- Markets continue to rally worldwide
- Record highs overseas – much more action in Asia
- Markets riding a sea of liquidity
- Gold had an interesting week, closing at 1207
- The dollar had one of its best weeks in months
- In terms of other currencies gold was at a 2-year high
- This means that the euphoria about the dollar is not universally shared
- Commodities in general were up – crude oil was up – holding above 50
- This is a good indication of a solid bottom on the price of gold
- Traders continuing to make bullish dollar bets in the face of bad economic data
- Traders are willing to throw out the first quarter – regardless the excuse
- The bounceback from Q1 2014 was due to reasons that will not be repeated
- Obamacare created a huge rush to sign up
- There was a big inventory build anticipating future sales
- Bets for a 2015 Q2-3 rebound are based on optimism for consumer spending
- February Revolving Credit tumbled by $3.7 billion
- Non-Revolving Credit surged $19.2 billion – mostly student loans
- Consumers are cash poor, yet Wall Street believes they will start buying when the temperature rises
- Government under-reporting student loan defaults due to forbearances
- Wednesday release of FOMC minutes encouraged the dollar speculators because there were discussions about higher interest rates in June
- Currency traders still haven’t figured out the the Fed’s comments are all theater
- They are playing the game based on FedSpeak until it falls apart
- A drastic turn in the FOREX markets will take a lot of people down with it
- February Wholesale Trade declined again after January reported biggest decline in 6 years
- This marks the first 3-month decline since 2008 financial crisis
- Inventories rose slightly because of decline in sales
- Inventory to Sales Ratio at 1.29 – highest since 2008 financial crisis
- 2014 GDP increase was due to rush to build inventory in anticipation of recovery
- Bottom line: economic data shows that a second-quarter bounce in the GDP is just wishful thinking
- Ben Bernanke’s new book titled “The Courage to Act” belongs in the fiction section
- Let historians justify his role in history – it is far to early to claim success
- This is the same guy who was blind-sided by the 2008 financial crisis
- He claimed courageous decisions in the face of critics, while actually putting politics and the banks ahead of the country
- His book may be coming out on eve of next economic fire that he set
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