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
A month ago, KBE, the SPDR S&P Bank ETF, looked on the verge of a breakout (more here). Here we are, one month later, the ETF has indeed broken out. It has the potential to be a major breakout, as … Continued
U.S. retail sales disappoint again – has not grown four out of last five months Not much correlation between gasoline price and personal consumption expenditures RTH, which had diverged from weakening retail sales, has been weakening past seven weeks U.S. … Continued
U.S. non-farm job openings fell 150k to 4.99 million in March, as per the JOLTS survey out this morning. This was the biggest month-over-month drop since last September, when openings shrank by 247k (Chart 1). This is one month’s data, … Continued
U.S. oil-and-extraction jobs continued to drip lower, down 7.1k from the October 2014 high of 201.5k (down 3.5 percent by April). The curve is much steeper in support jobs, having lost 21.1k jobs from the September 2014 peak of 337.6k … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 5, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: It was a weird week. That is an understatement. Up until Wednesday, 10-year yields were up 20 basis points. Treasurys on the long … Continued
U.S. wages stuck in mud, more so for supervised employees than for supervisory ECI for private sector has been trending higher since 1Q14; sustainable? Productivity crucial for employers’ ability to absorb wage hikes If there is one consistency in the … Continued
Turns out the March drop in energy job-cut announcements was not the beginning of a trend. After 20.2k and 16.3k cuts in January and February respectively, March dropped to a mere 1.3k, raising hopes that the worst was over. Job … Continued