Post Tagged with: "United States"
Friday’s Thoughts and Seven Investment Themes
First, the trajectory of monetary policy in the US, Europe, China and Japan is in a more accommodative direction. Second, the underlying economies are showing preliminary signs of stabilizing. Third, the combination of easing monetary conditions and economic stabilization has boost demand for higher risk assets. In addition to major equity markets, emerging markets off to a strong start. Funds that exited the emerging markets in Q4 11 return. This has helped fueled currency and asset (bonds and stocks) appreciation
Short Note on ISM Manufacturing Survey
The Institute for Supply Management reports its January manufacturing survey on February 1. The Bloomberg consensus expects a small increase to 54.5 from
Stephen Roach on US, the Fed, China, and Europe
Stephen Roach says the Fed is going all in in support of QE and I agree. But what else are they going to do? Look at Europe, for example. The ECB there has a hydra-headed problem with sovereigns and banks on the brink of insolvency and they too have expanded the balance sheet like mad. China faces many of the same challenges with excess credit growth and fragile financial firms in the face of asset price deflation
Chart of the Day: Developed economies’ debt levels by sector
This is a great chart below via the Wall Street Journal. It shows the total debt to GDP ratios for the largest developed economies in the world broken down into four sectors: households, non-financial corporations, financial institutions and government
Chart of the Day: U.S. Gasoline Consumption Tanks in 2011
A chart of gasoline consumption and oil prices for the years 2000-
Jobless claims jump may be seasonality
I thought I would flag this for paid members. The jobless claims data for the last week came out and it jumped fairly significantly from 375,000 to 399,000. It had been in the 375,000 range for a number of weeks prior
Where are the safe havens?
My latest post at Credit Writedowns Pro on protecting wealth in a world of recurring crisis is now up. I outlined eight principal investing risks that I see for for 2012 and strategies to avoid those risks. At the same time, the thought you should have in the back of your head is that these are just the known unknowns. But that there are unknown unknowns which create so-called Knightean Uncertainty and make this a dangerous investing climate
Mosler: I advocate tax relief and jobs, but forecast muddle through at best
Warren Mosler proposes a full FICA suspension, a $150 billion one time distribution to the states and an $8/hr federally funded transition job for anyone willing and able to work. However he believes these proposals will likely not be followed and predicts muddle through at best as a result
Everyone is talking seasonality
Here is something to flag; there has been a lot of chatter amongst economic pundits about the seasonality effect on recent data. Those with a sceptical view have been saying that the upside surprise in the Friday jobs data in particular is the result of seasonal factors. Here are two examples
The fireworks will start with Spain or Italy
Here’s what I had to say about Europe on Capital Account with Lauren Lyster on Thursday night. I’m not bullish on the real economy there (but I still expect relative share outperformance due to lower P/Es). The US is having a bit of a data surge to the upside: housing, employment, manufacturing, all of these numbers have been better of late
The expansionary fiscal contraction bust
If you argue that austerity works in cutting deficits over the longer-term but the short-term pain is worth it, that’s a different argument than the one Republicans are making – and one not likely to get one elected, which is why they’re not making it
Beyond Jobs
The US jobs report is the main economic release today. In recent months, better than expected employment reports have spurred risk on trading and this has been dollar negative. Given the ADP report, despite the December skew in that time series, market expectations appear to have crept higher and it will take a stronger than expected number of give the dollar much of a lift. However, with Spanish and Italian bond auctions next week, the extent of a relief rally in the euro may be constrained