Archive for May, 2011

Tainted Alpha Returns On June 6, 2011

I’m taking a brake from blogging because additional obligations I’m having are consuming too much of my time. Will be back on June 6, 2011.

B.

Daily Reading – Tuesday, May 24, 2011

*** The Big Picture: Greece’s last stand ***
*** FT Alphaville: Rejoining Club Med ***
*** FT Alphaville: Beware the ‘Splash Crash’ ***
*** FT Alphaville: Terry Smith doesn’t like ETFs ***
*** FT Alphaville: Goldman warns of significant China slowdown ***
*** The Atlantic: Chart of the Day: How Much Is the U.S. National Debt in Gold? ***
*** The Big Picture: Richards: “Gold is Not an Investment” ***
*** The Big Picture: Federal Reserve Posters (1920′s) ***
*** The Big Picture: Washington Post: “Five Disciplines To Be A Great Investor” ***

U.S. New Home Sales Rose 7.3% In April

U.S. new home sales rose 7.3% to 323.000 SAAR; Consensus was at 300.000 SAAR, prior reading (revised upward 1.000) was at 301.000 SAAR.

April Chicago Fed National Activity Index At -0.45

Chicago Fed National Activity Index for April was reported at -0.45 vs. revised March reading of 0.32. Chicago Fed National Activity Index 3-month moving average is at -0.12.

CFNAI is pointing to mild economic growth.

Daily Reading – Monday, May 23, 2011

*** Macro Man: Dam Breach! ***
*** The Big Picture: Puru Saxena on Why QE3 is Inevitable ***
*** The Big Picture: A Losing Bet: The End of the World ***
*** FT Alphaville: Meanwhile, in the Spanish periphery… ***
*** FT Alphaville: Iceland’s second volcano e-raptures ***

Tanker Weekly – May 23, 2011

Baltic Dirty Tanker Index rose 0.5%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 6.9%.

Dry Bulk Weekly – May 23, 2011

Baltic dry index rose 3.3% last week; Capesize Index was up 11.2%; Panamax Index fell 3.1%; Supramax Index was down 1.4%; Handysize Index fell 1.0%.

Thermal coal stockpiles are unchanged at extremely low levels; Steel stockpiles also unchanged but stocks high; Iron ore stockpiles near record high. Prices strong.

Daily Reading – Friday, May 20, 2011

*** FT Alphaville: Competition time! LinkedIn valuation edition ***
*** FT Alphaville: Silver and short covering – a theory ***
*** FT Alphaville: Japan’s ‘temporary’ recession? ***
*** FT BeyondBRICs: China sets new standard in gold ***
*** The Big Picture: First Day IPO Pops ***
*** The Big Picture: Understandings Earnings Estimates ***
*** Gawker: Jon Stewart Takes Down Ben Stein’s Defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn ***

U.S. Natural Gas Weekly – May 20, 2011

Working gas in storage rose 92 Bcf from previous week. The consensus was at 90 Bcf.

Storage level is 170 Bcf lower than same time year ago and bellow 5-year average.

U.S. Freight Carloads Weekly – May 20, 2011

U.S. railroads originated 294,271 carloads, up 1.4% compared with the same week in 2010 and down 1.7% compared with 5-year average. Week over week change was 4.4%.

U.S. Petroleum Weekly – May 19, 2011

No changes from last week. Weak demand, low distillates stocks, high crude stocks. Driving season ahead.

U.S. Initial Jobless Claims At 409.000; Down 29.000

Initial jobless claims in the U.S. were reported at 409.000 vs. 420.000 consensus and last week revised (up 4.000) reading of 438.000.

Daily Reading – Wednesday, May 18, 2011

*** FT Alphaville: Please wait 10 months for your aluminium. Thank you ***
*** FT Alphaville: The ‘Asia connection’ to the commodity rout ***
*** FT Alphaville: China’s trusts – still booming ***
*** The Big Picture: China’s Ghost Cities ***
*** The Big Picture: Sloppy Market? Blame the Financials ***
*** The Big Picture: Japan shows up in April IP ***
*** The Big Picture: Trading as a “Massive Multiplayer Experience” ***
*** The Big Picture: Religion vs Education vs Income? ***
*** Econbrowser: F for Fail ***

May Empire State Manufacturing At 11.9

Empire State Manufacturing General Business Conditions Index for May came out at 11.9 vs. 19.6 consensus and prior reading of 21.7.

Well, we have a series of negative surprises…

Dry Bulk Weekly – May 16, 2011

Baltic dry index fell 2.5% last week; Capesize Index was down 4.6%; Panamax Index fell 2.8%; Supramax Index was up 0.4%; Handysize Index fell 0.5%.

Large decrease in thermal coal stockpiles; steel stockpiles also fell, iron ore stockpiles unchanged. Prices strong. No sign of any China slowdown.

 

Get Adobe Flash player