Research & News
Daily Comment (June 16, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] After a choppy week, financial and commodity markets are rather quiet this morning. There were a couple of news items of note. The BOJ, as anticipated, left policy unchanged. The vote was 7-2, with the two dissenters calling for tighter policy. However, the two… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 15, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] There were three items dominating the overnight news. First, the shooting at the GOP baseball practice yesterday continues to reverberate. We will have more to say about this event in the future but it is further evidence of deep divisions within American society that… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 14, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] There is breaking news at the time of this writing. A gunman shot at Congressional members and staffers at a baseball practice in suburban Virginia. The Congressional baseball game is one of the few bipartisan social events in Washington. Although the situation is evolving,… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 13, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] After a two-day correction in tech stocks, equities are stabilizing this morning. Although the drop in the popular sector seemed to come out of nowhere, it looks to us like a fairly normal market correction, merely some profit taking. In a world of ultra-low… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – South Korea’s Too Big to Fail (June 12, 2017)
by Thomas K. Wash On March 10, Park Geun-hye was removed from her position as president of South Korea. Her ouster came on the heels of a scandal involving her close confidant who is accused of seeking bribes from chaebols, a group of family-owned multinational conglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy, to curry favor with… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 12, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] The global political situation remains fluid. In France, President Macron won an apparent smashing victory in the first round of parliamentary elections, winning nearly 32% of the vote and faring much better than the conservative parties, which captured around 20%. The National Front picked… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (June 9, 2017)
by Asset Allocation Committee We have been monitoring the S&P 500 performance relative to new GOP administrations. Based on the historical pattern, the market has reached the average peak level a few weeks early. This chart shows the performance of the S&P 500 on a weekly close basis, indexed to the first Friday of the first… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 9, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] In Britain, Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election in order to win a larger mandate backfired last night. The Tories, who were supposed to win more seats, lost their majority and barely squeaked out a plurality. Final results show that the Tories… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 8, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] Welcome to Super Thursday! Today, there is a slew of geopolitical events that may have an impact on global markets. In Europe, the ECB will hold a press conference about current and future policy decisions. In the U.S., former FBI Director James Comey testifies… Read More »
Daily Comment (June 7, 2017)
by Bill O’Grady, Kaisa Stucke, and Thomas Wash [Posted: 9:30 AM EDT] In Iran, a gunman and suicide bomber attacked the Iranian parliament and the Ayatollah Rullah Khomeini shrine. The Sunni-led group ISIS has claimed responsibility for both attacks, its first significant attack in Iran, which is majority Shiite. According to the Iranian news media, previous… Read More »