News reports on U.S.-China trade talks play bigger in Asia than in U.S.
News reports that President Donald Trump has ordered staff to prepared a potential trade offer ahead of his talks with China’s president Xi Jinping on November 30-December 1 sent Asia markets and currencies soaring in the overnight session. U.S. stocks and bonds...
U.S. Treasury borrowing to double in 2018 to $1.34 trillion
Amazing what important financial news can get pushed off the front page these days. On Monday the drop of even more U.S. indexes into correction territory and reports that the White House was teeing up new tariffs on another $250 billion in Chinese goods pushed truly...
Markets decide they have nothing to fear except Treasury auctions, Italian budget, and U.S.-China trade war
Actually, considering the list of fears today, it’s kind of remarkable that the U.S. stock market hasn’t fallen farther. (The U.S. bond market is closed for the Columbus Day holiday.) In the EuroZone the confrontation between the Italian government and the...
Now who’s worried about a trade war? Certainly not buyers of U.S. stocks today
Today the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both hit record highs. The NASDAQ Composite was up 0.99% as of 2 p.m. New York time. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) advanced 0.95%. West Texas Intermediate crude...
China says it won’t intentionally devalue yuan in response to U.S. tariffs
Just hours after the Trump administration announced 10% tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese exports, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the nation wouldn’t devalue its currency in order to make its exports more competitive. Which, of course, doesn’t...
A slip in the dollar and a bounce in the euro
The dollar is down today against the euro and some emerging market currencies, such as the Turkish lira, are rallying. The news ostensibly behind the move is some data indicating that U.S. inflation slipped in August. The logic goes that with inflation sliding the...
My “best-estimate” scenario for the U.S. stock market for the next 60 days
Let’s start with a perhaps less obvious question: Why 60 days? Because that will take us through the historically volatile months of September and October (when fear can beget fear) to the middle of November, which historically tends to mark a turn in the...
Will today’s profit-taking turn into something worse?
I think today’s market downturn is nothing more or less than profit taking. It’s not surprising that investors and traders would sell Amazon (AMZN), for example, today (down 2.19%) since the shares were up 11.6% for the past 30 days as of September 4. The...
Is Spain most exposed developed market to emerging market woes?
In the Greek debt crisis it was relatively easy to track the exposure of national financial markets and banks to the crisis. The big issue was what non-Greek banks had bought the biggest share of Greek government bonds. In the current emerging market crisis,...
Emerging market crisis pulls in India, Indonesia
The bad news is that the emerging market crisis that has sent financial markets plummeting in Argentina, Turkey, and Brazil has added India and Indonesia to its list of victims. The good news is that the inclusion of India and Indonesia is exactly what analysts and...
It’s back–the emerging market crisis that shook global markets just two weeks ago
Remember that emerging market crisis that whacked 10% out of the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) between July 31 and August 15–and even produced some anxiety in U.S. markets as the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 2.1% from August 7 through August...
Dollar falls as President Trump criticizes Federal Reserve policy again
For a second straight day President Donald Trump has tweeted out criticism of the Federal Reserve’s policy decision to raise interest rates. In his tweets today the President wrote: “China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their...
Emerging markets “emerging” as focus of worry over trade, strong dollar, credit crunch
If you can’t tell from the cascade of negative commentary, you certainly should be able to tell from trend in share prices: emerging markets have become the focus of current worries about global trade, the effects of a strong dollar, and the potential for a...
Markets relax, a bit, on Italy crisis
The consensus in financial markets today seems to be that yesterday’s drop on fears that Italy was headed to a crisis that could shake the euro were a bit overstated. This isn’t to say that markets have concluded that the crisis is over–or never...
Here we go again on the euro: The bad news is that Italy’s financial crisis is political
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down as much at 505 points today–before rallying to a loss of “just” 391 points or 1.6%–on fears that a crisis in Italy could once again put the entire EuroZone project in danger. Italian stocks were down...
How to manage risk in this market when the traditional risk safe havens aren’t working
If you spend a significant part of your day staring at your computer to watch the markets, you know that, perplexingly, the traditional safe havens for mitigating portfolio risk haven’t been working very well. For example, gold, which is supposed to go up when...
Full reverse: Dollar recovers as President Trump talks up advantages of strong currency
Today somebody in the Trump administration decided that the idea of the world’s biggest debtor nation talking down the value of its currency–as Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin did yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos–might be a bad...
Dollar slump continues this morning as ECB president Draghi shrugs off euro strength
The dollar continued its fall this morning after European Central Bank president Marie Draghi voiced minimal concern over the rise in the euro. That currency topped $1.25 for the first time since 2014. The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index jumped 0.9%, its biggest...
Trump administration pushes a weak dollar at Davos
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin gave the markets a green light to push the U.S. dollar lower in remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currency traders, already on board the lower-dollar train, didn’t waste time before pushing the throttle. The Dollar...
Oil holds above $60 on Iran protests but market discounts “regime change”
As of 12 noon New York time U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate was off 0.28% but still holding above $60.25 a barrel. International benchmark Brent was off 0.72% but was still holding above $65 at $66.39 a barrel. Prices above $60 are a reflection of market...
European Central Bank decides to split the difference on ending bond purchases
At its meeting today the European Central Bank decided to buy fewer bonds each month but for more months. Monthly purchases will be cut to 30 billion euros ($35 billion) from 60 billion euros beginning in January. But the bank will extend its bond purchases until...
Odds of a December interest rate increase soaring
The financial markets are taking Janet Yellen seriously. In a speech yesterday the Fed chair strongly supported an interest rate increase at the Federal Reserve’s December 13 meeting. Coming along with comments from other Fed governors, the markets have decided...
Adding a gold ETF on today’s drop in the metal on hurricane, North Korea relief
I’m adding the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) to my Jubak Picks and Volatility portfolios today. Gold has sold off today with worries over a new missile test from North Korea in abeyance. And with traders relieved–and apparently surprised–to discover...
Nothing but good news for markets from European Central Bank today
At today’s meeting the European Central Bank announced that it would leave interest rates at their current low levels and continue to buy debt assets at the current monthly rate. Â In his post-meeting press conference ECB president Mario Draghi noted that...
Quiet day so far but trends intact under surface
A very subdued market so far (at 2 p.m. New York time) today. Maybe its the solar eclipse. After all who wants to put on a long position when the sun is about to be eaten by dragons? As of 2 p.m. the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was up just 0.06%. But...
Is buy on the dip intact? Celebrate 20 years of Jubak Picks and use your 30-days of free access to my $199 paid JubakAM.com site to read my take on tomorrow’s market volatility
So did today’s slight rally put an end to the dangers of a correction? Is buy on the dip still in force? Usually I’d be teasing my post on my paid JubakAM.site here and telling you to subscribe if you want to read all of what I think tomorrow will bring...
Macron swamps Le Pen but Euro markets retreat
And now comes the hard part. Centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron trounced far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s vote for president of France. Macron won 66.1% of the vote in the two-person run off. The political and business leaders of France and the...
Winners from the Fed’s move on Wednesday
The jump in the price of gold and the even huger spike in the prices of gold mining stocks tells us something really important about how the financial markets see the Federal Reserve’s action and rhetoric on Wednesday, March 15. On Wednesday gold for April...
Oil falls below $50; market rethinks Trump reflation trades
West Texas Intermediate was down 2.74% to $48.90 a barrel today as of noon New York time. International benchmark Brent crude was lower by 2.60% to $51.73 a barrel. The drop in West Texas Intermediate brought the price per barrel below the psychologically important...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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