Category Archive: 4.) Marc to Market

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FX Daily April 20: Markets Build on Yesterday’s Dramatic Recovery

2016-04-19

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2016-04-19

Global capital markets staged an impressive recovery after the initial reaction to the failure to freeze oil output sent reverberations through the oil markets, commodities, and Asian equities. The sharp reversal begun in Europe and extended in N...

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FX Daily, April 18: Doha Failure Sets Tone

2016-04-18

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2016-04-18

Oil producers failed to reach an agreement yesterday at the meeting in Doha.  That is the main spur to today’s activity.  It is not that the outcome was a surprise.  One newswire poll found around half of the respondents thought an agreement was elusive.   Although not oil experts by any stretch, we too thought political … Continue reading...

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Beware of Particularly Challenging Week Ahead

2016-04-17

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2016-04-17

It is never easy, but the week ahead may be particularly difficult for market participants. It will first have to respond to weekend developments.   First, the front page of the NY Times on Saturday was a report that the Saudi Arabia warned the US if a bill making its way through Congress that would allow it (Saudi … Continue reading...

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Weekly Speculative Positions: Yen Speculators Continue to Press

2016-04-16

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2016-04-16

Disclosure

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FX Weekly: The Dollar’s Technical Condition Remains Vulnerable

2016-04-16

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2016-04-16

The US dollar turned in a mixed performance last week, which given the softer than expected inflation, retail sales data, and industrial output figures, coupled with the poor technical backdrop, could be a signal that its decline in recent months has run its course.    The dollar-bloc continued its advance, led by the Australian dollar’s nearly …

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SDR Does Not Stand for Secret Dollar Replacement

2016-04-15

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2016-04-15

At the IMF/World Bank meetings this week, Chinese officials are again pushing for greater use of the IMF's unit of account, Special Drawing Rights.   It is China's turn as the rotating host of the G20, which gives it greater influence over its ag...

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FX Daily, 04/15: Better Chinese Data Fails to Deter Pre-Weekend Profit-Taking

2016-04-15

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2016-04-15

China’s slew of economic data lends credence to ideas that the world’s second-largest economy may be stabilizing.  However, the data failed to have a wider impact on the global capital markets, including supporting Chinese equities.  In fact,  the seven-day advance in the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index was snapped with a fractional loss today. European shares are …

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BOE and Brexit

2016-04-14

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2016-04-14

No one can feign surprise that the Bank of England kept policy steady.  Nor was the 9-0 vote truly surprising, though there had been some speculation of a couple of dovish dissents.  Nevertheless, there are two important takeaways for investors. First, the BOE recognized what many in the market have already accepted; namely that the … Continue...

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Great Graphic:Is that a Head and Shoulders Top in Gold?

2016-04-14

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2016-04-14

This Great Graphic, created on Bloomberg shows the price of gold over the last six months.  The price peaked a month ago near $1285.  It seems a distribution top is being formed.   Specifically, it looks like a potential head and shoulders to...

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FX Daily, 04/14: Greenback Steadies Against Majors, but Firmer vs EM After MAS Surprise

2016-04-14

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2016-04-14

After initially extending its recent recovery gains against the major currencies, the US dollar began consolidating in the European morning.  An unexpected shift by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, replacing a modest and gradual currency appr...

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Expectation for Doha may be Inflated

2016-04-14

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2016-04-14

The weekend meeting between many OPEC and non-OPEC producers has helped spur the recent gains in the price of oil.  We are concerned that market may be getting ahead of itself. First, the freeze in output that had previously been agreed by Russia, Saudi Arabia, and a few other countries was conditional on participation by … Continue reading...

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Dueling Fed GDP Trackers

2016-04-13

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2016-04-13

The decentralized nature of the Federal Reserve lends itself to both a division of labor and competitive analysis.  Some Federal Reserve branches have alternative inflation measures and trade-weighted indices of the dollar.  On the whole, this seems beneficial for investors and policymakers. One tool developed by the Atlanta Fed has been widely embraced.  It is …

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FX Daily, April 13: US Dollar Comes Back Bid

2016-04-13

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2016-04-13

The US dollar is well bid in the Europe and is poised to start the North American session with the wind to its back.  Despite firmer equity and industrial metal prices, most emerging market currencies are also succumbing to the rebounding greenback. The euro has yet to convincingly breakout of the range that has confined … Continue reading »

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More Thoughts about the Yen

2016-04-12

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2016-04-12

Every so often there is a market move that appears inexplicable.  The conundrum now is the yen's strength.  Of course, there are numerous attempts to shed light on the yen's rise, but many, like ourselves, are not very satisfied.   Perhaps par...

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Great Graphic: Beware of Sophistry about the Yen and Nikkei

2016-04-12

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2016-04-12

There is a common ploy used by many analysts and reporters that often simply does not stand up to close scrutiny, and would in fact be mocked in the university.   The ploy is to take two time series and put them on the same chart but use different scales. Such a ploy often is used … Continue reading »

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FX Daily, April12: Higher Inflation Lifts Sterling, Yen Stabilizes

2016-04-12

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2016-04-12

There are three highlights to the foreign exchange market today.  First, the yen is marginally softer.  The yen's strength this month has been the main development.  After making a marginal new high yesterday, some semblance of stability emerge...

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Revisiting the CRB Index

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

The CRB Index is building on last Friday's gains, when it gapped higher.  That gap marked the end of the down move we anticipated on March 28.   The index fell through the two supports we identified (171.30 and 169.50), before bottoming on April...

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FX Daily, April11: Is the Dollar Bottoming against the Yen?

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

The yen's surge may be easing.  It made a new marginal high in Asia, but has not been able to sustain it   Technically, a hammer candlestick pattern may be traced out by the greenback's recovery today. Supporting the greenback is the movement in interest rate differentials.  The US 10-year premium over Japan has widened by … Continue...

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Great Graphic: Nonperforming Loans, Another Divergence

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

   Early in the financial crisis, the US forced all large banks to take an infusion of capital.  This helped put a floor under the US financial system.  Regulators and stakeholders encouraged US banks to address the significant nonperforming loan problem. The eurozone banking woes persist.  Before the weekend, the shares of the one the …

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Sterling Shines Temporarily in Choppy Start for Foreign Exchange

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

In an unusual development, sterling is outperforming today.   It rose to a four-day high near $1.4230 on what appears to be mostly modest position adjustment in relatively subdued turnover.  The $1.40 area held on repeated tests in the second ha...

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