by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Hang On Tight: ‘Merger Monday,’ Which Died in 2008, Is Back
I thought we’d never see “Merger Monday” again, the concept. But now, the unthinkable happened, the zombie phrase has walked back into the scene. Like in the bubble days of 2007: the big numbers were there, the deal exuberance, the craziness, the hoopla.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Plagued By Indigestion, Fed Issues Asset-Bubble Warning
Hidden in the middle of the 25-page minutes of the last meeting, under the most wooden and convoluted prose, the Fed issued a doozie of a warning: it fretted about financial stability. It named soaring forward P/E ratios, stock buybacks, margin credit, and leveraged loans.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on So This Isn’t Exactly A Rosy Outlook For 2014, Or Something
Central banks rule! We’ve seen it in 2013. They’ve accomplished the impossible: separating stock markets from the economies they’re based on. But in 2014, the US and China are trying to unwind these crazy policies – without taking down the entire global economy.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Cracks Forming In Housing Bubble II (But This Time It’s Different)
Number one is Palo Alto, epicenter of Silicon Valley craziness, where home prices are now 40% higher than they were at their prior bubble peak. What are we calling this phenomenon? Bubble? Nope. “Housing recovery.” But the middle class has hit a wall.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on What Happens Next, Now That The 10-year Treasury Yield Hit The Psycho-Sound Barrier Of 3%
Treasuries have been skidding, and the 10-year yield hit the psycho-sound barrier of 3%. What happened last time this phenomenon occurred? Well, yields bounced off and fell – because the mayhem they’d triggered gave the Fed conniptions and caused it to back off.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on When Soaring Margin Debt, Sign of Investor Confidence, Turns Into A Nightmare On Steroids
There have been three mega-crashes in my investing lifetime, and three concurrent peaks in margin debt. In April, margin debt broke the record set in 2007 and has continued to rise. Over the last three months, it has soared 10.9%. Are we there yet?
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Financial Engineering Wildest Since The 2007 Bubble
Financial engineering had a glorious year. Now finally, after five years, the crazy fun is back, and the good thing is: this time, it’s different. This time, the smart money is selling!
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Junk-Debt Time Bomb: Ticking Till The Fed’s Money Dries Up
Discount retailer Loehmann’s did what other retailers – and a large number of other junk-rated companies – will do once the Fed allows a sense of reality into the markets: it filed for bankruptcy. Investors had refused to fund further losses.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Fear and Trembling In Muni Land
Municipal bond investors, a conservative bunch eager to avoid rollercoasters and cliffhangers, are getting frazzled. Bankruptcies and the Fed’s taper cacophony are a toxic mix. So they’re bailing out of muni bond funds at record rate. Losses are mounting. And so are the fears.
