Markets

Marc Faber was quoted in June as saying he expects a major move in financial markets, but is unclear which directions markets will turn.  His statements suggest to me he could be advising clients to go long volatility in anticipation…

I supported a proposal to help foreclosed homeowners by Dean Baker and Andrew Samwick back in June (see “Why not protect the homeowner?”).  Apparently, the Obama Administration likes this proposal and is floating a trial balloon via…

Here is a video released by Karl Denninger of Market Ticker in which he shows exasperation with CNBC’s pro-bullish bias.  He notes that CNBC used comments by Nouriel Roubini to suggest the economy is rebounding faster. Denninger sees…

My translation below is of an article from the website Finanzas. House prices accelerated their decline in June, down 10.1% over the same month of 2008, which is three tenths more than the previous month, when housing fell 9.8%,…

I have introduced the concept of a technical recovery to describe the anticipated weak recovery period that lies ahead.  Van Hoisington and Lacy Hunt have a different term to remember: Partial recovery.  They see the potential…

R.W. Baird downgraded Starwood Hotels (HOT) from Neutral to Underperform, saying it was downgrading estimates on hotels across the board. This comes via Barrons: Starwood's former strengths are now weaknesses. During the boom Starwood's…

This comes via the Nationwide website: As a responsible lender which aims to support its borrowers Nationwide has responded to market conditions and made an option available which enables some existing customers in negative equity to move…

The Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, is now bringing back the dreaded 125% mortgage.  While the lender claims these mortgages are a “niche product” designed for customers of Nationwide in negative equity, the Financial…

David Rosenberg is out with a bearish piece on equities today (I hop that doesn’t surprise you).  He sees the market as still overvalued at these levels. The key, he say is that most of the rally has been built on multiple expansion and not…

Here is a Marc Faber interview from March. It is well worth watching because he calls things perfectly through June: economic news, equity markets, and commodity markets. This is billed as a Czech TV interview.  But the audio is…