August 25th, 2014
“Michael Marcus taught me one other thing that is absolutely critical: You have to be willing to make mistakes regularly; there is nothing wrong with it. Michael taught me about making your best judgment, being wrong, making your next best judgment, being wrong, making your third best judgment, and then doubling your money.” – Bruce Kovner
1. Warren Buffett Pulls Back On Oil Company Investments — FuelFix reported Warren Buffett selling off the vast majority of his stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and dumping some of his holdings in Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) and National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV). The move looks prescient, as U.S. crude prices have dropped from ~$107/bll in mid-June to less than $94, and energy stocks went from being among the best performers on Wall Street to the middle of the pack.
2. Argentina Aims To Skirt U.S. Court, Bring Debt Under National Law — Reuters, Argentina is looking to push bondholders to swap defaulted debt for new notes, in order to dodge a U.S. ruling that prevents the government from paying creditors. last interest payment of $539M was blocked by a NY court, resulting in the country’s sovereign default on July 30.
3. Bank of America (BAC) in $16.5 Billion Deal with U.S. Gov’t Over Mortgage Bonds — Reuters, Bank of America is expected to pay around $9B in cash and provide customer relief valued at approximately $7B in a settlement with federal and state authorities over its role in mortgages leading up to the financial crisis. The record $16.5B payout is the largest in a series of increasing penalties against banks, and requires BofA (NYSE:BAC) to acknowledge the misrepresentations of the quality of MBSs of companies BofA acquired (Countrywide and Merrill Lynch).
4. Toyota To Cut Prices of Lexus Auto Parts in China Amid Anti-Trust Concerns — Toyota is now the latest automaker to cut its auto parts prices in China, reducing parts on its Lexus models by an average of 26%. In recent months, many foreign automakers have lowered price tags due to the ongoing anti-trust investigation in the country’s auto sector. Toyota’s (NYSE:TM) price cuts come just one day after China’s anti-monopoly regulator issued a $201M fine on 12 Japanese companies over price manipulation.
5. U.S. Eyes Wider Action on Islamic State — WSJ, the U.S. has indicated that it will be expanding its international campaign to combat extremists of the Islamic State, and will likely extend its fight from Iraq into neighboring Syria. The Obama administration has outlined several different fronts to combat ISIS, including continued airstrikes, support for the new Iraqi central government and influencing Persian Gulf states to halt the funding their citizens may be providing the extremist forces.
6. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen in No Rush to End Easy Money But Admits Risks — the Fed Chairwoman Yellen defended the need for extraordinary monetary policy as unprecedented dangers to the economy swirled. She acknowledged progress in the labor market and gains toward healthy inflation. Oversall, she seemed committed to leaving rates near zero for some time.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: Argentina Bankruptcy, Buffett 2Q, GM
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
August 18th, 2014
“A great trader is like a great athlete . You have to have natural skills, but you have to train yourself how to use them.” – Marty Schwartz
1. Clinical Trial to Start Soon on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Ebola Vaccine — A clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus is set to start shortly, according to British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). There is no proven cure or vaccine to prevent infection with Ebola and the scale of the current outbreak has prompted the World Health Organisation to declare it an international health emergency. Glaxo’s (NYSE:GSK) new vaccine will not be ready for widespread deployment before 2015 – even assuming it works as well as hoped.
2. US Retail Sales Flat in July, Stoke Growth Fears — Reuters, the Commerce Department said retail sales, which had increased 0.2 percent in June, were held back by a second straight month of declines in receipts at auto dealers, as well as weak sales of furniture and electronics and appliances. “Core sales”, which strip out automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, edged up 0.1 percent in July. That suggested a moderation in consumer spending early in the third quarter.
