Last Friday, the first print of 3Q16 GDP was published. Real GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent. Inventory contributed 0.61 percent to this growth, snapping five consecutive quarters of negative contribution. Similarly, exports’ contribution jumped to 1.17 … Continued
Are U.S. sovereign bonds in a blow-off phase? Tough to say, but they have had quite a rally. Yields on both 30-year bonds and 10-year notes this week made new all-time lows. Post-Brexit, demand for long bonds from major countries, … Continued
From the euro’s perspective, March 10th was an interesting session. Mario Draghi, ECB president, pulled out his big bazooka that day. All interest rates were cut. The existing QE was expanded from €60-billion/month in purchases to €80 billion. And the … Continued
In the latest week, non-commercials cut net longs in gold futures by three percent period-over-period to 169,512 contracts. This was the first weekly reduction in eight weeks (Chart 1). The prior week’s holdings were the highest since February 3rd last … Continued
QQQ, the PowerShares Nasdaq 100 ETF, is showing signs of fatigue. Off the February 11th low through last Friday’s intra-day high, the ETF rallied nearly 10 percent in 11 sessions (Chart 1). Yes, this preceded a 17-percent drop since December … Continued
To say that SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, has been volatile in recent weeks is an understatement. Intra-day, between the December 29th high and the January 20th low, the ETF shed nearly 13 percent… in 15 sessions. Like that. … Continued
The S&P 500 index rallied 0.9 percent last week – its third consecutive up week. Off the September 29th intra-day low, it is now up 8.7 percent (Chart 1). That is in 14 sessions! This is too fast, and probably … Continued