… After making remark, Fisher asked to have comment withheld from transcript; ‘Lindsay Lohan Congresses’
Republished from Investment News “Investment News”
January 12, 2012 2:36 pm ET
Richard Fisher, a Federal Reserve official, called billionaire investor Bill Gross an “oddball” at a 2006 meeting — then asked to have the remark withheld from a transcript that was released today by the Fed.
“I’ve known Gross for 20 years, and I ...
Read the Full Story →Posted by: john
Republished from Reuters Hedgeworld “Hedgeworld”
January 5, 2012
James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
There may never have been a worse time to invest based on the fundamentals.
Wherever you look, the underlying reality – of too much debt and potential euro fracture – is negative, and where there are positives they are usually being supported by an unstable scaffolding of exceptionally loose monetary policy. That makes handicapping ...
Read the Full Story →Posted by: john
Republished from The Independent on Sunday (London, England) “The Independent”
January 8, 2012 | Ben Chu
Economic View
Mario Draghi’s big bazooka has backfired. The new president of the European Central Bank fired almost half a trillion euros into the European banking system in cheap loans last month in the hope that this barrage of liquidity would, among other things, ease the funding strains of the Continent’s beleaguered financial institutions.
It hasn’t worked out like that. The flood of money ...
Read the Full Story →Posted by: john
The MarketAxess electronic trading platform for U.S. and European high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets bonds and other types of fixed-income securities, recently announced total monthly trading volume for December 2011 of $41.0 billion, compared with volume of 35.8 billion for December 2010. This data, including sector breakdowns, can be accessed on MarketAxess’ website at “MarketAxess Trading Volume”.
Monthly volume updates are posted in the Investor Relations section of the website on or before the tenth business day ...
Posted by: john
Republished from Dr. Ed Yardeni’s blog: “Dr. Ed’s Blog”
MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2012
The ECB joined the QE Club of Central Banks. It did so indirectly when 523 European banks borrowed €489 billion through the ECB’s Long Term Repo Operation (LTRO) on December 20. That liquidity facility will be available to the banks again on February 28.
In addition, the ECB is likely to lower its official rate from 1.00% to 0.75% on January 12. The rate ...
Read the Full Story →Posted by: john
Republished from Bespoke Investment Group: Go to Bespoke Investment Group Blog
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2011 AT 10:35AM
It’s been an epic ride down for mortgage rates over the last decade, and the 4% mark has finally been broken. Below is a chart of Bankrate.com’s national average for the 30-year fixed mortgage rate. As shown, the rate is now down to 3.92%. No one can blame high interest rates for the weakness in housing, ...
Posted by: john
Bloomberg News
By Martin Z. Braun – Dec 16, 2011 11:37 AM ET
This was supposed to be the year the $3.7 trillion state and local debt market would be rocked by an exploding pension time bomb and “hundreds of billions of dollars” of defaults, according to analyst Meredith Whitney.
Whitney’s Armageddon never came. Instead, munis became the star performers of 2011.
An investor who bought $10,000 of munis the day after Whitney’s Dec. 19 prediction on CBS’s “60 Minutes” ...
Posted by: john
Republished from Dr. Ed Yardeni’s blog: “Dr. Ed’s Blog”
Is Gridlock bullish or bearish? In the past, it’s probably been bullish more than it has been bearish. After all, our constitutional system was designed by our Founders to disperse power among the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of our government. Congress was designed so that special interest groups more often than not would be stymied from achieving their legislative agendas by resistance from “factions” with opposing ...
Read the Full Story →Source: Bloomberg News
By Mary Childs – Dec 14, 2011 1:54 PM ET
A benchmark gauge of U.S. credit risk rose for a third day as growing funding stress in Europe fueled concern the region is struggling to curb the debt crisis.
The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index of credit-default swaps, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, added 2 basis points to a mid-price of 129.3 basis points at 1:34 ...
The week ending Dec. 7 saw about $1.04 billion in inflows from muni bond funds that report their flows weekly, according to Lipper FMI. In the week ending Nov. 30, there were net outflows of $297 million.
The past week was a strong one for ...