Volatility continued this week. Both commodity and stock markets have seen wild swings. Lind Plus Senior market strategists Daniel Pavilonis and Phil Streible have been on top of the markets and were recently quoted on Bloomberg and Morningstar. Commenting on the continued government intervention, Phil Streible said, “The China stimulus package news just fizzled.” You [...]
With Defaults Rising, is a Credit Card Crisis Looming? – Time Bernanke Leaves Door Open to Another Rate Cut – AP/Yahoo Finance Consumers Cut Back Sharply on Spending – AP/Yahoo Finance Energy Markets May Have Good News – FarmFutures Export Sales Taper Off – FarmFutures IMM Speculators Increase Long Dollar Bets: CFTC – Reuters Oil [...]
An imaginary look at the economy from the Onion. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/recession_plagued_nation_demands Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In WASHINGTON—A panel of top business leaders testified before Congress about the worsening recession Monday, demanding the government provide Americans with a new irresponsible and largely illusory economic bubble in which to invest. “What America needs right now [...]
Stocks End Sharply Up, Erasing Three Days of Losses – MarketWatch Obama’s Energy Fixes Run Up Against Economy – MarketWatch A Week of Historic Desperation on Wall Street – MarketWatch Irrational Exuberence Redux – MarketWath Bush Warns Against “Too Much Government” in Markets – Bloomberg Brooksley Born “Vindicated” as Swaps Rules Take Shape – Bloomberg [...]
Stock index futures were down again after the latest data on weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance jumped 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000, a seven-year high. The market is closing in on a test of its October lows, at 825 in the December S&P futures. Lind Plus Senior Market Strategist Jeff Friedman said technical [...]
Paulson Shifts Focus of Rescue to Consumer Lending – Bloomberg U.S. Slump May be Longest in Decades as Growth Fell Off “Cliff” – Bloomberg Corn, Soybeans Decline as Cuts in Global Spending Slow Demand – Bloomberg Fed’s Kohn: May Need More Steps to Soothe Markets – Reuters Gasoline Demand Falls Despite Price Slide: MasterCard – [...]
The CBOE’s Volatility Index (VIX), also known as the “Fear Index” has gotten a lot of attention lately. Markets have clearly been volatile and many investors are unaware of what the VIX is, and how it can be used. Lind Plus Senior Market Strategist recently did a webinar explaining the basics of the VIX. The [...]
Speaking at the Futures Industry Association Expo in Chicago today, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Walter Lukken said we must take the “necessary steps to repair the financial system and regain America’s trust and confidence in our markets.” He said “courageous regulatory reform is needed” that involves scrapping both the CFTC and SEC in [...]
Worries Send Stocks Lower – Yahoo Finance Crude Oil Falls Below $59 – Bloomberg Gold Drops on Global Recession Concerns – Bloomberg Regulators Urge More Lending – Reuters Stocks Drop in Europe, Asia – Bloomberg The Law of Unintended Economic Consequences – Forbes Small Business Confidence Declines – Reuters How Far Has the Dollar Climbed? [...]
U.S. Dollar and the Yield Curve By Mike Hinman The yield curve is a depiction of the difference between short-term and long-term government interest rates, and you can trade these differentials with futures contracts. Near the shorter end of the curve, a daily chart of five-year Treasury note futures shows the market hit a double [...]