3. Chinese Home Sales Fall 10.5% As Market Weakens — Home sales in China fell 10.5% in the first seven months of the year to 2.98 trillion yuan ($484 billion), data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. To lure home buyers back to the market, around 30 local governments have loosened property restrictions such as limits on second home purchases. However, there has yet to be any meaningful pickup in sales, as home buyers stay away due to expectations of further price falls and rising inventories. Average home prices in 100 Chinese cities fell for the third straight month in July on a month over month basis, according to data tracker China Real Estate Index System.
4. Euro-Zone GDP Fails to Grow in Second Quarter — Euro-Zone GDP failed to grow in the second quarter following 12 months of weak growth, causing European equity markets to fall and increasing pressure on the ECB to do more to boost growth and inflation. The data released by the European Union’s statistics office translates into 0.2% growth in annualized terms, down from the first quarter’s 0.8% pace.
5. U.S. Energy Dept Finalizes Overhaul of Natural Gas Export Reviews — Reuters, the U.S. Energy Department has finalized a plan to revamp its process for approving liquefied natural gas exports. The biggest winners under the new approach are Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT:LNG) and Exxon’s (NYSE:XOM) Golden Pass project.
6. Coca-Cola (KO) Acquired a 16.7% Stake in Monster Beverage (MNST) as Part of a Strategic Alliance — Coke (NYSE:KO) will make a $2.15B net cash payment to Monster (NASDAQ:MNST) at the time of the deal’s closing, which is expected in late 2014 or early 2015. As part of the deal, Monster will transfer its non-energy businesses to Coke, and “enter into expanded distribution agreements.” In return, Coke will “transfer ownership of its worldwide energy business” to Monster.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
August 11th, 2014
“Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell. If you want to have a better performance than the crowd, you must do things differently from the crowd.” – Sir John Templeton
1. Portugal Spent $6.6B to Rescue Banco Espirito Santo — Portugal is splitting Banco Espirito Santo Bank into a “good bank”, to be renamed Novo Banco, and a “bad bank”, which will house Banco Espirito’s exposures to the troubled Espirito Santo business empire. The bad bank’s losses will be borne by the bank’s shareholders, including the Espirito Santo Financial Group (OTC:ESFHF), one of the holding companies of the Espirito Santo family, and Credit Agricole (OTCPK:CRARY) which owns a 14.6% stake.
2. GM Financial Says DOJ is Examining Subprime Loan Records — Bloomberg, the Dep. of Justice (DOJ) is subpoenaing GM in the midst of a resurgence in U.S. auto sales fueled partly by a subprime lending boom. The Justice Department is seeking documents on underwriting criteria, origination, warranties and securitization of subprime loans since 2007, GM Financial said in a filing last week.
3. China Suspends Work at Hundreds of Aluminium and Magnesium Factories After Deadly Blast — Reuters, China has suspended work at more than 200 aluminium and magnesium processing factories in an eastern province for safety checks as part of a nationwide review following an explosion at an auto parts plant that killed 75 people. The Zhongrong factory supplied auto parts to GM (NYSE:GM) and many other companies, and the new closure will greatly affect international supply chains.
4. Cameron LNG Project Gets Final Investment Approval-Japanese Partners — Reuters, Japanese partners in the Cameron LNG terminal say the project has secured its last investment approval by obtaining $7.4B in financing. The move brings Japan a step closer to importing significant amounts of LNG from the U.S.’s abundant supply of shale gas. The Cameron project is owned by Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE), GDF Suez (OTCPK:GDFZY), Mitsui & Co. (OTCPK:MITSY), and a joint venture between Mitsubishi Corp. (OTCPK:MSBHY) and Nippon Yusen KK (OTCPK:NPNYY).
4. World Health Organization (WHO) Declares Ebola Outbreak An International Health Emergency — The World Health Organization has declared the “extraordinary” outbreak of Ebola in West Africa an international public-health emergency. Late last week, it called for a “coordinated international response” to the outbreak, the largest ever, which has claimed 932 lives and spread from Guinea to Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone since it began in December. Ebola is known to be incurable. Currently, there are a few pharma companies working on vaccines, drugs and other treatments for Ebola. These are Tekmira (TKMR), BioCryst (BCRX) and Sarepta (SRPT).
