Have you noticed that there is a tremendous amount of Internet buzz about the month of September 2015? Never before have I seen so much speculation about what would happen in one particular month. Some people believe that we will see an economic collapse next month, others believe that there will be some sort of…
It was an awful week for oil-related plays as oil’s price continued to drop and one energy company after another, including the titans Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), failed to provide investors much in the way of reassurance. This calamity was quite a contrast to the much higher optimism from earnings just three months ago….
One narrative we’ve been building on for quite some time is the idea that both stocks and bonds have been propped up by a perpetual bid from price insensitive buyers. Put simply, it really doesn’t matter how overvalued something is if your primary concern is something other than maximizing your return on investment. Take corporate…
In 1968, Paul Ehrlich released his ground-breaking book The Population Bomb, which awoke the national consciousness to the collision-course world population growth is on with our planet’s finite resources. His work was reinforced several years later by the Limits To Growth report issued by the Club of Rome. Fast-forward almost 50 years later, and Ehrlich’s…
Canada’s housing market has diverged in recent years: Vancouver and Toronto joined other international real estate markets such as New York, London, and Sydney, while prices in other major cities remain subdued. Vancouver and Toronto housing now costs double that of comparable homes in Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary as the two most expensive cities continue…
“He can’t possibly win the nomination,” is the phrase heard most often when Washington insiders mention either Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders. Yet as enthusiasm for the bombastic billionaire and the socialist senior continues to build within each party, the political establishment is mystified. Political insiders don’t see that the biggest political phenomenon in America…
The Dow experienced another difficult week, weighed down again by disappointing earnings and international concerns. The blue-chip index declined on Monday following a selloff in Chinese markets. Stocks rebounded on Tuesday, following a barrage of positive earnings results. The Dow ended higher on Wednesday after Fed’s policymakers kept key interest rates unchanged and acknowledged that…
One of the few silver linings surrounding the hard landing Chinese economy in recent weeks has been the surprising strength of the Baltic Dry Index: even as Chinese commodity demand has cratered in 2015, this “index” has more than doubled in the past few months from all time lows, and at last check was hovering…
This can be expected to be a busier week than recent weeks, with a lot more going on and more volatility. It will be an especially important week for the USD, the AUD, and the GBP, with key central bank input also due regarding the JPY. It is likely that the U.S. and Australia will…
