by Gord Weisemann On Friday, October 15, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated a wait-and- see approach to another round of quantitative easing but reading between the lines, I can’t see that there’s any doubt it will come about. It’s just the scope that remains to be seen. Oddly though, quantitative easing in Japan rallied [...]
by Gord Weisemann Worries have again flared up in the eurozone, causing the U.S. dollar to move higher in early trading. It appears Ireland’s Anglo Irish Bank will be bailed out, possibly to the tune of 34 billion euros. That would amount to 32 percent of Ireland’s GDP. The unemployment rate in the Eurozone and [...]
by Gord Weisemann The past week has brought on some choppy trading sessions. Equity markets have been held back from progress in either direction by futures and options expirations. I’m getting a little concerned that some price action in the markets is reminiscent of early 2008, when we were seeing speculative price rallies unsupported by [...]
Post Labour day long weekend it’s been a little light on economic releases. Traders haven’t had much to grab onto and so far the equity markets have taken advantage of the data-lull to move a little higher. What little we have seen has been uninspiring. While Canada’s employment numbers provided a satisfactory headline, the details [...]
by Gord Weisemann Is everyone getting used to the new paradigm? You know the one; less bad is the new good? The September 3 U.S. employment data was exactly that. The market had set itself up to expect a loss of 110,000 jobs and instead lost roughly half that at 54,000. And the July numbers [...]
by Gord Weisemann Risk is off again in the markets, but the calendar of economic releases, at least out of the U.S. is a little light until the end of the week. The U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product reading comes out on Friday, August 27. I’ve already gone on record saying I expect a noticeable [...]
Gord Weisemann To me the most significant market developments over the past couple weeks have been the continued rise of the bond market combined with a U.S. dollar rally and a crude oil selloff. Even excluding the action in the carry trade (YEN/AUD/CAD), this is a fairly loud and clear sign that investors do not [...]
by Gord Weisemann The U.S. July employment report was disappointing to say the least, and also included a negative revision to the previous month’s numbers. The second week of August brings us an FOMC meeting, where there is a growing feeling that Bernanke may have to add more stimulus to the system in order to [...]
by Gord Weisemann The past week has been a risk-on, risk-off, back-and-forth environment. Technically the pro-risk side traders are gaining a little of the upper hand as equity markets have pressed above some trendline resistance. As I write this, the European bank stress test results are being released and the initial outcome looks as though [...]
Friday’s action is bringing us a risk-off signal loud and clear. The carry trade (Yen versus CAD and AUD) is moving aggressively, gold and silver are off sharply, energies are lower and the equity markets are under significant pressure. Speaking of equity markets, I think they’ve taken their last gasp of air before going back [...]