5. U.S. military strikes ISIL artillery in Iraq — MarketWatch, The U.S. military has entered the conflict in Irag and struck an ISIL artillery that had been used against Kurdish forces defending Erbil, the Pentagon reported. Reports said two Navy F-18s dropped laser-guided missiles on the mobile artillery sites.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: Ebola
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
August 4th, 2014
“One characteristic I’ve found among successful traders is that they function effectively when they’re not trading. When markets become very quiet and range bound, they occupy themselves with a variety of activities, from sharing ideas with peers to conducting research. Traders who do not tolerate inactivity well inevitably feel the need to trade, often when there is no objective edge present. For them, losing money is less onerous than experiencing boredom.” – in Trader Feed
1. China Criticizes New U.S. Tariffs on Solar Products — NYTimes, the Commerce Department has imposed preliminary anti-dumping tariffs ranging from 26%-165% on Chinese and Taiwanese solar cell/module imports. The tariffs come on top of the anti-subsidy tariffs imposed in early June, and in spite of a WTO ruling declaring that U.S. solar tariffs violate global trade rules.
2. GM (GM) Sued Over Deaths, Injuries Linked To Ignition Switch — Reuters, GM is facing a lawsuit which was filed in a Manhattan federal court by 658 people who state they were injured or related to a victim killed in an accident due to a faulty ignition switch. The newly filed lawsuit is aimed at covering claims that are not eligible for payments under the conditions of GM’s (NYSE:GM) newly setup compensation program.
3. US Economy Grows 4% in 2Q — Gross domestic product (GDP), the value of all goods and services produced by the U.S. — grew at a 4% annual clip in the second quarter, the government reported. Newly revised figures also show that the economy contracted by a somewhat smaller 2.1% in the first quarter instead of 2.9% as previously reported.
4. PayPal Expands Credit Business — from Reuters, PayPal, a unit of Ebay (EBAY) now plans on bringing its small-business and consumer lending programs outside the U.S to Germany, Australia and the U.K. The online payment company challenges traditional lending by offering unique products which use alternative methods for approving loans, such as “sales history” with eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) or PayPal.
5. Argentine Stocks Sink Over 8% after Default and S&P Cuts it Rating to ‘Selective Default’ — Argentina’s Merval stock index (AR:MERV) fell 8.4% after it defaulted late last week. Subsequently, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut the credit rating on Argentina’s foreign currency bonds to “selective default” due to nonpayment. The downgrade will stay in place until Argentina resolves nonpayment issues.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
July 28th, 2014
“There is always a way to make money.” — Mark Tick (Veteran Trader)
1. Argentina Asks U.S. Judge to Put Debt Payment Order On Hold — Reuters, ahead of a July 30 deadline to reach a deal or face a new default, Argentina filed papers asking a New York federal judge to stay a ruling that it pay the holdout investors $1.33 billion plus interest. Argentina is stressing that if it pays the holdouts, it would open the door to further liability and additional claims. The country has just about a week to avoid a default.
2. Apple (AAPL) Readies a Big Bet on Big Screen Phones — WSJ, Apple has placed orders for 70M-80M 4.7″ and 5.5″ iPhone 6 units – a sizable increase from the 50M-60M iPhone 5S/5C units Apple initially ordered last year.
3. U.S. Sells First Condensate to Asia in at Least 40 years — Reuters, South Korea and Japan have purchased the first condensate, or ultra-light oil, from the United States since the easing of a 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports. The U.S. has recently softened a total ban on crude oil exports in place since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, allowing energy companies to export a variety of ultra-light oil if it has been minimally refined. Refined products, such as gasoline and diesel, are not restricted.
