A slip in the dollar and a bounce in the euro
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...
Dollar falls as President Trump criticizes Federal Reserve policy again
For a second straight day President Donald Trump has tweeted out criticism of the Federal Reserve's policy decision to raise interest rates. In his tweets today the President wrote: "China, the European Union and others have been manipulating their currencies and...
Buying the Invesco CurrencyShares Japanese Yen ETF in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio
Following my own recommendation in my Special Report 5 Places to Hide from a Downturn--and Still Make Some Money I'm adding "Invesco CurrencyShares Japanese Yen ETF (FXY) to my Perfect 5 ETF portfolio today. As I wrote in that Special Report, "JPMorgan Chase recently...
I’m selling VEA out of my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio today
I'm continuing to revise the holdings in my Perfect 5 ETF Portfolio in order to reduce risk from the effects of a global trade war and yet to still make some money--as I outlined in my Special Report: 5 Places to Hide from a Downturn--and Still Make Some Money. I...
European Central Bank tries to have it both ways–which leaves nobody very happy
At today's meeting, the European Central Bank agreed to phase out its bond buying by the end of 2018 with purchases of $17.7 billion (15 billion euros) in each of the final three months of the year. (Bond buying will continue at the current rate of 30 billion euros a...
Moving on: With North Korea summit done, markets focus on Central Bank Week
The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un produced nothing of import, apparently meeting financial market expectations for "much ado about nothing," and all eyes on Wall Street have shifted to what I'm calling Central Bank...Here we go again: Argentina and Italy compete to see which can be the next Greece
Maybe you missed it amidst all the noise about the G7 meeting and the summit with North Korea, but... Argentina has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $50 billion loan to support the country's economy and currency. The IMF is expected to approve the...
Markets today “seem” to say North Korea summit more important than G7 explosion
At 2 p.m. New York time the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index was up 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.22%. And the NASDAQ Composite index had inched higher by 0.27%. Which is surprising given that the Group of 7 meeting ended Saturday with the...
Saturday Night Quarterback says (on a Sunday), For the week ahead expect…
If the markets do decide that Italy is a problem for another day, that means we’ll revert to the trends that set direction before the crisis gained top of the mind status: oil prices (and the likelihood of an increase in production from OPEC), an interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve on June 13, and tariffs and the possibility of a U.S./China trade war.
Markets relax, a bit, on Italy crisis
The consensus in financial markets today seems to be that yesterday’s drop on fears that Italy was headed to a crisis that could shake the euro were a bit overstated. This isn’t to say that markets have concluded that the crisis is over–or never existed–just that it won’t bring the end of the EuroZone as we know it tomorrow.
Here we go again on the euro: The bad news is that Italy’s financial crisis is political
The good news is that the European Central Bank, thanks to the global financial crisis and the Greek debt crisis, has mechanisms in place to support Italian bonds, Italian banks, and the Italian financial system. The bad news is that an Italian government has to ask for that help after swearing to be fiscally responsible. At the moment there is, once again, no Italian government. A bid by the populist parties that came in ahead of the field in the latest election was rejected by Italy’s president. And these parties aren’t likely to meet the European Central Bank’s requirements for help.
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