A year that investors can celebrate
January 3, 2013
A year that investors can celebrate
December 10, 2012
Recently, my posts have focused on the U.S., as that’s where most of the news has been, but I wanted to take a look at the rest of the world. Although nothing particularly urgent is happening, many issues we have discussed before continue to cook.
Europe
December 4, 2012
Volatility in financial markets
November 29, 2012
Slowly, slowly we move forward. Economic growth for the third quarter was revised upward to 2.7 percent, well above the initial estimate of 2.0 percent, but slightly below the expected revision of 2.8 percent. This is a good result, but it probably will weaken in the next quarter, as quite a bit of it was due to inventory buildup, which will be drawn down.
November 28, 2012
Kind of an interesting day, with some good news in the U.S. and a mix of good and bad about equally balanced in Europe. Let’s take one at a time.
The U.S. economy: Housing continues to perform strongly, with house prices up for six months in a row by an average of 3 percent over the past year. Even the worst-hit cities, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and even Detroit, have shown price gains. The continued strength in housing hit the front page of the Financial Times (FT) and A3 in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and it is a key part of the front-page New York Times (NYT) article, “California Finds Economic Gloom Starting to Lift.” California is often a leading indicator of the rest of the country, so this is particularly good news.
November 26, 2012
I haven’t been writing much about Europe recently, and it’s not because there hasn’t been anything happening. There has been. But because most of it has been inside baseball, with little immediate effect (at least here in the U.S.), it hasn’t been as interesting as other developments here.
That largely remains the case, but it’s worth taking a look just to keep in touch with what’s been going on. The big news is that a bailout package for Greece is just about to be finalized. This will be the final bailout, as the Germans are having domestic political trouble getting approval for more cash.
November 19, 2012
November 15, 2012
Markets got knocked again yesterday, as November proves to be a tough month. After the run of good news we had for a while, the bad, or at least worrisome, news is starting to pile up.
November 6, 2012
Financial markets react to uncertainty
