Why wouldn’t it be?
The European Central Bank (ECB) is by far the biggest holder of European bonds and the biggest (possibly the only) buyer of the weaker Eurozone (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece) countries debt.
Bond yields are being held artificially low by the buying programme. Continue reading “The ECB balance sheet is now over 4.5 trillion Euros, some 45% of Eurozone GDP”
How often do analysts get the markets wrong? How often to fund managers get stock picks wrong? They get things wrong far more often then they get it right.
2017 was probably the worst year for hedge funds. And the start of 2018 isn’t turning out to be any better.
The problem probably lies with everyone focussing on the business cycle rather than the structural factors driving the markets. Continue reading “Markets should ignore cyclical factors and focus at the structural factors instead”
1. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is up 34% over the past year.
2. Tencent Holdings (the owner of WeChat – the WhatsApp equivalent in China and several other things) is up 116% over the last year. It is currently worth over $550 billion and is most valuable social media company (bigger than Facebook).
3. Ping An Insurance (Ping An Insurance Group Company of China Ltd) is now the world’s largest and most valuable insurance company. Its stock is up 110% over the year. Continue reading “Here are some interesting things you may have missed in the equity, commodity, currency and bond markets”
Greece (Moody’s Credit Rating: Caa2) is now paying 83 bps lower interest on 2-year bonds than the US (Moody’s Credit Rating: Aaa). Is the US now truly the exception? Continue reading “US 10-year bond yield hits a 4-year high, is the US now an exception?”
At the outset, here are the countries whose Central Banks have zero or negative interest rates, Continue reading “How do Central Banks with zero or negative interest rates spend their money?”
Most major stock indices have recently hit all time highs. Many of the 2018 year end S & P 500 targets were hit in just 15 trading days. Continue reading “Real reasons why stock markets are soaring”
As the 45th President of the United States of America completes his first year in office here is how equities, currencies, bonds and commodities performed in his first year of the Presidency, Continue reading “USA equities, currencies, bonds and commodities performance in the first year of the 45th President”