US & Canada Archives - Page 82 of 183

August 22, 2014

Bank Watch: US Tsy’s OFR Finds Risk Weighting Has No Clothes | MNI

Denny Gulino writes on recent research commissioned by Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research (“OFR”) to investigate the validity of using risk-weightings to determine bank capital requirements:

On risk weighting, OFR commissioned researchers Paul Glasserman at Columbia University and Wanmo Kang of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to examine the subject from the ground up. As much as the practice has been incorporated in regulatory parlance, they were able to find very little other research on the validity of the weighting methodology.

“Risk weights implicitly assign prices in terms of additional capital to asset categories and thus inevitably create incentives for banks to choose some assets over others,” they wrote.

“Surprisingly,” they went on, “the ideal risk weights turn out to have little to do with risk and are instead proportional to the profitability on each asset.”

August 22, 2014

Paul Krugman: Hawks Crying Wolf | NYTimes.com

According to a recent report in The Times, there is dissent at the Fed: “An increasingly vocal minority of Federal Reserve officials want the central bank to retreat more quickly” from its easy-money policies, which they warn run the risk of causing inflation…

…The Times article singles out for special mention Charles Plosser of the Philadelphia Fed, who is, indeed, warning about inflation risks. But you should know that he warned about the danger of rising inflation in 2008. He warned about it in 2009. He did the same in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. He was wrong each time, but, undaunted, he’s now doing it again…

August 21, 2014

Barack Obama: Foreign policy realist?

Harvard professor, Stephen M Walt says Barack Obama isn’t weak and waffling — he’s calculating, coldhearted, and decisive when it counts:

….One can even see elements of this approach in Obama’s handling of China. He has repeatedly emphasized Asia’s importance to the United States, and the much-publicized “rebalancing” was obviously intended to signal to America’s Asian partners that it wasn’t abandoning the region. Obama reinforced these themes during his visit to Asia in April, but the administration has implemented this policy at a measured pace, content to let China’s growing assertiveness do the work for us. Overreacting would alarm the local powers and let them continue to free-ride, while speaking softly makes present and future allies more eager for help and more willing to do what America wants to get it.

The common thread to these various responses is an appreciation not just of the limits of U.S. power, but also of the limited need to exercise it. “Limited” does not mean zero, which is why sensible people oppose a return to 19th-century-style isolationism. But this approach recognizes that the overwhelming majority of problems in the world do not threaten the United States directly and therefore do not require an immediate, forceful, and potentially costly U.S. response.

As Andrew Sullivan likes to say, Obama’s greatest political genius has been his Road Runner-like ability to let enemies beat themselves.

August 21, 2014

The Stock Market’s Missing Ingredient | Bloomberg View

Barry Ritholz discusses why military conflicts around the globe and civil strife in Ferguson, Missouri have little impact on market performance:

….None of this seems to matter to Mr. Market. He continues to power on, oblivious to issues that don’t affect corporate earnings. They have, by the way, been stellar, growing at a 9 percent annual rate. Meanwhile, interest rates are still low and inflation is subdued.

Rarely have conditions for market gains been so promising at a time when investor psychology has been so negative. Gallup reports that only 7 percent of those surveyed were aware of last year’s scorching [29.7%] gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

via The Stock Market's Missing Ingredient – Bloomberg View.

August 19, 2014

Dow heading for 17000

Dow Jones Industrial Average is headed for another test of 17000/17100 after finding support at 16400/16500. Recovery of 13-week Twiggs Money Flow above its July high would indicate that buyers are back in control. Breakout above 17100 would offer a target of 17500*. Reversal below 16400 is unlikely, but would warn of a test of the primary trendline at 16000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

* Target calculation: 16500 + ( 16500 – 15500 ) = 17500

The S&P 500 followed through above Friday’s high of 1965, suggesting another attempt at 2000. Completion of a trough above zero on 21-day Twiggs Money Flow would confirm buying pressure. Breakout above 2000 would offer a target of 2250*, but expect markets to remain cautious because of current geopolitical tensions. Reversal below 1950 is unlikely, but would warn of another test of support at 1900.

S&P 500

* Target calculation: 1500 + ( 1500 – 750 ) = 2250

Low CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) readings are typical of a bull market.

VIX Index

August 18, 2014

Under What Circumstances Should You Worry That the Stock Market Is “too High”? | Brad DeLong

Brad DeLong discusses Robert Shiller’s CAPE ratio, a stock-price measure he helped develop:

….on average, at a ten-year horizon, for any CAPE ratio below 35 the S&P has delivered average real asset returns pretty much outclassing all other major asset classes…..

