United States

I keep going on and on about how mobile is where the technology industry is moving. So clearly the access/telecom end of that is going to be important. The T-mobile move to unbundle the handset subsidy from the telecom monthly fee is a bold…

Since we've never been at these yield levels, this is uncharted territory in corporate bond pricing. Certainly bond spreads have been lower in the past - especially during the boom years. But in the post-crisis era, corporate spreads seem…

By Marc Chandler The US jobs report offered a pleasant surprise after the string of mostly disappointing data. Private sector employment rose 165k and the Feb and March series were revised up by 114k jobs. The 3-and 6-month averages now…

I will make this brief as I believe the links will do the talking for me. As I said yesterday, none of the economic data coming out of the US outside of housing seems to be surprising to the upside. That said, there is one bright spot here;…

This is a second daily commentary today to give some weight to what's happening in the US after a slew of European-themed posts. I have three or four topics to cover here and I want to begin with the US economy including some thoughts on…

Actually this post isn't about fiat currency despite the title. It's really more about what is occurring outside the eurozone and most of the links I have concern the US, UK and Japan. Nevertheless, the three countries do pose a good trio…

In his daily commentary today, Andy Lees of the Macro Strategy Partnership noted that, "the US macro surprise index is now -7.90, the European index is -69.20 and the G10 index at -32.8." What he is saying is that the data are weakening and…

A week ago I wrote that I believed QE will end this year after tapering off in June. I stand by this stance. However, we have heard from three Fed officials in the interim and I wanted to pass on what they are saying to gauge how likely it…

The yen bears have been frustrated by a series of developments. They were unpleasantly surprised by news that the Japanese themselves were large sellers, not buyers, of foreign bonds in the first full week of the new fiscal year. In…

I am still on vacation here through Monday but the jobs number in the US was so ugly I had to comment briefly. The unemployment rate came in at 7.6% and 88,000 jobs were added to non-farm payrolls. The consensus estimates were for 7.7%…