4. Banks Set to Sign $7.5 Billion Loan for U.S. Cameron LNG Project — About 30 banks are set to sign a $7.5 billion loan early next month for a U.S. shale gas project that could offer Japan imports from fracking. Japan’s three biggest lenders are among banks that will supply $5 billion to the Hackberry, Louisiana-based Cameron liquefied natural gas development. The Cameron LNG project may give Asia’s second-largest economy an alternative source for fuel after a nuclear industry shutdown following the 2011 Fukushima disaster forced it to boost energy imports, resulting in a record run of trade deficits.
5. High Yield Spreads Widen, Trend Divergence — courtesy of BIG, over the last four weeks,there have been a divergence between high yield spreads (red line) and the S&P 500 (blue line). Whereas the S&P 500 has kept rallying, high yield spreads have been widening (in the chart below spreads are shown on an inverted basis). High yield debt is far out on the risk spectrum of fixed income, so it tends to have a closer correlation to equities. Therefore, when stocks are rising, we typically see spreads on high yield debt tighten as investors have a bigger risk appetite. Conversely, when equities decline you see spreads on high yield debt normally widen as investors demand more in the way of yield to compensate for the added risk.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: High Yield Spread Divergence
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
July 21st, 2014
“The secret to being successful from a trading perspective is to have an indefatigable and an undying and unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge.” — Paul Tudor Jones
1. June Retail Sales Weaken due to Soft Auto Sales — CNBC, U.S. retail sales increased less than expected in June as receipts at automobiles dealerships surprisingly fell. The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.2 percent last month after an upwardly revised 0.5 percent advance in May. “Core sales”, which strip out automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, increased a solid 0.6 percent in June.
2. More U.S. Condensate Producers Seen Seeking to Export — Bloomberg, less than a month after Enterprise (EPD) and Pioneer (PXD) said they received approval to export processed condensate, others are seeking the same permission. Condensates are ultra-light hydrocarbons that are gaseous when extracted from oil and natural gas reservoirs. The Commerce Department confirmed that condensate, “once distilled, is no longer crude oil” and can be exported at the 2014 EIA Energy Conference in Washington last week.
3. Samsung to Join Forces with Under Armour (UA) for Wearables — a meeting was stated to have taken place between Lee Jay-yong, the heir of Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) Group, and Under Armour (NYSE:UA) CEO Kelvin Plank earlier this month discussing ways to combat Apple-Nike’s wearable device market share. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Nike (NYSE:NKE) have been connecting sports wear with smart devices since 2006.
4. BRICS Set Up Bank to Counter Western Hold on Global Finances — Reuters, Leaders of the BRICS emerging market nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, S. Africa) launched a $100 billion development bank and a currency reserve pool last week in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system. The new bank will be called the New Development Bank to hold $100 billion currency reserves pool to help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures.
5. Cumulative Net Buys of US Equities by BofAML — courtesy of Bank of America, the chart below shows Net Buys of US Equities by Institution versus Retails.
6. Twitter Acquires CardSpring To Power In-Tweet Commerce And Offers — Twitter has purchased CardSpring, an e-commerce platform that allows retailers and publishers to offer online promotions (linked to credit/debit cards) for offline goods and services. The company has also launched an analytics service that tracks the impact of its promotions on offline sales. The purchase adds to an e-commerce push that has seen Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) partner with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and reportedly explore a payments partnership with PayPal (NASDAQ:EBAY) rival Stripe.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: Institution vs Retails
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
July 14th, 2014
“Volatility is greatest at turning points, diminishing as a new trend becomes established.” – George Soros
1. ObamaCare Fiscal Cliff Bloom — funding from ObamaCare is set to plunge in 2015 for Medicaid primary care doctors, community health centers and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The money was designed to drop in the short term to make 10-year budget forecasts look better. However the chances that the GOP-controlled House will OK more funding for ObamaCare look dim, putting coverage for millions of people in jeopardy.
2. Samsung, Intel, Dell Team Up on Standards for Connected Gadgets (Internet of Things) — Reuters, Samsung Electronics, Intel Corp and Dell have joined to establish standard ways for household gadgets like thermostats and light bulbs to talk to each other. This new framework is at odds with another framework backed by Qualcomm, LG Electronics and other companies. The new Open Interconnect Consortium, like the Qualcomm-supported AllSeen Alliance, aims to establish how smart devices work together in a trend increasingly called the Internet of Things.
