We have all been bogged down with tweets coming from the White House about China. Because high-speed traders force us to parse the messages and assess the immediate impact on the markets, we’re hostage to President Trump’s tariff policy. The bottom line is that Robert Lighthizer is left to inform the world when China will acquiesce to the U.S.’s demand for reliable and hardened enforcement mechanisms to solidify any genuine agreement. From my perspective, the critical point on global markets is that once China/U.S. trade agreement is done the president will set his sights on targeting the ENORMOUS TRADE IMBALANCE that favors Germany.
Posts Tagged ‘euro/swiss’
Notes From Underground: Feeding the Ducks When They Quack
January 9, 2018Since the unemployment data, I have tried to write an appropriate blog but “all my words came back to me in shades of mediocrity” so I refrained from adding to the stream of vapid commentary that fills the Internet. But let’s proceed as the markets provided movement based on some sense of heightened inflation expectations. There is certainly money flowing into commodity based investments as OIL, COPPER, GOLD, and a litany of other natural resources have become a repository for money concerned with investments other than crypto currencies. The U.S. employment data was well within the range of expectations. The important average hourly earnings and the average work week were close to the consensus forecasts. The Canadian data beat estimates for the second consecutive month. The consensus was for an unemployment rate of 6% and addition of 2,000 jobs. The actual data was 5.7% unemployed and almost 80,000 new jobs, with two-thirds being part-time.
Notes From Underground: As We Await the Day of Judgement
September 10, 2015This Sunday begins the Jewish Holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which brings on a very solemn 10-day period of deep introspection as God judges the entire world for the coming year. So a very happy, healthy and prosperous year for all readers of Notes From Underground. Following the Monday and Tuesday’s days of reflection we come to the financial market’s judgement day, the Fed’s decision on interest rates. Let’s be as patient in reacting as the FED has been in raising interest rates. Will the FED act to raise rates and disregard all its fears of market turmoil? The FED has a poor history of making firm decisions in the face of creating violent market reactions. The Bernanke Fed failed miserably in an attempt to end QE, cowering in the face of the “taper tantrum.”
Notes From Underground: Intervention where is THOU STING
August 4, 2011Yesterday the Swiss National Bank surprised the markets by lowering overnight lending rates to basically ZERO–the nearby 90-Day EUROSWISS contract (Sept. 2011) traded for 2 basis points–or, 0.9998 for those keeping score. The SNB also pledged to increase sight deposits from 30 BILLION SWISS to 80 BILLION SWISS, a very aggressive liquidity add, all in an attempt to stem the rise in the FRANC. By the end of the trading day the SWISSIE recouped most of its overnight losses in an act of defiance.
Notes From Underground: Austerity, WHERE IS THOU STING?
June 29, 2011The question of the impact from the austerity budget passed by Greece will not be visible under the lights of television but will rather be a process drawn out during the coming years. Tears will flow not from the irritation of tear gas but from the “NEGATIVE FEEDBACK LOOP” that has been initiated by the power of Brussels to exact its pain from the citizenry of Greece while applying the salve of credit relief to the global banks and financial entities saddled with the debt of the profligate PIIGS.