US economic data has been improving lately, but Mr. Market’s no longer in a mood for celebrating. The US equity market has tumbled sharply in recent days. Meanwhile, the appetite has surged again for the safe haven of US Treasuries. Is all this just noise, or a warning signal that the recent acceleration in the…
Wheeee, that was fun! As you can see, we’ve already come very close to re-testing our December lows but we were happy enough with the gains on the TZA calls (that I mentioned yesterday morning) that we cashed in our April $13 calls at $2.20, up 0.50 (29%) from the morning open – another nice way we…
Things in risk land started off badly this morning, with the worst start to a year ever was set to worsen when European equities came under early selling pressure following news of German unemployment falling to record low, offset by a record high Italian jobless rate, with declining oil prices still the predominant theme as Brent…
It has been a pretty bad start to 2015, with most stocks sinking to begin the New Year. This has left investors looking to more defensive sectors which can hold up in this type of market environment. Health care is definitely one such sector and it is actually one of the two top performing segments…
Podcast: Play in new window | Play in new window (Duration: 13:16 — 6.1MB) DOW – 130 = 17,371 SPX – 17 = 2002 NAS – 59 = 4592 10 YR YLD – .08 = 1.96% OIL – 2.23 = 47.81 GOLD + 14.20 = 1220.30 SILV + .36 = 16.65 The 114th Congress convened Tuesday for the first…
Chief economist of Goldman Sachs (GS), Jan Hatzius, answered eight questions of which he believes that they will affect the US economy the most over the coming year. In summary this is what his answers were: Will the US economy keep growing? Yes, domestic demand will compensate for weaker foreign demand….
As investment advisors, traditionally we have taken an approach to investment oversight which assumes that 401k participant investors are rational investors. “Loss aversion” bias suggests otherwise. The following paragraphs will outline an approach which places the participant’s aversion to loss at the center of fund evaluations to help protect the plan sponsor from potential fiduciary…
Broadly speaking, as markets recovered from mid 2009 (amid extreme monetary policy experimentation around the world), economic growth and asset prices were in sync around the world. When markets faltered after the end of QE2 in 2011 and the Fed folded on moderation, investors around the world piled into US equity and credit markets chasing the…
TASER International (TASR – Snapshot Report) If I could name a single town that rose from obscurity in 2014 that would have to be Ferguson, MO. The Ferguson issue was as divisive as it was fascinating. There were so many issues at hand and the entire episode brought to the forefront many problems we have in this…
The end of 2014 marked the 23rd anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Russian Federation. Like Chinese leaders in the previous decade, Russian policymakers faced the challenge of integrating their nation into the global economy. Russia’s trade openness (exports and imports scaled by GDP) grew from 26% in…
