This past week has been much the same as the last couple of months – boring. It has been more interesting trying to count carpet fibers in my office than watching the markets. However, there has been some excitement in domestic bond yields that have SURGED over the last couple of weeks. Well, as I…
Industrial production came in at -0.3%, down for the fifth consecutive month below the Bloomberg Consensus Estimate. Industrial production is stalling, down 0.3 percent in April for a 5th straight monthly contraction. Factories are cutting back with capacity utilization down 4 tenths to 78.2 percent. And the manufacturing component, which has been flat to negative…
This Great Graphic comes from the Wall Street Journal. It shows the evolution of market expectations for the first Fed rate hike from the monthly survey it conducts. At the start of the year, many economists, like ourselves, thought that a June hike was the most likely scenario. However, the weakness of Q1, and especially the poor job growth…
Nothing to Lose There is a specter haunting America … and all the developed nations of the world. It is the specter of a debt revolution. We left off yesterday talking about how the economy of the last 30 years – and especially that of the last six years – has favored the old over the young….
When I was in college there was a popular t-shirt that read: “Dear Aunt Em, Hate you, hate Kansas, taking the dog. Love, Dorothy.” The obvious reference to Wizard of Oz aside, it captured the sense of adventure people feel as they leave boring, ho-hum lives in rural or suburban areas to seek their fame and fortune….
Theories abound in the stock market world. Marketwatch has one story based on bearish sentiment of individual investors saying the market will surely soar to new heights. Just below that story they have one based on the Dow Theory that warns of a possible impending crash. I don’t give too much credence to individual investor…
This morning we got the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The diffusion index for General Business Conditions at 3.1 (3.09 to two decimals) shows an increase from last month’s -1.2, which signals a return to modest improvement in activity. The Investing.com forecast was for a reading of 5.0. The Empire State Manufacturing Index rates the relative level of…
The case for a second-quarter revival in the US economy took another blow in today’s April report on industrial production. Output slumped 0.3% last month, marking the fifth-straight decline for the monthly comparison, the Federal Reserve reports. The annual pace continues to slide as well, with the year-over-year change dipping to 1.9% for the 12 months through…
Growth stocks can be some of the most exciting picks in the market, as these high-flyers can captivate investors’ attention, and produce big gains as well. However, these can also lead on the downside when the growth story is over, so it is important to find companies which are still seeing strong growth prospects in…
On the heels of the weakest print since May 2009 in March, April Industrial Production printed -0.3% (against expectations of a bounce to -0.03% from -0.64% – which was revised higher). This is the 5th monthly drop in a row – the longest streak since the Great Recession. This is the 2nd weakest YoY print, at…
