Markets bounced on Friday to pare back losses for the week, as traders digest a triumvirate of events weighing on market sentiments: (1) Biden’s capital-gains tax hike, (2) Double-mutation virus surge in India and Japan, (3) Netflix’s dismal quarterly results with horrific plunge in subscriber growth and weak guidance. Long-term capital gains and qualified dividends…
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Treasury yields slide during the week despite a parade of positive economic data in which U.S. retail sales rose nearly 10% in March, the second largest increase on record, to the chagrin of speculative traders in the reflation/reopening trade of the Cyclicals. With yields retreating, gold rose 1.9%, heading for its best week since December,…
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Markets rose to new highs while equity trading volume plunged, with the five-day average across U.S. exchanges dropping to the lowest since October. The lull felt especially abrupt after 13 months of frenzied trading brought the fastest bear market ever and a furious rally not equaled in 90 years. Inflows to stocks past 5 months (US$576bn) exceed…
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Fear fades and greed rules in a dramatic quarter. The haloed promised end of the pandemic supposedly draws closer with every vaccine shot in the arm. So in the first three months of 2021, traders lunged to position themselves for a post-COVID world by girding for higher inflation and super-charged economically-sensitive cyclical growth poised to…
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Markets were choppy and rocked by messy price swings that whipsawed traders during the week, capped by an extraordinary spree of block trades on Friday which erased US$35 billion from the values of bellwether stocks ranging from Chinese technology giants to U.S. media companies, spurred speculation of forced selling by a massive fund being liquidated.…
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Tech, Commodities/Energy, Financials, Bonds and China/EM all suffered during the week. After Fed’s chair Powell appeared to pull off the impossible balancing act in calming the markets with his ultra-dovish remarks on Wednesday, it all reversed sharply with the 10-year treasury yield spiking up to the new highs of above 1.75%, while the 30-year broke…
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A sudden selling bout pushed the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to suddenly spike up on Friday and break above the 1.6% level to end at 1.635%. The world’s most watched bond rate has failed to close above 160 bps in more than a year, though has surpassed that level in volatile intraday trading several times…
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Havens, emerging markets, credit (LQD, EMB), China tech and global tech stocks are hammered heavily this week, pressured by the stronger USD and rising interest rates to 1.56%, up from 1.2% a few weeks ago and less than 1% at year-end 2020. The U.S. dollar surged to its strongest since Thanksgiving (with its biggest week…
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“Dude, Get Back to Your Desk!” – this is the week that roiled bond markets in a bloodbath with bond traders around the world instructed to keep vigil at their screens after the speed and ferocity of the selloff caught nearly everyone off guard as the yield on 10-year Treasuries – arguably the most important…
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