3. Argentina To Meet Again with Debt Mediator — Reuters, Argentina said it would meet with a mediator for the second time this past week in the country’s dispute with “holdout” investors to avoid another painful debt default by July 30 .
4. Apple (AAPL) Patents A Way To Make All-Glass iPhones, iPads, Monitors And TVs — Apple has patented a method for building devices with all-glass outer casings (via AppleInsider), by fusing pieces together for a completely seamless final look. One of the biggest challenges with the new design is to make it both lightweight and durable. A leaked video showed Apple’s (AAPL) newest glass creation – the virtually indestructible sapphire glass screen of the iPhone 6.
5. Fed Plans to End Bond Purchases in October 2014 — MarketWatch, according to the new plan, the Fed will make a $15 billion final reduction at its October meeting, after trimming it by $10 billion at each meeting up to that point. Most Fed officials said that the exact end of the tapering issue will have no bearing on the timing of the first rate hike. The Fed has said that rates would remain near zero for a “considerable time” after the Fed halts its program of bond purchases.
6. Major Oil pipeline of 1,100-mile Across Iowa Proposed by Energy Transfer Partners — Desmoines Register, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), energy company is hoping to build an 1,100-mile underground pipeline to transport a highly volatile type of crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields through 17 Iowa counties en route to Illinois. The pipeline would carry at least 320,000 barrels of crude daily by 2016. The project still faces approval from Iowa regulators and from regulatory agencies in other states, but Iowa environmental groups say they were caught off guard by Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) plans.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
a href=”http://s317550275.onlinehome.us/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/econ_july192014.png”>
Tags: EPD Oil Pipeline, Internet of Things
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
July 7th, 2014
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
1. Argentina Enter a State of ‘Technical Default’ — the $832M payment given to holders of the country’s restructured bonds was declared illegal late past week. The showdown continues as the New York judge presiding over the case insists the holdout creditors must be paid $1.5B before any other payments can be made. Argentina will still have a 30-day grace period until it enters a formal default.
2. S&P Places Argentina’s CCC-/C Foreign Currency Ratings on Watch — Reuters, Standard & Poor’s placed Argentina’s ‘CCC-/C’ unsolicited long- and short-term foreign currency ratings on “CreditWatch” with negative implications, citing likelihood of a default in interest payments. S&P stated “The CreditWatch placement reflects our view of at least a one-in-two probability that Argentina will not pay the outstanding $539 million interest payment on the discount bonds within the 30-day grace period,”.
3. First Half Asset Class Performance — courtesy of BIG, below is a quick recap of asset class performance in the first half of 2014 using various ETFs traded on US exchanges.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: Indexes New High
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
July 1st, 2014
“Beware when investing turns into speculating” — Buffett
1. Latest April Data Show Home-Price Growth Has Turned — MarketWatch, home prices rose in April as the spring selling season got underway, even as annual growth skidded, dropping to the slowest year-over-year pace in 13 months, according to the latest data .
2. E-cigarettes Could Stub Out Tobacco Bonds Sooner Than Thought — Reuters, the rapid growth of electronic cigarette sales poses a rising but under-appreciated risk to holders of as much as $96 billion of bonds tied to payments tobacco companies make to U.S. states from a sweeping legal settlement in 1998. Tobacco bonds were already forecast by many analysts to begin defaulting within the next 10 years as Americans have given up smoking at a faster rate than estimated when most of the bonds were sold in the previous decade.
3. U.S. Growth Contracted 2.9% in First Quarter — MarketWatch, according to the newly revised government figures, the U.S. economy contracted by 2.9% in the first quarter, marking the biggest drop since early 2009 when the Great Recession was winding down. In the first quarter, Americans spent less than originally assumed, mainly on health care. A bigger drop in U.S. exports, higher imports and a smaller buildup in inventories also contributed to the steeper decline in gross domestic product.
