Archive for November, 2015

Regarding Corporate Bond Market Liquidity

Monday, November 16th, 2015

I was not a good blogger today as life intervened and I did not pass much time viewing markets. My friend Steve Liddy passed along this article from a Bloomberg view article which posits that the death of liquidity is overstated. Via Bloomberg: Death of Bond Market-Making Is Greatly Exaggerated: Gadfly 2015-11-16 12:00:23.786 ...

FX

Monday, November 16th, 2015

Via Marc Chandler at Brown Brothers Harriman: Eight Themes at the Start of the New Week 1.        There are several political and economic consequences, aside from the tighter security and elevated alertness, from the attacks in Paris 2.        IMF's Lagarde announced that the staff has concluded that ...

FT Interview With Eric Rosengren of Boston Fed

Monday, November 16th, 2015

Via the FT (very long but instructive): The following is an edited transcript of an interview between Sam Fleming of the Financial Times and Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Thursday, November 12, 2015. Q. Your recent speech took a more optimistic tone. Are you feeling a ...

Early FX

Monday, November 16th, 2015

Via Kit Juckes at SocGen:  FX Daily - Business as usual malgré tout (3p)   It's no great surprise that despite a technical recession, the Japanese yen was initially the strongest of the major currencies overnight. It's the prime winner from risk aversion and is cheap enough at these levels to be pretty ...

Incredible Shrinking Economy in Japan

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

Via the FT: Japanese GDP shrank more than expected in the third quarter, dragging the economy back into recession for the fourth time since the financial crisis. Seasonally-adjusted GDP shrank 0.8 per cent, annualised, in the three months ended September 30, from a revised 0.7 per cent contraction (previously -1.2 per cent) ...

Running on Empty

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

That is the title of a Jackson Browne song but it could also have been the title of this WSJ piece on the situation which the G 20 faces . Growth is slowing globally and the world's economic movers and shakers are faced with the reality that they might be ...

Investors Unconcerned About Impending Rate Hikes

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

Via the WSJ: By Min Zeng Nov. 15, 2015 5:30 a.m. ET 2 COMMENTS Bond investors aren’t fighting the Fed, but they aren’t panicking about higher interest rates, either. Futures-market bets on rising U.S. interest rates have hit a six-month high, reflecting expectations the Federal Reserve will raise short-term rates next month for the first ...

Canary in economic coal mine

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

Via WSJ: By Robbie Whelan Nov. 15, 2015 5:30 a.m. ET America’s busiest ports are sending a warning about the U.S. economy. For the first time in at least a decade, imports fell in both September and October at each of the three busiest U.S. seaports, according to data from trade researcher Zepol ...

Drowning in a Sea of Petrocarbons

Saturday, November 14th, 2015

Via Bloomberg: IEA sees `massive cushion' worldwide on record production U.S. oil drillers add rigs, reversing 10 weeks of pullback Oil dropped to the lowest in more than two months as stockpiles in developed nations have reached record levels and U.S. crude supplies keep rising. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 2.4 percent. Oil inventories have ...

Analysis of Paris Attack

Saturday, November 14th, 2015

The WSJ analyzes the terrorist attack in Paris and argues that ISIS is a far more dangerous opponent than Al Queda. Via WSJ: By Yaroslav Trofimov Updated Nov. 14, 2015 1:59 p.m. ET Friday’s attacks in Paris, if Islamic State’s claim of responsibility proves correct, represent a major departure for the militant group ...