by Markus

A few years ago, when optimism was at a low, many financial experts tried to compare the market situation with the development of the Dow Jones from around 1965 to 1982. At this time, stocks went sidewards. The Dow Jones was trading between 1000 and 600 points, interest rates were rising, the oil price reached [...]

by Dino

The Maestro’s approval rating among fund managers keeps sliding. After Jim Rogers’ scathing remarks and invitation to resign on CNBC television, the latest attack comes from William Fleckenstein, MSN columnist and president of Fleckenstein Capital, a Seattle-based hedge fund. Ex-Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is routinely blamed for creating the U.S. housing bubble by keeping [...]

by Gregory

Hardly Wall street was enjoying a new shot of fresh liquidity that Main Street kicked back to make everyone come to their senses: the US economy is falling in recession. Indeed, the market was reminded of the economy’s ongoing problems this week with several bad economic data. Early this week, Standard & Poor’s S&P/Case-Shiller home [...]

by James

If Russians have some lingering fears of declining oil prices, foreign investors have more reasons to be scared. Dmitry Medvedev has made some significant foreign policy announcements this week. In a two-hour interview with the Financial Times (www.ft.com/medvedev) he has made it clear that the West will find dealing with him “no simpler” than with [...]

by James

After some negative sessions around the time that Bear Stearns fell over, Russia has been lagging global markets this month. After getting obliterated in January, we had a good rebound in February, but we are being punished again this month… The Russian economy is among the most attractive in the world right now, and international [...]

by Dino

In 2003, hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors started shorting shares of Canadian company Biovail (BVF), the largest pharmaceutical company in Canada. To create the proverbial “catalyst” that would cause Biovail stock to go down, SAC commissioned (and provided information for) a research report by independent security research firm Gradient Analytics. The report, which was negative [...]

by James

Since Vladimir Putin became Russia’s second president in 2000, economic policy has focussed on stimulating demand. Monthly real incomes (wages adjusted for inflation) have increased by an average of 15.5% year on year, sparking a consumer boom that has seen annual retail sales accelerate by some 500%.It is no secret that high oil prices have [...]

by Dino

Good news for Market Melange: Standard & Poor’s is reading our blog. In particular, they read our Wednesday March 19 post (The financial value of experience: why Bear failed and Lehman will survive), in which we reviewed Lehman’s and Goldman’s most recent earnings reports and observed that their net incomes contracted year-over-year by 31% and [...]