Good day and welcome to another Thursday. We saw another summer-like day here in the Midwest that lends itself to throwing the winter coat toward the back of the closet and forgetting about it until next winter. While it’s still way too early to take such drastic action, investors have seemingly thrown the debt problems and other fundamental concerns about the U.S. economy to the back of the closet, hidden under that shirt you got as a birthday gift years ago that was never returned.
[Read more...]How Market Sentiment Moves With the Greek Debt Crisis
March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A couple of hours south of Kaikoura — and the most famous crayfish picnic tables on the South Island’s east coast (Nin’s Bin) — you’ll discover the fastest growing wine region in New Zealand; 80 vineyards sprawling across more than 1,200 hectares of picturesque plantings…
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US Dollar Settles Into a Trading Range
March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The currency markets rode out the rough waters of Wednesday and made it to a bit calmer seas yesterday. The dollar traded in a fairly tight range as reports released in the morning showed initial jobless claims remained just over 350,000, and continuing claims also remained steady. Both of these numbers were slightly better than estimates, but neither moved the markets.
[Read more...]Euro Is Yanked From the Slippery Slope!
February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the euro (EUR) sure looked as if it were headed for a ride on the slippery slope, but about one-third down the slide, the single unit was yanked back to the top by a newspaper (Die Welt) report that the ECB is exchanging Greek bonds for new securities, easing concern that Greece will get its second bailout. And that news was followed up by an announcement that German officials will approve the next bailout payment for Greece.
[Read more...]A Greek Debt Crisis Recap
February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Dow down 97 points yesterday.
And the Greek story nears its conclusion…
The Germans agree to bail out the country…at least for a while…
…and the Greeks agree to act more like Germans…at least while everyone is looking…
But now everybody agrees that the farce has gone on long enough.
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US Employment Figures Continue to Improve
Good day. This will take care of my call from the bullpen for now, so Chris will have the ball for the next couple of weeks until Chuck returns at the end of the month. The summertime heat finally loosened its grip on St. Louis yesterday, and the dollar strength, which had a tight hold in the markets earlier in the week, saw some pullback. We didn’t see much action in the overnight markets Thursday morning, so everything was fairly flat when I sat down at my desk.
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