Why the Gaetz Withdrawal Sparked Yesterday’s Rally

What’s in Today’s Report: Why the Gaetz Withdrawal Sparked Yesterday’s Rally

Greek Election Update: Is The EU Preparing for a Grexit?

Greek Election Update (Originally Released 12.29.14) The biggest event of this holiday week has already come and gone, as the Greek Parliament failed to elect a President and there will not be general elections in early February. PM Samara’s gamble has failed, and as of this writing the Athens stock market is down 11% and […]

Financial Newsletter: Stock Market Closes Higher, Energy Stocks Underperform

Equities (originally released to subscribers on 12/23/2014) Market Recap Stocks drifted higher to start the week yesterday, modestly extending last week’s gains despite declines in energy stocks. The S&P 500 added 0.38%. Futures were higher before the open yesterday as they rallied in sympathy with global shares, which were broadly higher on ECB stimulus hopes […]

Short Squeeze in Gold Stalls at Trend Resistance

Gold futures have been very volatile to start the week thanks to multiple catalysts in the market. Futures initially fell yesterday as Swiss voters rejected a proposal to increase the central bank’s gold holdings. But then news broke that India, one of the world’s largest gold consumers, lifted trade restrictions on gold imports, causing futures to reverse […]

Global Flash PMI Analysis

Global November Flash Manufacturing PMIs Chinese PMI 50.0 vs. (E) 50.2. German PMI 50.0 vs. (E) 51.5. EMU PMI 51.3 vs. 50.9. US PMI: 54.7 vs. 56.5. Takeaway The biggest disappointment in the data was the German PMI, which very surprisingly plunged to 50.0. This was the biggest negative of all the reports, although the […]

Time to Buy XLE?

Time to Buy XLE? Fundamentally, the outlook for oil remains broadly the same: Waiting on OPEC. But, as we discussed earlier this week, most major energy companies are not aggressively shutting in aggregate production, as increases from profitable wells are offsetting shut-ins from high-cost wells. From a macro standpoint, pressure is mounting on OPEC, the […]

Housing Starts Data Better than Headline Suggests in October 2014

Housing Starts October Housing Starts were 1.009M (saar) vs. (E) 1.028M (saar). Takeaway The housing starts number was a miss on the headline but the details were actually good. As always with housing starts, the two key numbers are single family housing starts and single family building permits (which led starts by 3-6 months). Single […]