Archive for November, 2014

PIMCO Suffers Over $100 Billion in Withdrawals

Sunday, November 30th, 2014

Via the FT: Pimco suffers $100bn in redemptions from top funds Stephen Foley in New YorkAuthor alerts Pimco has accounted for half of the 10 funds with the biggest outflows so far this year – bleeding more than $100bn – as rivals snatched market share from the world’s largest bond manager while it ...

Shoppers Stay Home and Gorge Themselves on Leftovers

Sunday, November 30th, 2014

Via Bloomberg; Post-Thanksgiving Spending Tumbles 11% as Shoppers Stay Home (2) 2014-11-30 21:52:50.439 GMT (Updates with online spending in seventh paragraph.) By Lauren Coleman-Lochner Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in the U.S. this weekend, with consumers cutting spending by an estimated 11 percent and far fewer bargain hunters hitting ...

Where Have All the Bonds Gone

Sunday, November 30th, 2014

New regulations motivate (force) banks to buy Treasuries. The Heard on the Street column at the WSJ has an interesting article on banks craving Treasuries. Via the WSJ: Banks Drink Deep From Uncle Sam’s Debt Fountain New Liquidity Rules Send Banks Scrambling for U.S. Debt By John Carney Nov. 30, 2014 4:57 p.m. ET America’s ...

Yergin on Oil

Sunday, November 30th, 2014

Daniel Yergin is the preeminent historian on the oil and energy market. Many years ago he wrote a book entitled "The Prize" and it is a fascinating and exhaustive chronicle of the forces which have governed the oil markets over the lat 150 years. I highly recommend the book for ...

Aging Baby Boomer Alert

Friday, November 28th, 2014

Forbes magazine has a post in which Art Garfunkel speaks of the recording of Sounds of Silence which is the song which placed Simon and Garfunkel prominently on the 1960s music map. Garfunkel notes the work of Columbia Records producer, Tom Wilson, who produced their acoustic work ( and commercial ...

FX

Friday, November 28th, 2014

Via Marc Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman: arket Catches Breath After Yesterday's OPEC-Induced Moves - The OPEC decision to roll over existing quotas sent oil prices sharply lower, pushed European bonds and stocks higher, and generally gave the US dollar a boost - There is much data for investors to digest today, ...

Market Miscellany

Friday, November 28th, 2014

One friend of this blog in his overnight note touts owning Lincoln Navigators and shorting Prius. That gentleman notes Japan based sellers of the 4 year sector and the same group buying 7 year notes. He also noted that active trading types AKA fast money was searching for tight markets in TIPS.He ...

Oil Stocks Slumping

Friday, November 28th, 2014

Bloomberg News reports that Chevron and Mobil are each down more than 4 percent in early equity market trading. Via Bloomberg: U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline After Opec Decision By Jonathan Morgan Nov 28, 2014 5:25 AM ET U.S. stock-index futures fell, as the equities market reopens after the Thanksgiving holiday, with energy stocks tumbling ...

Some Overnight Stuff

Friday, November 28th, 2014

The Treasury yield curve has flattened overnight. The 5s 30s spread has narrowed to 138 from 139.3 at about 800PM last evening. I believe that is a new cycle low for that spread. The 5s 10s spread narrowed to 67.5 from 68.3 and 10s 30s narrowed to 70.5 from 71. Dealers ...

Inflation Expectations and the Central Banks

Friday, November 28th, 2014

This is an interesting and informative article by Martin Enlund, Chief Analyst Global Research at Nordea Markets. He argues persuasively that market participants should focus on  changes in inflation expectations which derive from the drop in oil prices. If those inflation expectations shift that will drive changes in monetary policy. ...