The strength in the Treasury bond markets has surprised many analysts. At the end of last year, many were expecting that interest rates will go up in 2014 as the economic growth picks up and Fed moves towards raising interest rates. But interest rates have moved significantly lower this year, benefiting Treasury bond ETFs. One…
The gold price was unable to make a lot of progress this year, although the damage was contained in comparison to last year. Doubts about the future of gold have grown over the past few months, however. An old saying teaches us that gold and silver will always hold their value, but the…
Having exuberantly reached its highest level since September 2013 last month (despite the total collapse in mortgage applications), it appears the ugly reality of the housing market has peeked its head out once again. As prices rose, existing home sales plunged 6.1% – the most since July 2010 (against an expected 1.1% drop) to 4.93mm SAAR…
With the utterance of one word, “patience” in reference to the Fed’s anticipated lift off date from its zero bound interest rate target, Janet Yellen sent the Dow Jones soaring over 700 points in two days. It is clearly evident that our central bank is finding endless excuses not to raise interest rates in an…
Add Yankee great, Jorge Posada to the long list of names of professional athletes who have been misled by their investment advisors. There are of course several accounts of this around the web but according to the NY Post, he lost millions on a real estate deal, and in a hedge fund run by his advisors. The…
Emerging market investment was dull in 2013 only to see a trend reversal this year in several nations as volatility levels picked up. Overall, broad emerging markets braved the QE shutdown and the potential rate hike in the U.S. plus anemic growth in most developed nations (read: 3 Emerging Market ETFs Off to a Great Start…
These two Great Graphics were created on Bloomberg. The first shows the price of crude oil (white line) and the JOC-ECRI index industrial metals index (yellow line). The metals included are steel, copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, tin and nickel. The two times series were indexed to levels seen twelve months ago. They both moved largely sides for the first…
The USD has put on quite a show on the forex markets. It does not look like the rise of the dollar is over as well, although it did stomp on the brakes for a bit recently. In contrast with its European and Japanese counterparts, the US central bank will raise interest rates most likely…
The most important asset for a young investor is time. If you are just starting out in the work world, the idea of investing may seem overwhelming. Your thoughts are most likely on your immediate needs, not decades ahead. While retirement seems far away – that far off point in the future is what is…
“Index shows economic growth accelerated in November”: This is the headline for today’s release of the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index, and here are the opening paragraphs from the report: Led by improvements in production-related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) rose to +0.73 in November from +0.31 in October. Two of the…
