Archive for September, 2011
Fed’s Operation Twist Tanks Markets, Strengthens US Dollar
On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released its most recent rate decision. To the surprise of no one, the Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates at current levels near 0%. More important was the Fed’s decision to implement “operation twist.” Many market players anticipated the twist, although it still represents a radical [...]
George Soros Warns That Eurozone Collapse Is Too Terrible to Contemplate
On Wednesday afternoon, CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo interviewed George Soros. Soros is a noted investor and former hedge fund manager. He is often cited for his “breaking” of the Bank of England (BoE) back in 1992, when he effectively forced the BoE to devalue the pound sterling and made a billion dollars in the process. During [...]
IMF Predicts Slower Growth, Lower Inflation, and a Weak Housing Market
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report regarding the global economy. The report was particularly bearish. “The global economy has entered a dangerous new phase,” stated the IMF’s chief economist Oliver Blanchard. “Markets have clearly become more skeptical about the ability of many countries to stabilize their public debt. Fear of the [...]
Is Ackman’s Latest Bet Bearish for the Economy?
Last week, during CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference, Bill Ackman presented a new investment thesis. After having accurately predicted the turnaround of General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) and having profited tremendously off the financial collapse in 2008, Ackman’s pick was widely anticipated. What was Ackman’s bet? The Hong Kong dollar. Upon revealing the pick, the HKD/USD [...]
Is Netflix Making Itself an Attractive Takeover Target?
On Monday, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) announced that it was set to divide its business into two. Netflix would split into a new version of Netflix, strictly providing streaming content, and Qwikster—built around shipping movies and video games through the mail. While the split in pricing had be known for quite some time, the split in [...]
Swiss to Weaken the Franc Further?
Tuesday morning saw relatively large moves in several currency pairs, as the CHF/EUR spiked sharply lower while he USD/CHF moved higher. Unconfirmed chatter had been circulating that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) was considering raising its euro-to-franc peg further, setting it to 1.25 up from the previous 1.20. If the peg would be increased to [...]
Have a Sneak Peek at Zecco’s New Trading Center
In my last post, when I told you about Zecco Elite, I mentioned that we are starting the pilot of our new Trading Center in the coming weeks. After significant effort and intense development, the team has given me the OK to tell you about it. Believe me, I’ve been eagerly looking forward to this [...]
Markets Betting on Operation Twist
On Monday morning CNBC reported that in a survey the network had conducted, 70% of respondents predicted that the Federal Reserve would undertake an Operation Twist in the near future. Further, almost 80% of respondents who predicted Operation Twist believed that the Fed would act this week. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set [...]
Representative Frank Blasts Fed’s Dissenters
On Tuesday last week, Representative Barney Frank was interviewed on Bloomberg TV. During the interview, Frank was explicitly antagonistic towards the more hawkish members of the Federal Reserve. Back in August, during the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), three members dissented. Notably, all three dissenters were regional governors. The FOMC as [...]
Too Little, Too Late for Microsoft?
On Tuesday last week, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) showed off its new Windows 8 operating system to developers. Notably, Windows 8 appears to be a radical departure from the traditional Windows operating system format. The new iteration of Windows is being designed to operate largely interchangeably on desktops, laptops, phones and tablets. Further, Microsoft stated that [...]
