U.S. existing-home sales fell 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in April. March, however, was revised higher to 5.21 million from the previous 5.19 million. Depending on how one looks at it, there is both … Continued
U.S. financials continue to send conflicting signals. As important a sector as this one is, what happens next probably will hold clues to a whole host of things, ranging from what lies ahead for the U.S. economy to where interest … Continued
S&P 500 retraces 161.8 percent Fib extension of Oct 07-Mar 09 decline Transports not in sync with Dow/S&P 500, having broken several support levels Having spent lots of buying power of late, SPX shows signs of fatigue; pullback odds rising … Continued
U.S. corporate share buybacks in full swing; debt issuance on track for yet another record year Despite surge in issuance and rising share of high-yield debt, there is silver lining in cloud Corporations have been extending maturity as well as … Continued
It is an understatement to say that trading in Treasury bonds was volatile last week – just check out the action on various yields. From intra-day low to high, the 10-year yield swung 20 basis points, but closed out the … Continued
Phew! U.S. housing starts snap back in April, rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.135 million. This is the most since November 2007, when starts were 1.197 million. Month-over-month, they were up 20.2 percent in April. This is … Continued
Not much has changed fundamentally since Twitter (TWTR) was last discussed. That was Monday last week (prior lengthy discussion here). Except President Obama has his own Twitter account now. In the past week, earnings estimates for the second and third … Continued
The saga of listless velocity of money continues in the U.S. The M2 money supply (seasonally adjusted) stood at $11.9 trillion in April, up from $8.4 trillion in June 2009 – an increase of $3.5 trillion. Between 2Q09 and 1Q15, … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 12, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: If we just focus on weekly closing prices, the 10-year yield had a lackluster week – essentially flat. Nothing could be further from … Continued
The U.S. economy continues to churn out mixed messages. The retail sales number on Wednesday was an outright dud. Sales in April were flat month-over-month, against expectations for a 0.2-percent gain. With that, sales are now down to flat in … Continued