Recent Articles
Horrific US New Home Sales — Reduce Risk
The 32.7% decline in new homes sales to a new cyclical low has actually sparked a bout of dollar and yen buying on risk aversion. The revisions to the March and April time series also point to a much weaker picture than we had. The dollar had already turned better bid before the news as
New Home Sales Continue Parade Of Bad Housing Data
Sales of new homes plunged a record 33% in May to a record-low after the expiration of the federal tax credit subsidy for home buyers expired. Sales were a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 300,000, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1963. Now we know how the housing market will do without a government prop.
On The Environmental Impact Of Gas Fracking And Other Links
Must-read News A Colossal Fracking Mess | Business | Vanity Fair The Burning Platform – Too Small To Matter The Usual Fare iTunes-Konkurrenz: Google will Musik über das Internet verkaufen – WELT ONLINE U.S., England Need World Cup Win to Clinch Spot in Round of 16 – Bloomberg.com Westerwelle on the Way Out?: German Foreign
Morgan Stanley: Yuan Peg Move Bullish for Latam Commodity Producers Like Mexico
Gray Newman of Morgan Stanley is the third analyst this week who has been making Mexico-bullish noises due to the Chinese peg move. In his recent research piece called "Latin America: The Renminbi Impact" he says we have to be cautious regarding the overall impact of the Yuan move. At a minimum, any appreciation is
Australia: Rudd Under Pressure On Resource Taxes
Australian PM Rudd is coming under stronger domestic pressure as the opposition to the resource tax gains momentum. There have been press reports of a leadership challenge and a local report claims that a key bloc in the Rudd’s Labor Party is supporting Rudd’s deputy Julia Gillard. Rudd has now called a press conference and
Sterling is the Star
Highlights The US dollar is little changed against most of the major foreign currencies, but sterling continues to respond favorably to yesterday’s budget. News that for the first time since Aug 08 a BOE member (Sentence) called for a rate hike helped push sterling to extend its gains, bringing the week’s high near $1.4940 into
Apple iPhone4: Great But Needs New Network
The iPhone goes on sale right now, 12 midnight today. Walt Mossberg gives his view on the product in the video below. He likes the Phone. He just doesn’t like AT&T – and this is the same complaint the review at Boing Boing had as well. Here are a few excerpts from iPhone reviews: Wall
Ugly Chart of the Day For Home Builders
By John Lounsbury What is the best proxy for demand in the housing market? How about lumber. Here is one ugly chart, courtesy of finviz.com (with trend lines added by the author): For large graphic without added trend lines, click here: Random length lumber started a down trend in 2004, well in advance of the
Where is the money going?
According to the Federal Reserve, money market fund holdings of households has declined by about $380 billion since the end of 2008. (According to AMG, all money market mutual funds—institutional and retail—have posted net outflows of about $1 trillion over that time.) When we see big flows like that, we scratch our heads and ask
Profit Margins, Down To Earth?
One of my good friends who runs a small investment boutique pointed me towards today’s chart of the day from Bloomberg showing the flight phoenix of US corporates’ profit margins. I know that the chart is difficult to read but you only really need to look at the trend and thus the fact that profit
More on Why Mexico Poised To Benefit From Yuan Move
Echoing the Marc Chandler’s comments yesterday, Andy Lees of UBS had some constructive things to say about the potential effect of a Chinese revaluation on Mexico. Mexican Finance Minister welcomes the move because it will help Mexico’s export driven manufacturing industry. Mexico is out-competing China for export share to the US. Its share of the
Stat of the day: Illinois takes over from California as state most likely to default
While California has been the poster boy for state budgetary woes, Illinois has moved into the top spot as the US state most likely to default on its debt. To avoid default more cuts are going to be necessary. See recent posts by me and BBH’s Marc Chandler on how this impacts GDP. Also see