Archive for May, 2016

Employment Thoughts

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via TDSecurities: TD SECURITIES DATAFLASH            US: Wages Hold Their Ground But Weakness Abound in Employment Nonfarm employment rose by 160k, falling short of expectations and historical revisions cut 19k from the last two months. The unemployment rate remained unchanged as the participation rate fell to 62.8%. Average hourly earnings met the market ...

Trump’s Naivete on US Debt

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via NYTimes: One day after assuring Americans he is not running for president “to make things unstable for the country,” the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, said in a television interview Thursday that he might seek to reduce the national debt by persuading creditors to accept something less than full ...

Corporate Bond Stuff

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: IG CREDIT: Volume Lower, Spreads Leak Wider as Jobs Data Looms 2016-05-06 09:59:30.578 GMT By Robert Elson (Bloomberg) -- Secondary IG trading ended with a Trace count of $15.2b vs $17.9b Wednesday, $16.6b last Thursday. * 10-DMA $16.1b; 10-Thursday moving avg $17.6b * 144a trading added $1.9b of IG volume vs $2.6b on Wednesday, $2.3b last ...

Early FX

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via Kit Juckes at SocGen: Good morning. I'm in no way a Liverpool FC fan, but Spain having 'only' three of the four places in the UEFA and CL finals isn't a bad thing and anyway, it's hard not to be a Klopp fan. That was yesterday evening's entertainment, though Fitch ...

Pension Funding

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via the WSJ: Corporate pension plans lost ground in April. Lower interest rates pushed funding levels down last month, even though asset returns improved. The funded ratio for corporate pensions at S&P 500 companies fell to 77.8% in April, down from 77.9% in March, according to Wilshire Consulting. The ratio is down ...

Australia Central Banks Slashes Inflation Outlook

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Three-year bond yields slide to record after RBA revisions Central bank concerned at `surprisingly low wage growth' Australia’s central bank forecast core inflation is unlikely to reach the bottom of its target this year as the developed world’s disinflation quandary spreads Down Under. The currency dropped about 1 percent ...

China Stocks Tumble, Too

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via Reuters: Markets | Fri May 6, 2016 3:17am EDT Related: Financials, Industrials China stocks tumble on worries about commodities, bonds May 6 China stocks suffered their biggest one-day fall in more than two months, shedding gains from a recent rebound amid further corrections in the commodities market and fresh signs of stress with ...

Steel Futures Plunge in China

Friday, May 6th, 2016

I thought the one interesting factoid here is that the average holding period is about two hours. Via the FT: China’s steel futures suffer biggest weekly loss ’09 23 minutes ago by: Nathalie Thomas China’s steel rebar futures fell 9.5 per cent this week, the biggest loss since the contract started seven years ago following ...

Tough Times at Goldman Sachs

Friday, May 6th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Dakin Campbell Laura J Keller May 5, 2016 — 5:39 PM EDT Updated on May 5, 2016 — 6:32 PM EDT Latest move builds on reductions that had affected 8% by April Firm is also said to dismiss staff in equities division   Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is cutting more jobs in its securities units, extending ...

Negative Rates as a Tax on Banks

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

Via Barron's: Are Negative Rates a Tax On the Creation of Credit? Sub-zero interest rates may actually be acting as a tax on lending, having an unintended restraining effect. By Randall W. Forsyth Updated May 5, 2016 12:10 p.m. ET What if the stimulant prescribed for the patient turned out to be a depressant? That may be ...