4. U.S. Set To Allow First Shipments of Unrefined Oil Overseas — Federal officials have told two energy companies that they can legally export a kind of ultra-light oil that has become plentiful as drillers tap shale formations across the U.S. With relatively minimal processing, oil shipments could begin as early as August. The two companies are Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) of Irving, Texas, and Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) of Houston .
5. NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Announced a Civil Lawsuit Condemning Barclays Plc (BCS) Dark Pool Unit — the allegations against Barclays (BCS) say that it dramatically increased the market share of its dark pool through a series of false statements to clients and investors about how, and for whose benefit, Barclays operates its dark pool. Dark pools are private trading platforms that allow for block trades and are designed to allow firms to make anonymous trades without disclosing their hands.
6. Argentina Deposited $832M Towards Its Restructured Debt — despite a New York federal court order prohibiting Argentina from paying its restructured debt before its holdout investors, Argentina deposited $832M toward restructured debt ahead of 6/30/2014 deadline. The ruling prevents third party agents from distributing the funds unless the holdout investors are included on the payments.
7. Latest AAII Bullish Sentiment — courtesy of BIG, According to the weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), bullish sentiment ticked up from 35.17% to 37.22% for an increase of just over two percentage points. As bullish sentiment picked up, bearish sentiment saw a modest decline falling from 24.13% down to 21.09%. Even after this week’s increase, though, AAII’s bullish sentiment reading remains below its bull market average of 38.4%.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »
June 23rd, 2014
“Success if getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” — Dale Carnegie
1. China Surpasses U.S. as Largest Corporate Debt Issuer — NYTimes, China has overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest issuer of corporate debt, despite worsening cash flow at Chinese companies since the financial crisis, according to a latest report Standard & Poor’s.
Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, found that China’s nonfinancial companies had total outstanding bank loans and bonds worth $14.2 trillion at the end of last year, compared with $13.1 trillion in the United States. S.&P. estimated that one-quarter to one-third of China’s corporate debt is sourced from the country’s shadow banking sector, a murky world of nonbank lending that caters to borrowers who would otherwise struggle to secure financing.
2. Argentina May Faces Fresh Default — FT, FT reported that Argentinian sovereign default have been raised after President Cristina Fernandez said the country cannot pay the $1.5B it owes to a group mostly consisting of hedge funds by June 30. The statement follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that orders the country to repay its holdout investors before restructuring its debt. Also, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its long-term foreign currency rating on Argentina to “CCC-” from “CCC+”, citing a higher risk of default on the country’s foreign currency debt.
3. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cuts US growth from 2.8% to 2.0% — the IMF has reduced its 2014 U.S economic growth forecast to 2% from the 2.8% it predicted in April, due to a weak first quarter, although the fund has maintained its 3% growth outlook for 2015. Markets are predicting the Fed to start raising rates in the middle of next year, although the IMF related that it is not certain about the expected increase. Rates have been near zero since late 2008.
4. PayPal Expanding Into 10 New Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America — Ebay expansion brings the total amount of territories PayPal serves to 203. Customers that have web access and a bank card authorized for Internet transactions in the new regions will now be able to sign up for accounts. PayPal (EBAY) reported revenue of $1.8B for the first quarter of 2014, and 148M active accounts worldwide.
5. June 2014 FOMC Meeting — Fed officials stated that that starting next year interest rates would rise from zero faster than previously expected. The Fed cut purchases by another $10 billion, to $35 billion, keeping it on pace to stop the program late this year.
6. NATO Says Russian Troops Massing Again Near Ukraine Border — WSJ, NATO has announced that Russia has begun increasing troops again on its border with Ukraine. Threats of new Western sanctions have been voiced, but while the U.S. can institute them at any time, the EU will have to wait until a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on June 26-27.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Posted in Weekly Summary | No Comments »