Reconciling Market Signals
In last week’s commentary we pointed out that the accumulation of debt by corporations may be behind the market upswing (through shares buyback programs while the fundamentals do not support such uptrend). The fact that yields on sovereign and corporate bonds have...
Credit Markets and the Financial Bloodline: The Oxymoron of an Upswing
Corporate debt is at record high. Net equity issuance has been negative for the last few years. The shares buyback pattern is simply staggering. The fact that almost 70% of corporate earnings are paid out in the form of corporate buybacks and dividends is antithetical...
Dancing Around the Banquet of Stagnation: Seeking Market Catalysts
The extraordinary global increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio requires a growth rate of at least 4% in order for the debt to be sustainable. The unfortunate thing is that such growth rate looks unrealistic given today’s economic fundamentals. Moreover, the earnings...
Monthly Barometer’s Forward-Looking Monthly Review: An Interdisciplinary View of our Complex Global Economy
July 2016 The “risky trinity” (in the words of the BIS) of (1) unusually low productivity growth, (2) historically high global debt levels and (3) remarkably narrow room for policy manoeuver explains why ultra-low interest rates, a symptom of apprehension about...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Another week of positive performance for U.S. equities comes in the midst of earnings season. So far, corporate profits have come in stronger than analyst expectations but still seem to be on track for the sixth consecutive decline. Of relief to market...
From the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis to the Turkey’s 2016 Failed Coup: Geopolitics and a Series of Dreams
Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific last weekend over dinner with Bob Zimmerman the lyrics of his song “A Series of Dreams” echoed in my ears. The attempted coup in Turkey was falling apart in the midst of geopolitical uncertainties from Asia (and the pertinent...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action US equities followed up on last week’s highs by resoundingly breaking out of their range bound trading zone of the past couple of years to set brand new peaks. Financials led the rally thanks to interest rates bouncing sharply off their all-time lows as...
Markets’ Disconnect, Political Pandering, and Business Climate: Valuations at the Dawn of Major Chinese Refinancing Needs
It seems that the bond and equities markets are telling us two different stories. The former with the declining – and in some major cases negative – yields is like foretelling a story of slow growth, rising risks, and absence of a capital spending drive. The latter...
Déjà vu all over again? Slouching Towards Regime Uncertainty
It is the argument of this commentary that following the Brexit vote we may be entering into a period of regime uncertainty. By the latter we mean political, economic, and financial regimes. This could turn out to be a déjà vu watershed period for the global economy...
Monthly Barometer’s Forward-Looking Monthly Review: An Interdisciplinary View of our Complex Global Economy
June 2016 Britain’s decision to exit the EU may constitute the first step on a “stairway to Hell”, throwing up a tangle of economic, financial, societal, legal, political and other issues of unfathomable complexity. The divorce will take years to play out and...