In the aftermath of this weekend's disappointing G-20 summit in Shanghai in which the much anticipated "grand Chinese devaluation" was not only not discussed, but any abrupt devaluation was taken off the table (if only for the time being), the market has shifted its attention to the next big policy event, which is the March 10 ECB announcement where much more easing is already priced in.
Via ConvergEx's Nicholas Colas,
With yesterday’s impressive equity rally, every trader is asking the same question: “Can U.S. equities go green on the year?” The S&P 500 is now down “just” 3.2% in 2016 and there’s nothing like a +2% one-day rally to hold out hope of actual gains before March 31.
Submitted by Dan Sanchez via The Mises Institute,
The Federal Reserve is a key component of the American Transfer State. Under the guise of “macroeconomic management,” it redistributes vast amounts of wealth on an ongoing basis through inflation. The victims of these transfers are ordinary Americans. The beneficiaries are the government and its elite cronies.
Between 2008 and 2015, central banks pretended that they had fixed the economy.
In 2016, they’re starting to admit that they haven’t fixed much of anything.
The current head of the Bank of England (Mark Carney) said last week:
If Saudi Arabia is shocked at the relentless ability of the U.S. shale "marginal producers" to continue pumping even with oil prices below breakeven costs for many (which as reported recently have mysteriously tumbled from $70 to $40) at a time when the junk bond market - the traditional conduit of how energy companies have financed themselves - it should thank Wall Street, for one simple reason: investors have pumped a whopping $9.2 billion in new equity into energy companies year to date, the most since Bloomberg records began in 1999.