The Japanese stock market witnessed another day of volatility after falling more than 7 percent yesterday. The severe price swings kept the Asian markets on the edge. Nikkei 225 Index closed 0.9 percent higher to 14,612.45 after falling more than 500 points in the last trading session. During today’s active trading, the index twitched back and forth in the 1000-point range. Japanese Stock Gains In terms of volume, a total of 5.89 billion shares...
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Since the great recession, the Federal Reserve has taken extraordinary measures to keep interest rates low. These policies have likely Diminished the Americans’ purchasing power. Inflation is increasing while interest rates are decreasing. How much has the disparity between the two cost us? The Federal Reserve Vs. Interest Rates infographic 'Get ValueWalk's Daily Edition By Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories'
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Chris Woods of CLSA is out with his famous latest weekly commentary Greed and FEAR. Last Week, Woods discussed China and expressed doubt whether China could ever rebalance from an export oriented economy to one oriented towards the consumer. This week Woods talks about Japan, and although the report came out after the huge drop in the Nikkei that is only a side point. Below is the entire report from Greed and Fear titled...
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A gear-shift by U.S. Federal Reserve and the resultant dollar surge could force BRICS countries to apply a ‘sudden stop’. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in his comments posted in ‘The Telegraph’ feels the flow of over $8 trillion capital in to emerging markets since the Lehman crisis has largely sputtered out in some of the BRICS countries including Brazil, Russia and South Africa. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke defended Wednesday the central bank’s record stimulus program...
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Today’s Fed Minutes showed no consensus among Federal Reserve officials. Jim Grant, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, shares his reaction. Jim Grant discussed the Fed and Apple bonds being a possible top in a CNBC interview this afternoon with Kelly Evans. 'Get ValueWalk's Daily Edition By Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories'
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The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress today to explain the position of the Central bank on its bond buying program, among other things. There was a clear takeaway from the testimony, Ben Bernanke is promising nothing when it comes to ending QE3. According to Jon Hilsenrath over at the Wall Street Journal, what Bernanke said this morning was that when the Federal Reserve decides to end...
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Dollar index, which measures the value of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, surged to levels not seen since July 2010. The dollar’s strength was due to speculations that the Federal Reserve may pull back its $85 billion monetary stimulus program sooner than expected. Consumer Sentiments Data & Euro Helped Dollar The greenback got another push from the falling euro, which declined today to six week lows amid expectations that the...
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Chris Woods of CLSA is out with his popular weekly GREED and Fear report. Last week the focus from Greed and Fear was on bubbles, Bernanke related. This week Woods starts off with a shot at CNBC in relation to the Bloomberg scandal. He has some interesting comments on China and titles this report ‘China’s Lack of Traction.’ Below is the full report which came out yesterday. China’s lack of traction Beijing The grinning hyenas...
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Federal Reserve policymakers have prepared a strategy to wrap up the $85 billion asset purchasing program, reports Jon Hilsnerath of the Wall Street Journal. The Fed officials plan to wind down the amount of bond purchasing in a careful and step-by-step manner depending on the job market and inflation. However, officials haven’t yet decided the timing to start the winding down process. How and when the central bank will end quantitative easing is of great interest...
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My view is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, not even for governments or central banks. Any action taken may have benefits, but also imposes costs, even if those costs are imposed upon others. So it is for the Fed. At the beginning of 2008, they had a small, clean, low duration (less than three years) balance sheet on assets. Today the asset side of their balance sheet is much...
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Stocks are cheap, according to Fernando Duarte and Carlo Rosa, who are both economists at the New York Federal Reserve. They published an article looking over the evidence that suggests that stocks, in general, are a good buy right now. In fact, the evidence seems to indicate that stocks are at their least expensive level in about 50 years. The Equity Risk Premium The main piece of evidence they use is the equity risk...
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