July 2, 2019 | Daily JAM, Mid Term |
Christine Lagarde will move from heading the International Monetary Fund to take over the helm at the European Central Bank from outgoing President Mario Draghi. I think this is a generally positive piece of news. First, putting Lagarde in the chair means that...
June 18, 2019 | CTVA, Daily JAM, Special Reports, Volatility, You Might Have Missed |
This isn't  time for investing as usual. As whacky as the first half of 2019 has been--the Federal Reserve embraces interest rate cuts, the U.S. and China descend further into a trade war, the U.S. economy turns in better than 3% growth but fears for a slowdown in...
May 23, 2019 | Daily JAM, EFNL, Stock Alerts, Volatility |
I will sell the iShares MSCI Finland ETF (EFNL) out of my Volatility Portfolio tomorrow. The EuroZone in general and the Finnish economy in particular is heavily dependent on exports and the slowdown in the global economy resulting from the U.S.-China trade war isn't...
February 4, 2019 | Daily JAM, Mid Term, Morning Briefing |
A number of Wall Street and big international banks are forecasting a drop in the dollar as a result of the Fed's decision to back off on raising interest rates in 2019. Morgan Stanley, for example, says that the dollar has peaked and has forecast the yen climbing to...
December 27, 2018 | Daily JAM, FXY, Perfect Five-ETFs, VEA, Volatility |
Back on October 3 I switched from the  Invesco Currency Shares Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) to the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA) in an effort to get a little more performance out of this slot in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio. (This ETF invest in both Japan and...
November 26, 2018 | Daily JAM, Notes You Need |
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don't justify a full post. I've decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I'm calling Notes...
November 26, 2018 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
On December 13 the European Central Bank will decide whether to cap its $2.9 trillion program of bond buying as planned. The bank had decided that Europe's economy was strong enough for the central bank to wind down its purchases of bonds that have kept interest rates...
October 8, 2018 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Actually, considering the list of fears today, it's kind of remarkable that the U.S. stock market hasn't fallen farther. (The U.S. bond market is closed for the Columbus Day holiday.) In the EuroZone the confrontation between the Italian government and the European...
October 3, 2018 | Daily JAM, Perfect Five-ETFs, VEA |
Earlier today I sold the Invesco Currency Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio. Now I'm replacing it with the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (VEA). The sell and the buy will cut the portfolio's exposure to the Japanese yen and increase its...
October 3, 2018 | Daily JAM, FXY, Perfect Five-ETFs, Stock Alerts |
As I wrote in the Bonus ETF section of my recent Special Report: 10 Picks for the Emerging Market Bounce I'm selling the Invesco Currency Shares Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) out of my Perfect Five ETF Portfolio. I added this to the portfolio on July 17, 2018 to give me more...
September 28, 2018 | Daily JAM, Mid Term, Volatility, You Might Have Missed |
I don't think there's anything more important to financial markets--well, assuming we don't get some kind of completely off-the-wall black swan event--over the next three months or so than the strength or weakness of the dollar. My judgment on trends in the greenback...
September 13, 2018 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
The dollar is down today against the euro and some emerging market currencies, such as the Turkish lira, are rallying. The news ostensibly behind the move is some data indicating that U.S. inflation slipped in August. The logic goes that with inflation sliding the...