Thus you can see why I am relatively unsatisfied with Shiller’s writing:

“In the last century, the CAPE has fluctuated greatly, yet it has consistently reverted to its historical mean–sometimes taking a while to do so….”

Shiller’s rhetoric leads us to focus on graphs like this one of the Campbell-Shiller CAPE, and to think that what goes up must–someday–come down:

But is there any reason to think that the central tendency of the CAPE today is the same as what it was in the 1880s or the 1950s? There is no unchanging machine buried in the earth for the past 120 years throwing dice to determine the CAPE. It would be much better to say that extreme values of the CAPE are followed by reversion not to but toward the previous historical mean. And dividends and earnings shift too. A much better graph than the CAPE graph is the cumulative reinvested return graph [on a log scale]:

It goes way up, and way down, but the dominant feature is not mean reversion but rather exponential growth…..

August 17, 2014

The Joseph Cycle: 7 Fat years and 7 lean years

George Dorgan writes:

Since both the positive and the negative phases of a financial cycles take around seven years, financial cycles are sometimes called “Joseph cycle“, from the biblical prophet Joseph that speaks of seven good and seven bad years. The financial cycle connected to expectations about real estate prices, is also called credit cycle…..After the bust of dot com bubble in 2001, the Fed lowered interest rates. Credit was easily available and private debt strongly increased. Government debt remained relatively stable.

Only in few countries like Germany, Japan or Switzerland people were far more cautious, because they had seen a real estate bubble bust in the 1990s. The leveraging phase finally ended in 2011, in China and in some other emerging markets…..

We think that the reduction of debt will continue to be the main driver of global economies during the next Joseph cycle, in the next seven years. After the US lowered debt levels until 2011/2012 it is now time for Europe except Germany and Switzerland and Emerging Markets….

August 17, 2014

GOLDMAN: Here’s The Simple Reason We’re Probably Not About To Have Another Huge Crash | Business Insider

From Joe Weisenthal:

Historical analysis of past big busts done by top economist Jan Hatzius and Sven Jari Stehn shows that while there is growing risk of a stock market drop because of the big rally we’re missing one of the key preconditions needed for a true bust: high credit growth.

They write: “[C]redit growth is the most important predictor of house price busts, especially when we focus on busts that involve a recession. House price busts have also tended to follow periods of high inflation, high equity volatility and large current account deficits, although all of these effects become less pronounced when we focus on recessionary busts….”

via GOLDMAN: Here's The Simple Reason We're Probably Not About To Have Another Huge Crash | Business Insider.

August 17, 2014

SHILLER: The Market Is At One Of Its Most Expensive Levels Of All Time…| Business Insider

Joe Weisenthal on Yale Professor Robert Shiller’s CAPE pricing model:

So while it’s true that the market is very expensive right now, based on his measure, [Shiller] notes that it’s difficult to use this information to actually time the market. Just because it’s expensive, doesn’t mean it will go down. Furthermore, the market has been expensive based on his measure for the past 20 years excluding the period of the recent crash, which raises the question of whether there’s been some fundamental change to the economy or markets that would warrant higher valuations.

August 15, 2014

S&P 500 recovers but Europe remains weak

Europe continues to test support.
S&P 500 recovers.
VIX continues to indicate a bull market.
China bullish.
ASX 200 recovers.

Dow Jones Europe Index continues to test its primary trendline and support at 315/325. 13-Week Twiggs Momentum below zero warns of a primary down-trend. Breach of primary support at 315 would confirm.

Dow Jones Europe Index

The S&P 500 recovered above 1950, suggesting another test of resistance at 2000. Recovery of 13-week Twiggs Money Flow above its July high would suggest that buyers have taken control. Reversal below 1900 is unlikely, but would warn that the primary trend is slowing.

S&P 500

* Target calculation: 1500 + ( 1500 – 750 ) = 2250

CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) remains low, suggesting a bull market.

S&P 500 VIX

Dow Jones Shanghai Index is testing resistance at 295. Breakout would confirm a primary up-trend. Respect of resistance, however, would indicate further consolidation.

Dow Jones Shanghai Index

ASX 200 recovery above 5550 also suggests another advance. Respect of zero by 13-week Twiggs Money Flow would strengthen the signal. Reversal below 5450 is unlikely, but would warn of another test of primary support.

ASX 200

* Target calculation: 5400 + ( 5400 – 5000 ) = 5800