Winter’s coming. OK, not really. Winter’s already here. But, for the investing world, things are starting to get a lot more chilly and scary. The storm clouds are rolling in. After seven years of holding short-term interest rates at roughly
December 18, 2015
Canadian announcements During the session on Friday, there are various Canadian announcements, and as far as we are concerned we believe that this market will be fairly quiet. However, there should be a couple of short-term trades available during the
US stocks soared while the Fed was meeting to raise interest rates this week — though it’s not clear why that should be so since monetary tightening isn’t generally a good thing for stock prices. In any event, it didn’t
There is an ongoing debate about the current state of the junk bond market and what it means for equities and, more broadly, the economy. Spreads on the junkiest of junk bonds have recently moved to their widest levels of
The pork cycle is to economics what the law of gravity is to physics. You can count on it. Every single time. The only thing that makes economics the trickier science, is timing. Because you never know when the market
It’s been a tough year for closed-end fund (CEF) investors as risk asset volatility, a slump in credit, and general unease over the Federal Reserve’s long anticipated rate increase has widened discounts. However, many CEFs are still awarding investors with large end-of-year special
I was on record stating a belief the Fed would effectively hike by 1/8 point. I had that belief because that is what the Fed Fund Futures implied. Regardless, I was wrong. If someone is going to prove you wrong
While consumers are hailing the fall in oil prices, companies that supply these oil companies with industrial infrastructure equipment are beginning to feel the pain. The overall rig count in the U.S. has been declining over the past few months
“The current bubbles in junk bonds and foreign debt are not in any way driving the economy. Presumably we are seeing somewhat more investment as a result of the fact that uncreditworthy companies were able to borrow at a low
Dow Jones Industrial Average chart… Look for yourself.
