Looking back to last week, as we expected the market was unable to maintain the upward momentum it experienced the week prior. This was due to weaker than expected data from the consumer sector and financial related news. The Dow and S&P500 ended the week down 1.17% and 1.08%, respectively, and we could have more […]
Archive:
March 2008
I was looking at an interesting article on Seeking Alpha regarding short interest. I decided to extend the analysis slightly and calculate the Short Interest Ratios for the top 100 NYSE stocks. Unfortunately, the NYSE charges for the entire time series so I was only able to use the data from the most recent release. […]
Consumers around the world are being indirectly taxed through record high gas prices. This of course hurts consumers’ pockets and can raise inflation fears. We wanted to take a look at the crack spread between WTI crude prices and US petroleum prices as measured by the Energy Information Agency. We outline the results below. The […]
As I expected the Fed cut rates by 75bp. However, we did see Governor Plosser and Fisher dissent on the decision, both wanting smaller cuts. This is interesting news because I now believe we may be closer to the end of the current rate cut cycle than I originally thought. This may be good news […]
As we expected the opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou has won the Taiwanese Presidential elections. As we outlined in the entry below this should bode well for Taiwan’s economic outlook.
As I mentioned in my January 30th post, I believe that the ‘ China friendly’ Kuomintang party, after their sweeping victory in the legislative elections, will win the Presidential elections. Once this occurs it is likely that we will see the new leadership attempt to open direct ties with China allowing tourists, and more importantly […]
*FX data updated on March 27th 2008 Policy makers in China have not only continued their anti-inflationary rhetoric, but have started acting on it. We have seen the RMB reach several new highs verse the USD in recent days (7.01). Additionally, Chinese authorities have increased reserve requirements for the second time this year by 50bp […]
As we expected the Fed cut the fed funds rate by 75bps, and made an equivalent move in the discount rate. What is interesting is that the Fed had two dissenters to the vote, Governor Plosser from Philly and Governor Fisher from Dallas, both wanted a smaller cut. Plosser is a well known hawk on […]
Despite the news from Bear Stearns and a weak retail sales report, the Dow actually ended the week up 0.48%. Nonetheless, there isn’t much else to boast about; the NASDAQ ended unchanged while the S&P500 lost 0.40%. However, the CPI release surprised the market by coming in well below expectations and showing no increase for […]
Energy prices are showing absolutely no signs of abating; those peak oil theorists may be on to something (at least in the short-run). We just don’t see oil prices coming down significantly without a considerable reduction in demand; through improved fuel efficiency or a considerable economic slowdown. Now that we have settled that, we want […]