No surprises in the Fed’s minutes released today but “significant uncertainties”
According to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting, released this afternoon, everything is on the table. Here’s a quote that sums up the thrust of the minutes, in my opinion.“Several participants noted that their views of the appropriate...
Copper meeting bullish on projected supply deficit
The big Cesco copper conference in Santiago, Chile, has been remarkably bullish considering worries about global economic growth and the Chinese economy. That’s because there looks like a significant gap in the development of new supplies in 2019 and 2020 that...
Updating Nektar ahead of a dangerous earnings season–and looking to add to positions on any plunge
On April 4 I made Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) #8 in my list of the 10 most dangerous stocks for earnings season and #4 on my list of 5 stock to buy on any plunge in my Special Report on my JubakAm.com subscription site. Here’s what I wrote in that Special...
Recessions are built on negative shifts in sentiment so today’s news isn’t good
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index fell to 58.9 from 60 in the week ended March 31, according to a report Thursday. That’s an eight-week low. Survey respondents’ sentiment on their personal finances posted the steepest two-week drop since 2015. All three main...
Unsettling market risk potential for Thursday and Friday
Today, Wednesday April 3, action in the three legs that support stocks near the highs for 2019 pointed toward significant risk for Thursday and Friday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed the day up 0.21% at 2873. Leg 1 for the market: The financials,...
Is President Trump serious about closing the U.S. border with Mexico?
President Trump has ordered White House officials to find a way to shut the U.S. border with Mexico while exempting commercial trade from the closure. I don’t know if the President is serious–it could be a negotiating ploy designed to bring pressure on...
The world’s bond markets stop to think about whether the rally has gone too far
It’s all my fault. I go away for two days to tour colleges with my daughter, and global bond markets soar as everybody in the world decides to seek safety simultaneously. Today’s pause has very little to do with my return to my desk. The rise in bond...
Global trade growth continues to slow in three months through January
The figures are short-term and tentative but the trend isn’t good. Global trade volume fell 1.8% in the three months through January from the previous three months, according to the World Trade Monitor from the statistics office of the Netherlands. That’s...
Today markets see recession warning in inversion of the yield curve
It was always implicit in the Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday that all interest increase in 2019 were off the table and that the central bank would end its $50 billion a month balance sheet run off in September. Yeah, lower interest rates are a boost to...
Odds for a Fed interest rate cut don’t move much overnight–but that’s because a huge move has already happened
The Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would hold interest rates steady for 2019, that it would end its program to wind down the size of its balance sheet by $50 billion a month in September, and that it projects the economy will grow by just 2.1% in 2019...
Has the Fed panicked? Should investors?
Let’s remind ourselves of exactly how big a policy u-turn the Federal Reserve has steered in the last three months. In December the Fed was looking at 2 interest rate increases in 2019 and an announcement of an end to its balance sheet run off by, maybe,...
The Fed’s increased worries don’t scare Goldilocks markets
Today, March 20, the Federal Reserve left benchmark interest rates at the current 2.25% to 2.5% range at the meeting of the Open Market Committee, but cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth in 2019 and voiced concern about slowing consumer and business spending....
No March meeting on trade deal for Trump and Xi
A potential end of March meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign an agreement to end their trade war won’t take place this month after all. Media are reporting that multiple sources are now post to April at the earliest.If...
Drop in fear in credit markets isn’t a good sign at this point in the credit cycle
The level of fear among the managers of funds that buy investment-grade and high-yield debt has sunk to its lowest level since 2014, according to the Bank of America’s March survey of fund managers. “The most notable change in our fresh survey of U.S. credit...
Shockingly low February jobs report this morning–but what’s the trend?
The U.S. economy added only 20,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported this morning. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected 173,000 jobs for the month. In January the economy added 304,000 jobs. The huge swing left economists and Wall Street...
Just a reminder of how much of a speculative casino China can be
Overnight the Shanghai stock market, as measured by the Shanghai Composite Index, fell 4.4%. (Which took down other Asian markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 2.33%.) That’s a substantial drop, no? Causes? First, a huge drop in China’s...
U.S. trade deficit soars: I think that makes a U.S.-China trade deal more likely
In December the U.S. trade deficit widened to $59.8 billion from a revised $50.3 billion in November. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had projected a December deficit of $57.8 billion. The December deficit is the widest monthly deficit since October 2008 during...
China tweaks growth target lower to 6%-6.5% from last year’s 6.6%
Against the setting of the National People’s Congress, which opened today, China’s leaders announced that the growth target for the economy in 2019 would be 6%-6.5%, down slightly from the 2018 target of 6.6%. That dip is significant since the Chinese...
Stocks rethink China bounce
Stocks started off the day rallying on speculation that a U.S.-China trade deal was near conclusion. Market consensus was that the deal would be signed by President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping by the end of March. The United States would lift tariffs on...
I’m thinking of selling some of my China positions. But when?
As of the close on March 1, the Shanghai Composite was up 14.35% for the last month. That’s super for an economy that’s swimming in bad debt and facing a slowing global economy and lagging export demand.I think it’s fair to say that the rally in...
Today’s economic numbers from U.S. (good) and China (bad)
The first (advanced) estimate of U.S. GDP for the fourth quarter showed the U.S. economy growing at a 2.6% annual rate. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast 2.3% growth. For all of 2018 the economy grew at a real rate (that is after inflation) of 2.9% in...
So what’s it gonna be in U.S.-China trade talks? Historic agreement? Middling deal? Failure?
The Trump administration isn’t making it any easier to handicap the results of the U.S.-China trade talks. Yesterday U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer tried to walk back expectations for the talks. There’s not even an agreement on a Memorandum of...
It’s official: White House extends March 1 deadline in U.S.-China trade talks
Citing substantial progress, President Donald Trump has extended the March 1 deadline for reaching agreement on a U.S.-China trade agreement and heading off a jump to 25% in U.S. tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese exports. “The U.S. has made substantial progress in...
China trade talks resume–with a notable lack of momentum
The latest round of U.S.-China trade talks resumed today in Washington. The Trump administration’s March 1 deadline continues to walk nearer–although everyone on Wall Street expects that President Trump will decide good progress has been made and will...
The credit cycle sure looks like it’s headed off a cliff in U.S., China
With U.S. stock markets closed today for Presidents’ Day, credit market news has an opening to move higher on the Investor Worry Bandstand. (The kids give it an 65, as they used to say on American Bandstand. But I think its moving up fast. The American Bandstand...Markets talk themselves out of belief in brutal retail numbers
Overall retail sales fell 1.2% in December from November, according to the Commerce Department. That’s the worst drop in nine years. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had projected a 0.1% gain in retail sales. Out of the gate stocks fell today on the news with...
President Trump to sign spending bill to avoid shutdown but will declare national emergency to secure funding for The Wall
At 3:26 p.m. Washington time Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell interrupted a speech by Iowa Senate Chuck Grassley on biofuels to announce that President Donald Trump would sign the deal worked out by the House and Senate to fund nine departments of the federal...
Core CPI inflation up 2.2% year over year
For January, headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was unchanged, thanks to falling oil prices-the energy component of the index was down 3.1% for the month. The Core CPI, which excludes more volatile food and energy prices and is closer to the PCE inflation...
EuroZone economy is leading global slowdown
The 19-country EuroZone economy could expand by just 1% in 2019 with industrial production falling at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis. This time it’s the core economies of Germany and France, which together make up about half of the EuroZone...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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