While the surge in Q1 market volatility has had a dramatic impact on asset prices, and led to some unprecedented central bank interventions to stabilize markets, one product that has seen a dramatic hit and has yet to rebound, is M&A.
According to BofA, North American M&A volumes declined again in March, falling to $107bn from $140bn in February, $157bn in January and the recent peak of $410bn in November of last year.
Authored by Bill Bonner of Bonner & Partners (annotated by Acting-Man.com's Pater Tenebrarum),
Leaning Into the Wind
During our lifetime, three Fed chiefs have faced a similar challenge.
Each occupied the chairman’s seat at a time when “normalization” of interest rates was in order.
The infamous Microsoft help paperclip makes a timely appearance, providing options for all of your year-end tax planning needs.
h/t @ebitdad
By EconMatters
A strong API Report reporting over a 4 million barrel drawdown in Oil inventories, and a report out of Kuwait saying that an output freeze deal by major oil producers would proceed without Iran will be bullish for the oil market. We expect the short covering to begin tonight, tomorrow and for the next 8 days before the Doha Meeting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOcBqMlIy-s
That San Francisco, ground zero of the second tech - this time private (and currently bursting) - bubble, has a housing market that is "just a little frothy" is no surprise to anyone, but even we had to chuckle when we saw this billboard making the twitter rounds.
As Marketwatch notes, real estate is so frothy in the San Francisco Bay Area that a new development in the city’s Lake Merced neighborhood felt the need to advertise its townhomes on a billboard as million-dollar deals - get in now while the price is right!