stocks
March and 1Q12 in Figures
March 31, 2012
The dollar posted strong gains in March against the Australian dollar and yen but was narrowly mixed otherwise. Sovereign bond yields rose, led by a 24-bp in the 10-year Treasury. Three-month euribor rates sank sharply. Most equities performed well, while strong January-February gains in gold and oil prices were reversed partly. 10-Yr Yield 03/30/12 Chg [...] More
February in Figures
February 29, 2012
February was a replay of January in certain respects, but there will also some notable market differences between the two months. The similarities involved a weaker dollar, stronger share prices and pinned short-term interest rates. One notable shift was the very weak yen in February compared to January when it merely shadowed the dollar. This [...] More
January in Figures
January 31, 2012
January saw gold prices soar more than 11% and the dollar fall across the Board. Oil prices hovered around both sides of $100 per barrel and both opened and closed below that barrier. Great Britain and Switzerland did not partake as fully as some other countries in the generally superlative early 2012 performance of share [...] More
November in Figures
November 30, 2011
November had uncanny parallels to October. Most of October had seen a rise in risk appetite and associated weakness in the dollar and strength in equities, and in most of November just the opposite had occurred. Former Greek Prime Minister Papandreou’s proposal to submit the October 26 EU rescue package to a referendum caused that [...] More
Debt Concerns Intensify
November 21, 2011
Investors began this week is a risk-off mood, fanned by An expected admission from the U.S. congressional super-committee of failure to strike a budget cutting deal, which will trigger automatic across-the-board reductions and a possible additional U.S. credit rating downgrade. A warning from NYU Professor Roubini that an Italian debt restructuring will be unavoidable. The [...] More
October in Figures
November 1, 2011
A revival of risk aversion drove equities and commodities higher and the dollar downward over the bulk of October. News of a Greek voter referendum on November 4 that will quite plausibly torpedo the October 26 EU agreement resulted in a significant trimming of these trends on the final trading day of the month and [...] More
Conflicting Headlines Out of Europe Have Dollar and Stocks Both Weaker
October 20, 2011
Usually, but not so far today, the dollar and equities have moved inversely. Headlines covering euro debt crisis talks have been all over the map. German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy still cannot agree on how to lever the EFSF bailout fund upward to more than EUR 1 billion. Sarkozy left talks abruptly without [...] More
September and the Third Quarter in Figures
September 30, 2011
It’s been a month and quarter for the ages. Investors increasingly priced in a coming U.S. and European recession. All the dire warnings that long-term interest rates will soar because of deficit spending and ensuing inflation could not have been more wrong, yet the thinking behind such predictions continues to control the policy agenda in [...] More
August in Figures
August 31, 2011
In August, risk aversion shot up. Gold soared, while share prices and sovereign bond yields fell sharply. Most commodity prices including oil fell, and so did commodity-sensitive currencies. USD/JPY and EUR/USD closed practically unchanged for the month. Swiss officials took steps to reverse the franc’s strength, enabling the dollar to advance 2.5% against the Swiss [...] More
Bear Markets Typically Include Big Daily Gains
August 10, 2011
During a bear run, it is much more common to experience out-sized daily rises in share prices such as occurred on August 9 than during normal periods of sideways or upward sloping trends. During the collapse of 2008-09, there were numerous such days. The brunt of that bear market was compressed between the collapse of [...] More
