TANTRUMS WITHOUT TAPER What happened to keeping borrowing costs in check? All of a sudden, central banks are grappling with rising bond yields that could threaten recovery prospects. February is ending with some of the biggest bond moves in years, even [...]
YIELD JOLT Higher U.S. Treasury yields have so far done little more than jolt equity markets off record highs.That will change if “real” yields -- adjusted for inflation -- take off.It was last year’s real yield plunge which sent cash flooding into stocks; [...]
GONG HEI FAT CHOY! It’s the Lunar Year of the Ox. Since the same Chinese character can be used to denote a bull, some investors might see that as a good omen for world markets. Higher bond yields could spoil the party at [...]
GREENBACK GAIN The dollar bounce is confounding some who bet on a multi-year downtrend. Fed officials’ bullish prognoses for 2021 growth and Democrats’ determination to push through big-time stimulus may herald more gains. U.S. data hints at an economic rebound gathering steam -- [...]
A private residence club with a membership offering over 100 places to stay could be the best way to travel in 2021. Photo courtesy of Palazzo Ricci There have been several stories and statistics around the boom in real estate and particularly the second home in 2020. [...]
THE BIG SQUEEZE In just a week, the ‘Reddit crowd’ trade which squeezed out seasoned hedge funds from GameStop has gone global. Herding on the other side of bearish bets proved so profitable in GameStop and other shorted American stocks that [...]
NON-DAVOS DAVOS It is the end of January, so time for the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF), and Chinese President Xi Jinping, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde are among this year’s big-name [...]
BIDEN BOOST? On Wednesday, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, taking over the leadership of a country racked by COVID-19, deep socio-economic divisions and facing challenges to its global leadership role. Biden has proposed [...]
BIDEN BET One trade is gripping markets in the early days of 2021: reflation - nowhere more evident than in bonds, where U.S. 10-year Treasury yields topped 1% on Georgia’s Senate runoff results.Betting on a fiscal boost under President-elect Joe Biden, investors pushed [...]
CHRISTMAS CONUNDRUM Christmas is coming and many countries are torn between giving citizens a respite from stringent restrictions and tightening those restrictions with coronavirus cases soaring. Recent days saw the toughest tier of restrictions imposed on much of England, Germany going [...]
