Market Overview

June’s 124.7 billion deficit rose from 113.4 billion in Q4 2015 and a 2.7% increase in current dollar GDP from 2.5% in Q4 2015. The quarterly figures hardly informs the overall view in Balance...

Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report beat market expectations with a read of 255K jobs created in July against a forecast of 180K. The data revived Fed hawks and brings rate hikes by the end of 2016...

Derivatives Essentials: An Introduction to Forwards, Futures, Options, and Swaps (Wiley, 2016) by Aron Gottesman is an excellent textbook/self-study guide. It describes the basic concepts of...

At Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the patrons seem to have better cars and smartphones than I own - and yet do not believe these patrons are as financially secure as I am. Is the spending pattern changing...

In early 2005, the US Senate began debating a bill seeking to impose a broad 27.5% tariff on Chinese exports to the United States. Congress was emotionally moved by the supposed problem of pegging the...

In their latest announcement, the Fed attempted to prop up the stock market. They attempted to sound hawkish, however, the market paid not any heed to it. The Fed annulment was reflected in a manner...

No Way OutA story in the July 30, 2016 Globe and Mail Report on Business entitled “The Next Financial Crisis” underlined the growing awareness of the financial and economic malaise that is...

The masses do not believe this market can trend higher; sentiment is decidedly negative, and this has been confirmed time and time again. For months on end investors in the neutral or bearish camp...

A reliable source for recession forecasting is the unemployment rate, which can provide signals for the beginnings and ends of recessions. The unemployment rate model, updated with the July figure of...

Better US employment drops gold price Debt-to-EBITDA Ratios Snippet from August 4, 2016 Pivotal Events: The two previous sharp increases occurred in severe contractions Perhaps an involuntary plunge...

For a period that included a BOJ and FOMC meeting and the US GDP, speculators in the currency futures were unusually quiet. Summer holidays with family may be more important.Of the 16 gross currency...

India’s upper house approved the creation of a Good and Services Tax (GST) The Polish government softened its stance on the proposed Swiss franc loan conversion plan Support for South...

The robust US employment report before the weekend allowed the dollar to recoup the losses it experienced earlier in the week against most of the major currencies. The Australian dollar and Japanese...

The performance of the equity indexes on our global watch list was a mixed bag last week. Five of the eight posted gains, up from only three the previous week. But the average gain of the aggregate...