The Citi Surprise index has rallied back to near 0. Keep this in mind when you hear bears claiming the Citi Surprise index is doing badly. It’s a terrible economic indicator as the economy was strong in the first half, especially in Q2 where GDP growth was 3.0%. As you can see from the second
The Chinese economy has been improving this year, but unfortunately that trend reversed course in the latest batch of data. The chart below breaks down the three data points which were released Wednesday night NYC time. Retail sales were up 10.1% year over year. Obviously, that’s great growth by Ame
The rampage in stocks knows no bounds. The Nasdaq, Dow, and S P 500 all hit record highs on Wednesday even though Apple was down on the day. As you can see from the chart below, the total returns in this bull market just passed the 1950s rally. This is now the third largest rally in
Bitcoin Under-Owned? As we discussed in the last article, institutional investors said Bitcoin was the most overvalued security in the world. Since my last post, the price of Bitcoin has fallen below $4,000. Some of the speculation has left the market. The chart below gives you an additional way to
A previous article mentioned how low skilled workers are seeing more income growth than middle skilled and highly skilled workers. The chart below shows this trend in a different light. As you can see, those making less than $17 an hour are seeing more income growth than those making over $25 an hou
Chinese Economy Driving U.S. Market FactSet released its updated aggregate quarterly earnings report. They broke down firms with a large amount of Asian exposure in the chart below. As you can see, the firms with over 40% of sales in Asia outperformed those who only have 20% exposure to Asia. The gr
European Junk Bonds Are Expensive There is a noticeable difference between the European high yield debt market and U.S. treasuries. High yield debt no longer has a high yield in Europe and America as European junk bond yields are close to the AAA rated U.S. debt. That’s because of relentless ECB cor
Update On ECB Bond Buying A new milestone is about to be reached in the ECB’s bond buying program. There have now been 998 bonds bought by the ECB. You can see the effects in the chart below. The BB rated euro high yield bond index is now at almost the same yield as the
Apple Sells Off The stock market ended Friday mixed as the Nasdaq was the biggest sore spot, falling 0.59%. As I highlighted in previous articles, Apple usually falls right before the unveiling of its new phone. The 1.63% decline on Friday added to the Nasdaq’s woes. The stock is now down 3.30% off
Debt Ceiling Issue Over For The Time Being There was yet another twist in the debt ceiling debate as President Trump’s meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer has led to an additional agreement. President Trump wants to eliminate the debt ceiling completely. This has been a talking point the pro
