contract through the rest…
