Morning Briefing
Is that inflation we see?
The core Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, picked up in May by 0.2% from April. That took the annual inflation rate to 1.6%. That was just above the median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg and...
How low can 10-year Treasury yields go? How about another 25 basis points
Today with the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to 2.02%, a drop of 2 basis points, two Wall Street heavy weights are predicting that we haven't seen a bottom in yield yet. Not by a long shot. Goldman Sachs today cut its forecast for the year-end yield on the...
Trump interview utterly confuses markets ahead of Saturday meeting with China’s Xi
So what  does the United States want out of the Saturday talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping? In a Wednesday interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo Trump thoroughly confused expectations. The market consensus had been...
Whoa! on those interest rate cuts, the Fed says
The financial markets are getting ahead of themselves in a bad case of rate cut fever, Fed chair Jerome Powell, and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard both said today. This is a message that I've been waiting to hear as the financial markets moved to price in not a...
Confrontation with Iran continues to heat up
You can measure exactly how worried the oil sector is about more attacks in the Persian Gulf by trading the insurance premiums for oil tankers in the region. War risk premiums for a standard oil cargo from the Persian Gulf and the tanker hauling it can now cost...
Oil soars after Iran shoots down U.S. drone
U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate climbed 5.23% to $56.57 a barrel as of 2:30 p.m. New York time today June 20. International benchmark Brent crude rose 4.03% to $64.31 a barrel. A U.S. drone was shot down by Iran in Iranian territory according to Iran or...
Federal Reserve rhetoric moves strongly toward interest rate cut
So much for "patient." Today after the meeting of the Open Market Committee on interest rates the Federal Reserve announced that it would leave benchmark interest rates at the current 2.25% to 2.50%. But in its words the Fed delivered what the market hoped for--a...Presidents Trump and Xi now likely to meet at G20 gathering
Apparently U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will talk at next week's meeting of the Group of 20 in Osaka Japan. President Trump tweeted his morning: "Had a very good telephone conversation with President Xi of China. We will be having an...
OPEC in disarray; oil slips
Oil markets today are asking reasonably if OPEC can't agree on a date for talks on extending production cuts, then what hope is there for an actual agreement to cut oil production? Iran has backed away from its insistence that OPEC meet in June as originally...
Two more oil tankers attacked in Gulf of Oman; here’s how financial assets moved and which might be interesting ahead
For the second time in a month two oil tankers came under attack in international waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. One ship, a Japanese-owned tanker carrying methanol, was apparently attacked by limpet bombs attached to its hull or by a mine. The second...
Oil falls to lowest level in five months; Brent breaks below $60 a barrel
Oil slumped to its lowest in almost five months and international benchmark Brent crude book below $60 a barrel today, June 12. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 4% today to $51.14 a barrel, threatening the $50 a barrel psychological benchmark. Brent fell...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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