Market Overview

Can everyone saying “a 25 bps rate hike doesn’t change anything” or “manufacturing is a small part of the US economy today, so the ISM number doesn’t mean much” or...

Canada – Housing starts jumped more than 7% toreach a consensus-topping 212K in November. The increase in starts was due largely to urban areas (+7.7%), although there were also small gains in...

Merits of Not Shrinking the BalloonWhen the Fed first launched QE, they stated they had the "tools" necessary to shrink their ballooning balance sheet. I quickly made the claim, no thinking person on...

As we near a potential lift off for US interest rates I thought the time was ripe to put on my tinfoil conspiracy hat and consider the doomsday scenario for the rate hike. Many eternal bears have...

The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) is scheduled to meet late on Wednesday (16th Dec 2015 19:00 GMT) to set monetary policy. There are no guarantees apart from an extreme amount of volatility in...

Just within the past few days, three major high yield funds have completely imploded, and panic is spreading rapidly on Wall Street. Funds run by Third Avenue Management and Stone Lion Capital...

US economic data is the main event for today’s macro numbers as the crowd’s attention focuses ever more closely on tomorrow’s policy announcement from the Federal Reserve. Three...

Combine this regulatory burden with the decline of entrepreneurship, and you get a bubbling brew that is toxic to self-employment/small business.Why has the percentage of the population that's in the...

Market Cap to GDP is a long-term valuation indicator that has become popular in recent years, thanks to Warren Buffett. Back in 2001 he remarked in a Fortune Magazine interview that "it is probably...

EM starts the FOMC week off on a soft footing. Besides the prospects of Fed liftoff Wednesday, oil prices are making new cycle lows. Uncertainty about China’s FX policy is also making markets...

Note: We've updated the quiz based on Thursday's Q3 Financial Accounts of the United States (previously referred to as the Flow of Funds Accounts). Hint: The correct answer is the same as it was for...

A December interest-rate hike isn’t fully priced-in by markets and as such there is upside potential for the USD if the FOMC delivers on its repeated warnings that rates will go up before...

Crude falling!Last week was extremely turbulent in financial markets as oil prices tumbled 12% to a 7-year low. Weak commodity prices spilled over into equities pushing the S&P 3.8% lower during...

Japan: Business sentiment holds steadyQ4 Tankan reports have been released. These reports are quarterly business confidence polls issued by the Bank of Japan. The data from this report is then used to...