This Great Graphic, created on Bloomberg, shows how well the euro (white line) appears to have tracked the price of the front-month Brent futures contract. One of the reasons this week proved so challenging for foreign exchange traders is that this apparent relationship broke down. Oil prices fell around 10% while the euro actually advanced against the…
The Producer Price Index inflation continued to be slight. In all events, the intermediate processing continues to show a moderation of inflation in the supply chain. The PPI represents inflation pressure (or lack thereof) that migrates into consumer price. The BLS reported that the headline Producer Price Index (PPI) finished goods prices (now called final demand prices) year-over-year inflation…
Funny what a difference two months make. Back on October 4, we wrote “Here We Go Again: Greece Will Be In Default Within 15 Months, S&P Warns” and… nobody cared as the Greek stock market meltup continued. Now, after the biggest three-day rout in Greek stock market history (or about 30% lower), and with the overhyped, oversold,…
In Italy, there are again serious protests against austerity measures. A major general strike has paralyzed Italy as public life style has simply collapsed. Nationally, 54 demonstrations were held around the country.Citizens are protesting against the austerity measures and labor market reforms the government has been compelled to implement because of Brussels.The German Chancellor…
The Treasury market’s implied inflation forecast continues to fade, dipping to 1.70% yesterday (Dec. 11) — close to a four-year low, based on the yield spread for the nominal 10-year Note less its inflation-indexed counterpart. The slide looks worrisome, but appearances can be deceptive at a time when US economic growth is holding steady if…
OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS March E-mini S&Ps (ESH15 -0.40%) this morning are down -0.53% at a 1-month low and European stocks are down -1.34% at a 3-week low as a drop in crude oil to a 5-1/3 year low undercuts energy producers. Chinese economic concerns also weighed on stocks after Nov China industrial output grew less than expected. The plunge…
Mark Hulbert’s HNNSI (data compiled from Nasdaq oriented market timers) shows that sentiment among these timers was not indicative of a top as it had been fading the rally into the recent interim top. HNNSI from MarketWatch From Hulbert: Contrast the HNNSI’s recent behavior with what happened as the 2000-2002 bear market was beginning — at the top…
“A global flight-to-safety continues to dominate the landscape as lower oil prices drives the bid for core fixed income markets” – ED&F Man Anyone who was hoping the market would rebound on last-minute news that the US government has gotten funding for another 9 months, will be disappointed this morning, when futures are…
Thursday saw another attempt by bulls to make up the losses of the previous day, but bears didn’t wait until the next day to attack. Instead, an afternoon assault pushed markets back towards their lows, setting up a situation for further losses today (Friday). Volume was light, and there is plenty of support nearby to…
