Good day. My first day back in the saddle went fairly well, the meetings were short and sweet — just the way I like them — and I got out of here at a decent time to get home and get my feet up. It was a busy day in the markets, and with no economic data to guide them, they continued to steer toward the dollar.
[Read more...]QE3 Still an Option
April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day, and welcome to the last Thursday in April. As Chuck mentioned, I’ll be steering the ship today while he travels to Florida for some conferences, so the call to the bullpen has been made. All in all, it was a fairly quiet day, and if I had to make a call one way or the other, I would have to say Wednesday turned out to be a risk-on type of day. While the U.S. earnings season has definitely fueled the risk on campers, it was touch-and-go for a while.
[Read more...]Aussie Inflation Falls, Dragging the Aussie Dollar Down
April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Aussie inflation report that printed last night certainly is going to give my thought of no rate cut a lot of problems. Aussie first-quarter CPI rose just 0.3% from the previous quarter.
The forecasts ranged from 0.5-0.6%, so the lower inflation is going to be the straw that stirs the drink for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), who had hung their rate cut hat on this report. Now that it has printed and was very weak, I don’t see how the RBA doesn’t cut rates. So much for me leaving a light on for no cut, eh?
[Read more...]Calls for QE3 on Disappointing Jobs Data
April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day. It was a picture-perfect day here in St. Louis yesterday for our Easter celebration. It’s not often we can do that outside, but outside is the only place you would want to be yesterday! The grandkids were all dressed for the occasion, and they all looked as cute as can be.
Well, the jobs jamboree sure wasn’t cute on Friday. In fact, it bordered on ugly. You may recall that going into Friday’s jobs report, the ADP report on Thursday said the economy added over 200,000 jobs in March, and that the “experts” had forecast an increase in jobs of 205,000.
[Read more...]Successful Investing Strategies in a Government-Centric Market
April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
You’ve heard of “risk on”; you’ve heard of “risk off”… But have you heard of “everything off”?
That’s the trade that seems to be underway right now. Investors are dumping everything with a ticker symbol: US stocks, foreign stocks, government bonds, corporate bonds, precious metals, crude oil and almost every other commodity.
[Read more...]Fed Gives Parameters for Additional Stimulus
April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Good day. Boy, did I ever “hit the wall” yesterday! I got home and collapsed in my recliner, and immediately fell asleep. It had been a whirlwind three weeks, and then I “hit the wall.” It looks as if the risk assets have “hit the wall” too yesterday afternoon, which has carried through to the overnight markets.
[Read more...]Dollar Drops After US Inflation Slows Slightly
March 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Friday morning saw the dollar giving back more of the gains it had booked early last week and the greenback ended the week a bit weaker than it started. The CPI numbers were what sparked Friday’s selling, as the CPI came in a bit lower than forecasts. Consumer prices rose 0.4% in February, with just a 0.1% increase in the ‘core’ number (Ex. Food & Energy). The YOY gain was identical to the January reading at 2.9%, and the Core YOY figure was a bit lower at 2.2%. Apparently some of the currency traders felt these numbers may force the Fed to rethink their stimulus plans. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had indicated there would not be a need for another round of quantitative easing during the past few weeks, but the benign inflation data may indicate our economic recovery is in need of some additional fuel.
[Read more...]
Bill Gross and Others Call for QE3
Good day. My first day back in the saddle went fairly well, the meetings were short and sweet — just the way I like them — and I got out of here at a decent time to get home and get my feet up. It was a busy day in the markets, and with no economic data to guide them, they continued to steer toward the dollar.
[Read more...]