Are Europe's Monetary and Stimulus Makeovers Attractive Alternatives to U.S. Equity Markets?
View from the Hill, 30 November 2014
by J. Clinton Hill
This week OPEC decided to leave production quotas unchanged at 30 million bbl//day and gave American consumers plenty to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. Either OPEC has ceded its ability to stabilize energy prices or it has thrown down the gauntlet to U.S. shale and other major international producers.
Broad Wall Street Decilne Led by Commodities and Apple
Closing Market Commentary For 01 December 2014
Gary is off , and the market close comes from our syndication partner Investing.com.
U.S. stocks fell at the open on Monday and continued in a broad decline, with the
S&P 500 suffering its biggest one-day drop in more than a month. Economic data indicated weakness across the globe and the holiday shopping season got off to a tepid start.
What We Read Today 01 December 2014
Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary "reading list" which will include very brief summaries (and sometimes longer ones) of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for "reading list" items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.
- At current prices Bakken and Permian Basin are in the red (Walter Kurtz, Sober Look) The sharp price drop for oil following the OPEC decision not to reduce production has put the price of oil below the production cost for two of America's largest oil fields.
What You Need to Know about Investment in China in 8 Charts
Written by John Lounsbury
Jamil Anderlini, writing in the Financial Times, brought our attention to some Chinese government research about the debt in China and how it has been used for investment in that country. See China has 'wasted' $6.8tn in investment, warn Beijing researchers. Looking deeper into the subject, including looking at the paper Anderlini reported on (Inefficient and ineffective investment causing a huge waste by Xu Ce and Wang Yuan, Shanghai Securities News - in Chinese), we think the question of waste is more nuanced than the $6.8 trillion figure quoted would indicate.
Click for full and larger image by Reuters at the Financial Times.
Read more >>
5 Ways to Ask for a Raise or a Promotion
Asking your employer for a promotion or a raise can be a daunting. The Street has come up with a 5-point strategy to make sure you are pitch perfect when it comes to crunch time.
November 2014 ISM Manufacturing Survey Declines Insignificantly. Expansion Continues
Written by Steven Hansen
The ISM Manufacturing survey continues to indicate manufacturing
growth expansion with an insignificant decrease in the rate of growth. This survey should be considered good news as it reconfirms a rather strong report last month. Key internals improved.
Read more >>
A Word from This Newsletter's Sponsor
Sick of Wall Street?
5 opportunities to take back control of your finances. Master these and you might never worry about what Wall Streets cronies... Or what they are doing with your money... Ever again.
Click here to learn more.
Market Commentary: Lower Open on Soft Global Data
Opening Market Commentary For 01 December 2014
Gary is off , and the market open comes from our syndication partner Investing.com.
U.S. stocks fell at the open on Monday as manufacturing growth across Asia and Europe eased in November, while retailers could be pressured as Thanksgiving weekend in-store sales failed to impress.
A Divided View for Blogger Sentiment in December 2014
Econintersect: The latest Blogger Sentiment Poll released 01 December 2014 byTicker Sense shows bloggers are divided in their view of the markets.
This blogger poll is noisy.
What Do Banks Do with All that "Fracking" Money?
by Matthew Plosser - Liberty Street Economics, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
[First in a two-part series] - Banks play a crucial role in the economy by channeling funds from savers to borrowers. The ability of banks to accomplish this intermediation has become an important element in understanding the causes and consequences of business cycles. In a recent staff report, I investigate how a positive deposit windfall translates into investments by banks. This post, the first of two, shows how the development of new energy resources has led to deposit inflows to banks and how that can be used to estimate banks' investment decisions over the recent business cycle. The second post will look at factors that might explain the business cycle patterns observed below.
How Internet Users Adapted After Snowden Revelations
from Felix Richter, Statista.com
by Saskia Rolf
It's been more than a year since the world was shaken up by the revelations about the degree of online surveillance carried out by the NSA.
Gross Versus Gundlach: Who Has More Skill?
by Robert Huebscher, AdvisorPerspectives.com
Mankind has landed a spacecraft on a comet 300 million miles away. Yet, after decades of academic research, the challenge of distinguishing skill from luck among actively managed mutual funds has remained largely unsolved.
Fall in Oil Prices - The Domino Effect on the Stock Exchanges and the Economy Will Not Be Far Behind
by LEAP/Europe 2020, Leap2020.eu
The current fall in oil prices squarely caused by this strategy of despair is in the process of smashing the oil/gas industry. The Ukrainian crisis, far from allowing the West to get its hands on Russia, is in the process of forcing it to rethink its dependence on Europe as a customer for its gas (71).
Earnings and Economic Reports: Week Starting 01 December
Written by Merlin Rothfeld, Online Trading Academy
Econintersect: Here is a day-by-day rundown of the global economic calendar events for the coming week and the important earnings announcements each day, as well.
Video presentation follows the Read more >> jump.
Merlin Rothfeld
Longer Unemployment Benefits Often Mean Longer Unemployment Spells, And That is Not Always a Bad Thing
by Tim Sablik - Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
As unemployment surged during the 2007-2009 recession, individuals who lost jobs turned to unemployment insurance (UI) for support. In normal times, states provide up to 26 weeks of UI benefits funded by a tax on employers. On average, these benefits replace about half of a worker's previous weekly wages. Since the 1970s, states and the federal government have also shared the cost of providing an additional 13 or 20 weeks of benefits to states with exceptionally high unemployment.
Infographic of the Day: Chest Pain Medical Causes
Have you experienced chest pain before?
A Deep Look at Asian Poverty
by John West, Asian Century Institute
Asian lives have improved immensely these past few decades. But poverty in its many monetary and non-monetary forms, as well as vulnerability and insecurity, remain endemic in Asia.
Insider Trading 28 November 2014: Twitter, Goldman Sachs Selling
by Asif Suria
Insider buying decreased last week with insiders buying $59.33 million of stock compared to $68.12 million in the week prior. Selling increased a little with insiders selling $1.73 billion of stock last week compared to $1.69 billion in the week prior.
Sell/Buy Ratio: The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week went up to 29.22. In other words, insiders sold more than 29 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares unfavorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 24.94.
Robot Submarine Looks Under Antarctic to Find Out Why Sea Ice is Getting Thicker
by Edward Hanna, The Conversation
For several years now climatologists have puzzled over an apparent conundrum: why is Antarctic sea ice continuing to expand, albeit at the relatively slow rate of about one to two percent per decade, while Arctic sea ice has been declining rapidly (by some 13% per decade in late summer)?
Modern Slavery Is a Sad Reality in These Countries
by Felix Richter, Statista.com
According to a recent report published by the Walk Free Foundation, 35.8 million people are trapped in modern slavery.
