The National Bureau of Statistics released today CPI and PPI data for December 2014. People’s Dailysummarizes the CPI data, which came in pretty close to market expectations: China’s consumer prices grew 2 percent in 2014 from one year earlier, well below the government’s 3.5 percent target set for the year, official data showed on Friday. The increase…
Source: Wikimedia.com Dear Diary, The Dow rose 323 points yesterday, or 1.8%. People come to think what they must think when they must think it. But what do they think now? Why do they think stocks are so valuable? Apparently, they believe that Janet Yellen, Mario Draghi and Haruhiko Kuroda – the powers that be…
The 10→5→2 yield spread is up big today with all durations dropping. Not a risk ‘ON’ alignment at all. 10, 5 & 2 year yields from Bloomberg For perspective, here is what the 30 vs. the 5 year looks like today…
A few months ago, I wrote a bullish article on Ligand (NASDAQ:LGND), with a thesis stating that the company’s outlook should improve with increasing royalty payments and new collaborations using its Captisol technology platform. I also stated that Wall Street is overlooking the fact that Ligand’s partners will spend more than $800 million in R&D in 2014,…
Yves Smith points us to additional 114th Congress changes: How the Republican Campaign to Gut Dodd Frank is a Huge Gimmie to Banks and Private Equity Funds The Republicans have been quick and shameless in using their control of both houses to try to crank up the financial services pork machine into overtime operation. The Democrats…
Another month, another attempt by the BLS to mask the collapse in the US labor force with a goalseeked seasonally-adjusted surge in waiter, bartender and other low-paying jobs. Case in point: after a modest rebound by 0.1% in November, the labor participation rate just slid once more, dropping to 62.7%, or the lowest print since December…
The BLS jobs report headlines from the establishment survey were strong and above expectations. The unadjusted data shows very strong jobs growth. Year-over-year growth rates are improving. The household survey again says something different. Putting this month’s headline establishment numbers into perspective – the monthly private sector growth is lower than last month but above average for…
Here are the lead paragraphs from the Employment Situation Summary released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 252,000 in December, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, construction, food services and drinking…
Click on picture to enlarge The past year has been a little bit rough on small caps, as they have underperformed against the SPY by almost 8% over the past 12 months. When looking back over the past few years, small caps haven’t lagged the S&P by that much in the past 5-years. Anything caused…
The US labor market posted another healthy increase last month, the government reports. Private-sector payrolls increased 240,000, a bit more than economists were forecasting (but slightly below The Capital Spectator’s median prediction). Although December’s advance was well below November’s increase (+345,000 for the private sector), today’s release still looks encouraging. Indeed, when you strip out the monthly noise…
