Tag Archive: China

Short Run TIPS, LT Flat, Basically Awful Real(ity)

2021-10-28

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2021-10-28

Over the past week and a half, Treasury has rolled out the CMB’s (cash management bills; like Treasury bills, special issues not otherwise part of the regular debt rotation) one after another: $60 billion 40-day on the 19th; $60 billion 27-day on the 20th; and $40 billion 48-day just yesterday.

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Today’s Big Events Still Lie Ahead

2021-10-27

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2021-10-27

Overview: The day’s big events lie ahead:  the UK’s budget, the Bank of Canada, and the central bank of Brazil meetings.  The US data on tap, especially trade and inventories, will allow economists to fine-tune their forecasts for tomorrow’s first estimate of Q3 GDP. The mixed tech earnings helped spur a bout of profit-taking in Asia Pacific equities, where most of the large markets fell. Europe’s Stoxx 600 is posting a slight loss for the first...

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Strong Earnings and Easing of (Some) Political Tensions Bolster Sentiment

2021-10-26

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2021-10-26

Overview:  Helped by new record highs in the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials, constructive earnings, and an easing of political tensions, risk appetites are robust today.  The MSCI Asia Pacific Index recouped yesterday's losses plus more as the large equity markets in the region, but China and Hong Kong rose, led by a more than 1% gain in Tokyo.  European shares are rallying, and the Stoxx 600 is posting gains for the ninth session in the last 11...

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Weekly Market Pulse: Inflation Scare!

2021-10-25

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2021-10-25

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial stock averages made new all time highs last week as bonds sold off, the 10 year Treasury note yield briefly breaking above 1.7% before a pretty good sized rally Friday brought the yield back to 1.65%. And thus we’re right back where we were at the end of March when the 10 year yield hit its high for the year.

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Markets Turn Cautious

2021-10-21

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2021-10-21

Overview: After a couple of sessions of taking on more risk, investors are taking a break today.  Equities are mostly lower today after the S&P 500's six-day advance took it almost to its record high, while the NASDAQ's streak was halted at five sessions.

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Consolidative Session as Markets Await Fresh Incentives

2021-10-20

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2021-10-20

Overview: The markets lack a clear direction today and await fresh incentives.  After gaining almost 1% yesterday, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped.  Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia are among the few equity markets that rose.

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China’s social credit system – a new Cultural Revolution

2021-10-17

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2021-10-17

The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s was a comprehensive effort by Mao Zedong to regulate how people think and behave. Citizens were forced to read the “Red Bible” and honor the Communist Party with quasi-religious rituals. Mutual supervision was encouraged throughout all of society. People were told that the way of thinking and behavior advocated by Mao Zedong was the only correct one.

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Inflating Chinese Trade

2021-10-15

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2021-10-15

There was never really any answer given by the Chinese Communists for why their own export data diverged so much from other import estimates gathered by its largest trading partners. Ostensibly different sides of the same thing, it’s not like anyone asked Xi Jinping to weigh in; they report what numbers they have and consider them authoritative.

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The Dollar Slips Ahead of CPI

2021-10-13

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2021-10-13

 The US dollar is trading with a lower bias ahead of the September CPI report due early in the North American session.  Long-term yields softened yesterday and slipped further today, leaving the US 10-year yield near 1.56%.  European benchmark yields are 3-4 bp lower.  The shorter-end of the US coupon curve, the two-year yield is firmer.

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FX Daily, October 11: Rate Expectation Adjustment Continues

2021-10-11

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2021-10-11

Overview:  Equities are softer and yields higher to start the new week.  The dollar is mixed.  Oil and industrial metals are higher. There are several developments over the weekend, but the focus seems to be on central bank action, inflation reports by the US and China, and the start of the Q3 earnings season. 

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Trees and the Forest

2021-10-09

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2021-10-09

The Pando (pictured here) appears to be 107 acres of forest, but scientists have concluded that the nearly 47,000 genetically identical quaking aspen trees share a common root system.

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Hope Springs Eternal, or at least enough to Lift Risk Taking Today

2021-10-07

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2021-10-07

Overview:  The animal spirits have been reanimated today.  Encouraged by the dramatic reversal in oil and gas prices, a deal in the US that pushes off the debt ceiling for a few weeks and talk of a new bond-buying facility in the euro area spurred further risk-taking today, ahead of tomorrow's US employment report. 

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Dollar Rallies as Energy Surge Quashes Animal Spirits

2021-10-06

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2021-10-06

Overview: Investors worry that surging energy prices will sap economic activity and boost prices.  It is sparking a sharp drop in equities and bonds while lifting the dollar.  The Nikkei fell for the eighth consecutive session, and today's 1% drop brings the cumulative decline to 9%.  South Korea's Kospi also fell by more than 1%. 

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What’s The Real Downside To Some of These Key Commodities?

2021-10-06

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2021-10-06

Last night, Autodata reported its first estimates for September auto sales in the US. According to its own as well as those compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (the same government outfit which keeps track of GDP), vehicle sales have been sliding overall ever since April.

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Market Economy Beats Planned Economy

2021-10-04

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2021-10-04

Throughout the next weeks, we will regularly feature the keynote speeches held by our distinguished experts at this year’s digital Free Market Road Show.  The times we are living in – the pandemic – are times when our fundamental values are threatened maybe more than ever in modern times.

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Weekly Market Pulse: Zooming Out

2021-10-03

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2021-10-03

How often do you check your brokerage account? There is a famous economics paper from 1997, written by some of the giants in behavioral finance (Thaler, Kahnemann, Tversky & Schwartz), that tested what is known as myopic loss aversion.

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More About Less New Orders

2021-10-03

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2021-10-03

The inventory saga, planetary in its reach. As you’ve heard, American demand for goods supercharged by the federal government’s helicopter combined with a much more limited capacity to rebound in the logistics of the goods economy left a nightmare for supply chains. As we’ve been writing lately, a highly unusual maybe unprecedented inventory cycle resulted (creating “inflation”).

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Hard to Be Sterling

2021-09-29

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2021-09-29

Overview: Energy prices pulled back late yesterday, but it offered little reprieve to the bond market where the 10-year benchmark yields in the US, UK, Sweden, and Switzerland reached new three-month highs.  November WTI traded to almost $76.70 before reversing lower and leaving a potentially bearish shooting star candlestick in its wake. 

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Soaring Energy Prices Lift Yields, Weigh on Equities and the Greenback Pops

2021-09-28

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2021-09-28

Overview: Rising energy prices and yields are helping lift the US dollar and weighing on equities.  November WTI has pushed above $76, while Brent traded above $80, and natural gas is up for the fourth consecutive session, during which time it has risen by about 25%. 

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Weekly Market Pulse: Not So Evergrande

2021-09-27

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2021-09-27

US stocks sold off last Monday due to fears over the potential – likely – failure of China Evergrande, a real estate developer that has suddenly discovered the perils of leverage. Well that and the perils of being in an industry not currently favored by Xi Jinping. He has declared that houses are for living in not speculating on and ordered the state controlled banks to lend accordingly.

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