By Wolf Richter, WOLF STREET No central bank of a developed country equals the Bank of Japan in trying to manipulate the stock market up by buying equities. The BOJ has done this for years. With breath-taking ineffectiveness. So on July 28, the BOJ announced another stock market pump-up scheme: it would nearly double its annual purchases of equity ETFs …
August Ends With A Whimper
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets Wall Street shares dipped lower on the final trading day of August, a month that has been void of market scares, as traders look ahead to a key jobs report Friday and a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates in late September. Both the S&P 500 and Dow ended the month basically …
One Man’s Opinion: Central Banks Are Terrified… But of What?
by Phoenix Capital A quick question for the “recovery” enthusiasts… If the recovery is real and as strong as the “data” suggests… why are Central Banks engaged in the most aggressive stimulus in history? Consider Europe. According to the official data, the EU’s Services and Manufacturing PMI’s were 53.1 and 51.8 in August. Both were significantly above 50 (which represents …
One Man’s Opinion: Secret Federal Reserve Minutes Leaked
By Simon Black Yesterday (last Wednesday) the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its July meeting a few weeks ago in which they decided to NOT raise interest rates. These minutes are the official archive of the meeting, providing details about the presentations, debates, and discussions that took place. They contain very formal sounding language, referring to their near-zero interest …
One Man’s Opinion: In 50 Years This Has Never Failed To Trigger A Bear Market
Authored by Jesse Felder of TheFelderReport.com, It’s earnings season once again and it looks as if, as a group, corporate America still can’t find the end of its earnings decline since profits peaked over a year ago. What’s more, analysts, renowned for their Pollyannish expectations, can’t seem to find it, either. So I thought it might be interesting to look …
One Man’s Opinion: A Psychiatric Diagnosis of the U.S. Market: Schizophrenic Disconnect From Reality, Bipolar Mania, Psychotic Delusions of Wealth
By Charles Hugh Smith If you think a delusional market is healthy, it’s time for a psychiatric exam. What diagnosis would an experienced psychiatrist offer when presented with the bizarre behavior of the U.S. stock market? We assume that the wild mood swings of greed and fear are “normal” for markets devoted to short-term profit and speculation, but the stock …