Market Overview

Data for the periphery countries remain strong and Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece still have potential to surprise more, as the hard negative shock has resulted in very high pent-up demand. In...

EU foreign ministers are meeting today to decide on further sanctions against Russia following the MH17 crash. In particular UK’s Cameron is pushing for additional sanctions. However, the...

Heading into the CPI print later today, the market is firmly in “we don’t believe it” mode. Since the CPI report last month – which showed a third straight month of a...

In the most recent newsletter, I discussed this year's rise in the markets and the fact that all of the gains have occurred during some of the historically weakest months of the year.  I also...

"Index shows economic growth decelerated slightly in June": This is the headline for today's release of the Chicago Fed's National Activity Index, and here are the opening paragraphs from the report:...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was prominently in the news again last week. Most of Wall Street’s ire was directed at her for her comment that “…valuation metrics in some...

Regular readers will know that I have been relatively cautious on the outlook for China. But despite recent dire headlines such as China debt surges to 251% of GDP, China has not crashed. What`s more,...

EM currencies are trying to regain some traction after trading softer last week. China data for July out this week should provide further evidence that the world's second biggest economy is...

The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index, which I reported on earlier today, is based on 85 economic indicators drawn from four broad categories of data: Production and Income Employment,...

Hedge funds whose main areas of investment include currencies, bonds, stocks, and commodities have historically had trouble making consistent profits. A study by Bloomberg indicated that these...

The main benchmark (Bovespa) bounced back 44.965 points back in April to an astonishing 56.966 points in the last trading session on July 18, driven mostly by the higher expectations of a shift in...

Earnings: A Big Role This WeekBefore we get into the subject of recent volatility, it is important to understand the primary market driver in the days ahead – earnings. From The Wall Street...

Whenever a company’s management team says that something is going on in its industry that is “not fully understood by the investment community” it’s usually something...

The U.K. is set to be the fastest growing economy among the world's seven leading industrialized nations this year, according to a leading economic think tank, who predicts the country would move from...