Once again we’ve received disappointing data from the USA as yet another ‘bell-weather’ indicator has missed economists’ expectations and by some distance. Pending home sales in the USA have fallen by 5.6%. The previous month had seen a surprise fall of 1.5% and the expectation was for a return to growth of 0.5% positive, therefore […]
The department in the USA govt. apparatus responsible for the weekly unemployment claims number, appears to have got ahead of the curve regarding the missing prints from Nevada and California. Thursday’s weekly unemployment claims print came in at 350,000 down 12,000 from the revised figure of 362,000 the previous week. The 4-week moving average was
There was good news regarding the Eurozone and the EA on Wednesday, an official consumer confidence index published by the European Commission showed an improvement. Now despite it coming in at -14.5 that’s actually close to the longer term average of -14 for the Euro Area. Moreover the reading in the E.U. is actually ahead
Regular readers of our blog entries will note that on several occasions and on several journal entries this week, we warned our community with regards to the impending NFP job number and how it may be an ‘outlier’ causing over-reaction. We were urging caution due to the jobs data being 18 days late and it
NFP job numbers disappoint but the markets rally regardless Read More »
It’s hard to commend the ECB, the Eurogroup and the dreaded troika for its effective management of the Eurozone crisis given the punishing austerity measures that many of the PIIGS have had to endure as a consequence of investment bank failure. Some of the dire consequences of the austerity measures unleashed in Greece, Spain, Ireland
Now the dust has begun to settle with regards to the debt ceiling temporary solution, the overall reaction appears to be one of indifference. In many respects that’s a good result as we can now begin to focus more on other high impact news events and policy decisions. Normal service will be resumed, if only
European markets remain unimpressed by the USA debt ceiling compromise Read More »
And relax, we can all breathe easy now the debt ceiling impasse has been resolved. From a personal viewpoint many of us in the analyst community are really looking forward to not having to write words such as; “impasse, deadlock, debt ceiling, Congress etc for a long time.” Oh, what’s that, the agreement is only
Debt ceiling resolution sees DJIA rise by 1.3%.. Read More »
Finally one of the most respected rating agencies has broken rank over the USA debt ceiling deadlock by technically lowering the USA credit rating. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had stated on Tuesday evening (USA time) that the major credit rating agencies were considering a downgrade of the United States “as early as tonight,” as
Fitch Places United States’ ‘AAA’ on Rating Watch Negative Read More »
At least once a year traders appear to suffer from a malaise, they become stuck in a market vacuum and it’s not of their own making. It only seems like yesterday that many of us in the analyst community were fretting with regards to the fiscal cliff in the USA, it’ll be approximately eleven months
President Obama; “if GOP can’t resolve debt standoff, we stand a good chance of default” Read More »
There was quite a dramatic moment in the senate committee hearing where Jack Lew took centre stage on Thursday, Democrat senator Maria Cantwell produced a graph of America’s short-term borrowing costs, showing a spike in interest rates over recent days… She stated that people don’t realise the implications of America’s credit-worthiness being questioned, quoting an
