It was Oracle time on Capitol Hill today.
"As long as we continue to see improvement in the labor market and we believe the outlook is for continued progress, and as long as we continue to believe and see evidence that inflation will move back up over time to our 2 percent longer-run objective, we anticipate continuing to reduce the pace of our asset purchases in measured steps,'' Fed Chair Janet Yellen told the Congressional committee.
She warned about the weakness in housing but tossed out the old comfort blanket, saying the economy was on track and should show decent growth in 2Q.
One could call it fence sitting, straddling or plain old gridlock. Wait, watch and plan. We could be mistaken, but sounds like a plan right out of this administration's foreign policy playbook.
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"It's not terrible, but it's not great...We're in somewhat of a soft cycle, but I'm getting a sense that we're just crawling out it" Disney CEO Bob Inger told the media yesterday. Disney posted adjusted earnings of $1.11 a share, beating the 96 cent average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. A year ago, Disney reported adjusted earnings of 79 cents a share.
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The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in 10-year notes at a high yield of 2.612 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.63.
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CNBC has a piece today about the declining dollar http://www.cnbc.com/id/101650260 and why everyone got it wrong. The dollar isn't the only thing the experts got wrong so far this year. They missed on energy, utilities and bonds. One could postulate that utilities and bonds are somewhat from the same camp and in a way there are. But if a kiss is just a kiss and sigh just a sigh, then what do you call a miss.?
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Hedge funds don't just short a stock and keep the proceeds from the short sale in cash...Hedge funds receive cash when they short sell a stock and they use that cash to initiate long positions. They generate alpha on the short side of their trade if the short stock......more
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/jonathan-burton-birinyi-associates-wrong-321279/
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After weeks of tension Putin pulled Russian troops off the Ukrainian border and urged a delay in the scheduled May 11 election. The move sent the ruble soaring and the Micex Index enjoyed its largest upward move since mid-March.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-07/russian-bonds-climb-as-fresh-talks-call-attracts-bargain-hunters.html
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Is there a spike in the wind for natural gas? Some think so after the much anticipated Short Term Energy Outlook from the Energy Information Administration noted the need to rebuild inventories after the long, hard winter.
http://www.futuresmag.com/2014/05/07/natural-gas-market-ready-for-spike
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