ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner did not sound like much of a Treasury Secretary as he tried yet again to speak about the financial pains of the American people and express empathy. In a CNBC interview with John Harwood, Geithner claims he “doesn’t understand” how bankers can earn such large bonuses given these dark economic times … Read more
For those people counting down to the first rate hike from the Federal Reserve, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley offered an interpretation of “extended period” for Susie Gharib of Nightly Business Report: “GHARIB: Bill, everybody wants to know what do you mean by extended period? Would you please define that for us? DUDLEY: … Read more
The Other Plot to Wreck America – NYTimes.com Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was … Read more
Yen reclaiming carry trade as U.S. bond yields rise | Reuters The recent spike in U.S. bond yields, coinciding with a rally in the dollar against the yen, is flagging a return to the yen to fund carry trades (tags: Japan yen U.S._dollar carry_trade) Moody’s Warns on Japan’s Fiscal Discipline Under Kan The replacement of … Read more
Google (GOOG) is now down 5% for the year, under-performing the NASDAQ which is essentially flat for 2010. The sudden surge in volume in GOOG suggests that a large group of traders and investors are selling on the news of the Nexus One release. This volume represents the most active trading in GOOG since its … Read more
Chinese Demand to Reshape Global Steel Market – WSJ.com China's surging demand for steel this year is expected to dominate the landscape of the steel industry as never before. Already the world's largest producer by far, the country is expected to rev up production by nearly 10%. But the higher output likely won't exceed demand, … Read more
The dollar’s recent relief rally stalled out December 23 (see chart below), and December’s disappointing jobs report may have officially ended it. The apparent working thesis supporting the dollar’s relief rally has been an expectation that an imminent recovery in the labor market would motivate the Fed to raise interest rates sometime soon. December’s disappointing … Read more
(Repost from January 7, 2010) Naoto Kan, Japan’s new Finance Minister, took office today and promptly requested that currency traders sell the yen. This stance further supports September’s backtracking from an implicit stronger yen policy earlier suggested by out-going Finance Minister, Hirohisa Fujii. Japan has now officially returned to the de facto competitive devaluation that … Read more
(repost from January 4, 2010) Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in Atlanta, Georgia. In his speech titled “Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble,” Bernanke presented statistical (econometric) analyses to demonstrate that monetary policy contributed very little to the recent housing bubble in the U.S. … Read more
The stock for SunPower Corporation (SWPRa) has remained in a holding pattern, directly under resistance from the 50-day moving average (DMA), in the two weeks since SPWRa provided an empty update on its on-going audit committee investigation. I took this opportunity to dump my current position at break-even. I feel fortunate to do so after … Read more