Market Overview

There’s no sign that the credit cycle is about to turn negative for US banks, but investors should keep an eye on Commercial and Industrial loans for early indications of stress.Last week at...

There is a specter haunting the op-ed pages. It is not the specter of creeping socialism that many observers worried about as the Great Financial Crisis broke. It is the end of globalization.This has...

Japan can’t do anything right.That’s not a criticism, mind you, but rather an observation of how truly bad Japan’s options are right now.  If you want a “risk free”...

We are officially in uncharted waters.  The biggest macro risk right now for the markets is not the Fed or European Central Bank…or ISIS or even Vladimir Putin.  No, the biggest macro...

So far this year, small-cap growth stocks have surprisingly been lackluster. After 2013, when it gained a scorching 38.8 percent, the Russell 2000 has delivered a tepid 0.62 percent year-to-date...

Emerging-market stocks fell for an eighth day and currencies slid on speculation the U.S. is moving closer to raising interest rates and on signs China’s economy is slowing. Russia’s ruble...

AFP (Agence France-Presse) recently printed an interesting piece about the current illusion of permanent liquidity.  To wit: "Loose monetary policies have created an 'illusion of permanent...

Total credit growth remained weak in August and underlying credit growth was just 10.0% annualised in July and August, suggesting that China could finally have reached the stage where credit growth is...

Traders are once again going to keep the geopolitical situation as the centre of their attention this week. Given that we have seen a new round of sanctions on Russia by Europe, it was widely expected...

As the bond-stock relationship continues to evolve, we saw a big drop in bond prices while U.S. stocks also took their punches. The S&P 500 (SPX) finished the week down 1.10%, Small Caps dropped...

IMM data released last Friday revealed that investors slashed net EUR shorts for the first time in four weeks. The move is probably a reflection of profit taking in light of the recent EUR/USD move...

Charles Wyplosz at VoxEU questions the potential effectiveness of quantitative easing (QE) as recently announced by the ECB. His main concern is that the ECB version of QE is supply driven, as opposed...

The US Dollar is firm, though largely confined to the pre-weekend range. The Australian Dollar is a significant exception. The sharp downside momentum seen over the past several sessions has been...

It’s been a while since we’ve had a week with as much event risk as this one upcoming. Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting and Thursday’s referendum on Scottish independence...