In a global survey of 200 institutional money managers, the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch found that the pros are worried about the stock market and are buying protection against a crash. They are worried about geo-political events and about interest … Continued
We so often hear or read that stocks climb a wall of worry. Anytime the balance tilts one way, odds grow that it then tilts the other way. Short interest can serve as an example. If too many market participants … Continued
What is going on in the jobs market the past several months is reviving hopes that better days are ahead. There is a lot we can point to in order to validate how anemic the recovery has been post-Great Recession. … Continued
The rally the past couple of sessions, is it an oversold bounce or is there more to it than meets the eye? Particularly on Monday, money did come out of defensives such as utilities and health care, and into offensives … Continued
Non-commercials further added to net shorts in euro futures. They are now net short 129k contracts – a two-year high. In recent weeks these large speculators have been adding more shorts than cutting longs. Since early June, they cut longs … Continued
There is a lot of chatter these days around imminent asset purchases by the ECB. Speaking to the press post-Governing Council meeting yesterday, ECB President Mario Draghi hinted as much, saying policy makers are unanimous in their willingness to use … Continued
Following up with the piece yesterday, the adjacent chart offers some interesting insight into the direction the FXI might take in the days and weeks ahead. The Chicago Board of Exchange applies its VIX methodology to create indexes reflecting expected … Continued
Chinese stocks have been on fire! From an intra-day low of 36.62 on June 24, FXI (iShares Trust FTSE-Xinhua China 25 Index Fund) shot up nearly 13 percent to 41.30 in a little over a month (by July 29, to … Continued
How equity traders are likely to position themselves for at least the next week or so will depend on how they answer the question above. As the accompanying chart shows, going back at least two and a half years, a … Continued
One consistent theme the last several weeks on this blog has been that of divergence. In a healthy market, things tend to – or are supposed to – move in unison. Simplistically, let us say a widget is in production. … Continued