Beware of These Risks in This Market

Gregory Dorsey
Friday, May 10, 2013

Last Friday’s job report helped vault stocks into record territory. At one point, the Dow Industrials crossed the 15,000 mark and the broader S&P 500 settled above 1,600 for the first time. Some of the positives seen in the April employment situation report included a decline in the civilian unemployment rate to 7.5 percent, its lowest level since December, 2008, and upward revisions to payrolls for February and March.

Offense From Defense

Scott Chan
Thursday, May 9, 2013

There has never been a shortage of hotspots around the world, even before the attacks on 9/11 permanently altered the U.S. defensive posture. But over the past few months, the headlines seem even more martial than usual, and in contrast to the non-state asymmetry that has characterized the al-Qaeda era, flush with state-versus-state tension. Israel’s attack on Syria risks providing an external enemy against which all actors in its civil war can coalesce, and North Korea’s deliberate provocations of the U.S. and Japan risk rekindling something that could be very hard to extinguish.

Easing Prospects, The Fed and ECB Ease Market Anxiety

Genia Turanova
Monday, May 6, 2013

A small pullback or two notwithstanding, the markets just power forward. Earnings reports the past few weeks were overshadowed by action brought on – or the promise of the action – by policymakers.

Before the U.S. GDP report (which most analysts expected to show a 3 percent growth), some observers and journalists even speculated that the Fed might start cutting the size of its bond-buying program by the end of 2013.

But after the release of the numbers, expectations shifted. The actual numbers were worse than analysts predicted. The GDP report showed that the U.S. expanded at only a 2.5 percent annualized rate in the first quarter, far below consensus expectations.

Thus, the prediction that easing might slow or stop, has likewise been adjusted too. And the Fed, in its statement after it’s regular meeting, gave no indication easing will end any time soon.

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