US The market movers in the week just past us in the US were certainly the news on the labor market; non-farm payrolls soared past estimates at 295,000 and unemployment tumbled at 5.5 per cent. The latter figure is the upper limit of what has been previously defined by the Read more…
US The biggest event for US markets this week was certainly Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. Indicating that if the US economy improved further, she stated that the central bank could change its language and abandon its “patient” stance (which means not to Read more…
Inflation is down – again – to 0.3%, far away from the target of the ECB. Inflation Expectations are also down. The expected inflation in 5 years dipped last months below the threshold of 2%. This is a major issue for ECB: given its mandate to maintain price stability with Read more…
US This week we have seen almost only positive data about US economy, which explained dollar strength with respect to all major currencies (EUR, GBP and YEN). Gains were relatively small against Euro and Pound. The substantial advance with respect to the Yen was mainly due to Yen’s weakness during Read more…
US After turmoil in the recent weeks US equities are back to all-time highs. Very solid data on consumer confidence and a Q3 GDP growth rate print of 3.5%, above a lower forecast of 3%, propelled the S&P 500 to 2018.05. Not even the completion of tapering on Wednesday stopped Read more…
US Last week’s losses were followed by some more, as the S&P 500 lost 0.75% to close at 1967.9 and the NASDAQ Composite and DJIA went down 0.81% and 0.6% respectively from their values at the end of last week. Stocks took a beating on Tuesday and Wednesday especially as Read more…
US Equity markets in the US lost ground this week, ending short of the fresh highs touched in the previous one. Macroeconomic data came in mixed, as a solid manufacturing PMI and positive data on new home sales on Tuesday and Wednesday were confounded by disappointing durable goods orders and Read more…
Lately, there has been increasing speculation regarding the results of the AQR (Asset Quality Review), which will be published by the ECB in about a month time. The AQR is a central part of the “comprehensive assessment” investigation that the ECB is leading on European banks balance sheets. Working in Read more…
Panel_29|11|13 US This week has been really quiet for the US. Two main issues arise: the initial jobless claims surprise on the downside (actual 316K vs expected 330K), and the decline in the durable goods orders. (-2%) in October. With regard to the first data, although it is clearly good Read more…
Panel 22|11|2013 US This week Bernanke surprised the markets outlining the chance of early tapering of QE (December meeting). For us this is quite surprising, as we still believe the US economy is not performing as well as it was believed this spring. Three main reasons have worsened our outlook Read more…
Who is Janet Yellen, the woman everyone seems to be talking about these days? Why have we been hearing this name so often and what implications will it have on us? Well, we will presumably be hearing of Janet Yellen for quite a long time: last Wednesday President Obama nominated Read more…
When first appointed in 2006 by President Bush, Ben Bernanke probably didn’t expect his two terms as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to be the most decisive ones of the past century. First denying an housing bubble, he had to face its real burst and the most threatening crisis Read more…
On May 3, 2013, more than thirteen years since its first close above 1500, the S&P 500 closed above 1600 for the first time, at 1,614.42. Last week it closed at 1,667,47, some say by the end of the summer it may reach 1700 points. There has been a lot Read more…
This week was dominated by the US and European central bankers speeches. They both confirmed their accommodative monetary policy. However the FED just confirmed its commitment to the bond buying program until the economy would have showed sign of improvement. The ECB, on the other side, decided to take really Read more…