by Gregory

There is a lot of fuss and discussion lately about Bernanke and his last speech at the ASSA meeting in Atlanta, where he finally gave his views about the responsibility of the fed in the housing bubble. What an interesting timing! The speech can be summarized with this sentence: That conclusion suggests that the best response [...]

by Gregory

The wrap is back with a special focus on the hottest macro theme this month, namely the dollar. This week, the dollar has continued to rally against all major currencies (including the New Zealand kiwi and the aussie). In particular, the greenback hit a 3 month high vis-a-vis the Euro. This week again, several factors [...]

by Gregory

Undoubtedly, this is the subject of the last three months: do we have a bubble in the stocks markets? The question is obviously not new and has been raised a million of times in the past without any consequences in terms of policy and futures cycles. However, the question is gaining more attention nowadays, and [...]

by James

For all the jubilation, markets proved relatively quiet last week, in part thanks to a bit of steam-letting in Friday trading. The S&P 500 has risen in eight of the last ten sessions – last week it was driven by stellar earnings from some of the big hitters, most notably JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and [...]

by James

Risk appetite was certainly the flavour of the (last) week. Equities soared almost everywhere, lifting other risk asset prices with them. Yet, the smart rebound after a protracted slide served only to trap markets within even tighter trading ranges. The S&P 500 rose 7.0% on the week, Russia leapt 10.8% (helped by oil prices ? [...]

by James

As Bernanke sits patiently through testimony on the Hill, the Federal Reserve has announced the expiration, shrinking and continuation of various exceptional programs providing liquidity to the system. For Mr Bernanke, it takes the patience of a saint to sit through political testimony, while some questions have been thoughtful and timely: is it a good [...]

by James

The train roles on. Central banks kept loosening (ECB dropped its refinancing rate to 1% and launched a tentative QE effort, the BOE expanded its QE effort), and the US banks turned out to need $75 bln of new equity under a relatively benign downside scenario. Markets don’t care. The S&P 500 rose an astonishing [...]

by James

Sell in May go away! We hear it every year, but surely, there has rarely been a more tempting case than this year? Against a barrage of negative data, equities put in a storming performance last month, with the S&P 500 rising 9.4%. Slower rates of economic decline are a good thing, apparently. Given the [...]