Mediocre demand for Wednesday’s auction of $24 billion in 10-year Treasury notes probably reflects worries over rising deficit spending. In that auction, yields obviously were not attractive enough to entice aggressive buying. Ten-year yields ended the session up eight basis … Continued
What if? What if China proceeds to reduce its purchases of Treasury securities? At $1.18 trillion, it is the largest holder. Japan – at $1.08 trillion – is close second. The U.S. Treasury market is $14.2-trillion strong (chart here). On … Continued
The two major U.S. presidential candidates share at least one common interest. Both talk about the need to increase infrastructure spending. Democrat Hillary Clinton has a five-year $275-billion program. Republican Donald Trump says he would spend at least twice as … Continued
Back in the middle of December, when the Fed hiked rates for the first time in nine years, the FOMC’s dot plot optimistically forecasted four quarter-point hikes this year. On December 16th – the day the FOMC statement came out … Continued
Gold bugs should be wishing the U.S. government begins to run larger deficits. There are tons of reasons why the yellow metal has been languishing since it peaked in September 2011, but it turns out it does correlate negatively with … Continued
Last week when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met, market participants were divided as to whether or not the Fed would raise rates. Most economists expected a hike, as did the short end of the yield curve; two-year Treasury … Continued
Since China devalued its currency on August 11, there has been a lot of speculation as to if it has been selling U.S. Treasuries in order to defend the yuan. With the economy having slowed down and the Shanghai Composite … Continued
Improvement in gold’s price action in recent sessions Key will be if non-commercials begin to add to net long gold futures Looks to be bottoming, but still tentative; short GLD puts safe way to go for now Gold ($1,187.9) is … Continued