Finance

Poor sovereign government finances are not just the province of Europe. Fitch this morning downgraded the credit rating of Japan to A+, one notch below both S&P and Moody’s. Fitch stated the obvious extraordinary amount of debt they have relative to GDP but said “the country’s fiscal consolidation plan looks leisurely relative even to other...

Existing Home Sales totaled 4.62mm annualized in April, a touch above estimates and up from 4.47mm in March which was revised slightly lower. For contracts likely signed in Feb and March, closings rose for both single family and condos/co-ops. Because though the amount of homes for sale rose, months supply rose to 6.6 from 6.2...

Dating back to its introduction in 1999, the net spec short position in the euro for the week ended Tuesday, according to the CFTC, rose to a record high.

Confirming again that when rating agencies act its old news, Spanish banks are bouncing after 5 days of selling notwithstanding multiple credit downgrades by Moody’s last night. After a 42% decline in the past 10 trading days, Bankia in particular is up by 20%+ today. Bond yields in Spain and Italy are also lower and...

Because not much change occurred in the economy between the March and April FOMC meetings, there was not much new in the minutes from the April get together and why the April written statement wasn’t much different than in March. With respect to doing more, “several members indicated that additional monetary policy accommodation could be...

Outside of the Greek stock market, if there is one stock to watch as an indicator of what the market thinks of the chances Greece stays in the euro or not, watch De La Rue. Traded in London, they make physical currency and if Greece leaves the euro, a lot of drachma will have to...

The preliminary UoM confidence number at 77.8 was above expectations of 76, up from 76.4 in April and the highest since Jan ’08. The Current Conditions component led the gain as it rose 4.4 pts while the Outlook fell .6 pts. While a coincident indicator rather than something leading in terms of consumer behavior, it’s...

The toughest sale of the week for the US Treasury, debt going out 30 yrs without inflation protection with a yield barely above 3%, not too much higher than stated inflation, went well. The yield of 3.09% was well below the when issued of 3.11% and the bid to cover of 2.73 was above the...

Within the last hour there has been noise that the EU won’t disburse the next tranche of money to Greece due tomorrow after a DJ headline said “Some governments concerned about making payment amid Greek political turmoil,” according to sources. Due to the Wall St phone game this was immediately interpreted to say the EU...

Confirming the fears that resulted after the Greek elections and was followed with a 7% decline in Greek stocks, Antonis Samaras, the President of the New Democracy Party who got the most votes is saying he is unable to form a coalition government with the other party leaders. He is giving back his mandate to...

While a socialist was elected in France because voters paradoxically felt that it was the best way to deal with the aftermath of too much socialism, the results were expected last week and its why French stocks are down modestly and French bond yields are lower with the 10 yr in particular at the lowest...

April Payrolls rose 115k, 45k less than expected BUT the prior two months were revised up by 53k and considering the weather issues, its best to average the months and thus things are about in line. The private sector added 130k jobs vs the estimate of 165k but last month alone was revised up by...