Global Macro Perspectives
U.S. housing starts were reported at 672.000 vs. 626.00 March reading. The consensus was at 650.000. Building permits in the same period fell 11.5% to 606.000. Chart 1. U.S. Housing Starts Chart 2. U.S. Building Permits
I have to say I usually don’t agree with the guy, but I have to say that now he is probably on the mark: “The simple misconception is people trying to equate pure economic logic with social political reality,” O’Neill said in an interview from his office in London today. “The Germans and French are […]
We had 16 more oil drilling rigs operating and 2 natural gas operating rigs less for the week ending May 14 in the U.S. Chart 1. Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Change Chart 2. Baker Hughes Weekly U.S. Rig Count Chart 3. Baker Hughes Monthly World Rig Count
Important U.S. earnings this week: Monday: Agilent Technologies (A), Valspar (VAL), Lowe’s Companies (LOW) Tuesday: Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), Analog Devices (ADI), The TJX Companies (TJX), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), The Home Depot (HD), Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) Wednesday: Eaton Vance (EV), Chico’s FAS (CHS), Synopsys (SNPS), PetSmart (PETM), Autodesk (ADSK), Polo Ralph […]
Another strong week for dry freight. Baltic dry index rose 8.9% last week, again on the back of 10.5% Capesize Index gain. Panamax, Supramax and Handysize Index also recorded gains, but underperformed the broader index suggesting that iron ore is the game. On the positive side we have China steel inventory coming off, decreased China […]
Baltic Dirty Tanker Index rose 10.3%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index rose 1.1%. International Energy Agency (IEA) reduced demand figures (especially on the call for OPEC crude and estimates of increased OECD stocks day cover) did not lower the rates, just contrary. Strong dirty and soft clean rates could again be a sign of weak demand […]
Lowest USD/EUR exchange rate in almost 4 years. Parity is at sight. Chart 1. Euro Index Daily Chart 2. Euro Index Monthly
U.S. industrial production rose 0.8% in April. The consensus was at 0.6%, March reading at 0.1%. Capacity utilization rose from 73.2% in March to 73.7%; the consensus was at 73.7%. Chart 1. U.S. Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
Retail sales rose 0.4% in March . The consensus was at 0.2%, March reading of 1.6%. Autos taken out, the figure was also 0.4%; the consensus was at 0.5%; prior reading at 0.6%. Chart 1. U.S. Retail sales
Working gas in storage rose 94 Bcf from previous week. Well, the storage will probably be record full before the heating season. Chart 1. Natural Gas Futures Chart 2. Working Gas in Underground Storage Compared with 5 Year Average Chart 3. Natural Gas Futures Curve
Initial jobless claims were reported at 444.000. The consensus was at 440.000, last week revised reading was at 448.000. Chart 1. U.S. Initial Jobless Claims
Crude oil stocks rose 1.9 million barrels for week ending May 7; Gasoline stocks fell 2.8 million barrels; Distillate stocks increased 1.4 million barrels; Propane/propylene stocks rose 2.8 million barrels; Other oils stocks were up 1.9 million barrels; Total crude oil and petroleum stocks were 3.4 million barrels higher than the week before. Refinery utilization […]
The TaintedAlpha.com Blog was offline for a couple of hours due to problems at my web hosting service. It should be normal from now-on. My apologies.
Just an observation on the market reaction on EU rescue package. When elsewhere in the world central banks buy worthless paper it’s apparently good for the markets, but when ECB (the most prudent among them) is pressured to buy, it’s apperently not good enough to reassure the markets. Although, I believe that it would be […]
We had 15 more oil drilling rigs operating and 5 natural gas operating rigs less for the week ending May 7 in the U.S. On world scale, we had 60 more drilling rigs in April. Chart 1. Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Change Chart 2. Baker Hughes Weekly U.S. Rig Count Chart 3. Baker Hughes […]