Negative GOFO Rates Become More So The gold forward offered rate (GOFO for short) is a swap rate for a gold-dollar swap. If one owns gold and wants to borrow dollars, one can use one’s gold as collateral for a dollar loan, and GOFO is effectively the interest rate one pays for this swap. Implied…
HSBC recently severed its ties with GA Advisors, the world’s first regulated Bitcoin investment fund. Supposedly, the bank was worried about a “money laundering risk” activities in the Bitcoin industry. Global Advisors’ Daniel Masters believes that the step taken by HSBC will prove to be a huge hurdle for the Bitcoin investment fund, which he…
The headlines say construction spending improved this month – Econintersect sees the data moving around to the extent it would be wrong to take this month’s data to the bank (and because last month’s data was revised up, we see a deceleration this month in growth). The weakness over the last few months continues to be attributable…
I’ve been waiting for a short term top for almost three weeks now. Maybe we’ve finally got one. If this is the case it’s time to watch market internals to see if they hold up or fail in the face of lower prices. One of the things I’m watching most carefully is the percent of stocks…
When the 5th largest dark pool trading venue (by volume) in America is shuttered, as Citi notes because its “capital, resources and efforts would be better redeployed elsewhere,” you know there is a problem in US stock trading volumes and liquidity. Everyday we get ‘glimpses’ of this collapse – most recently yesterday’s (AAPL) flash-crash – as human…
Megan Trainor tells us it is “All About the Base”. It seems like many reporters and analysts may be mistaking her lyrics as it is all about debase, as in currency wars. The latest surge of currency war stories follow the unexpected decision by the Bank of Japan to dramatically increase its Qualitative and Quantitative…
Family Dollar (FDO) is the smallest Dividend Aristocrat discount retailer, behind giants Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT). Family Dollar has a market cap of ‘just’ $9 billion and operates relatively small (compared to super-centers) discount retail stores in the US. When I last wrote about Family Dollar, I analyzed the company’s pending acquisition by Dollar Tree (DLTR). The Dollar Tree…
November has just ended and oil prices appear to have reached rock bottom. West Texas Intermediate crude futures are below $65 for the first time since May 2010, and the decline is turning out to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008. Some analysts are saying that the oil collapse…
Trading was halted this morning in Radio Shack (RSH) after Salus Capital issued a notice claiming that the troubled retailer had breached covenants on a $250 Million loan. Radio Shack had warned in September that it might need bankruptcy protection. CEO Joe Magnacca said in a statement this morning that “”Prompted by their narrow self-interest,…
Different factors are contributing to the current sentiment on Wall Street. A large part of the recent rise in the wider market has been the consequence of serious buyback programs that were announced by different US companies. Economically that is not a strong sign, however. It only proves that management teams do not see enough…
