Business

Authored by Tim Price via The Mises Institute,

There are a number of things you don’t want to hear a central banker say.

WTI has extended gains (on weaker dollar) from last night's 'bullish' API data in a deja-vu of last week, and DOE data (showing large draws in Crude and Gasoline) confirmed continued rebalancing. However, once again mimiccing last week's action, prices were not exuberant as another surge in production - to new cycle highs - stymied some of the excitiment.

API:

Authored by Steve H. Hanke of the Johns Hopkins University. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Hanke.

Unless you’ve been in Pyongyang, North Korea for the past several months, you know that in May Sotheby’s auctioned Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting of a skull. When the last gavel fell, Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionnaire armed with more cash than prudence, had agreed to part with a cool $110.5 million for the sixth most expensive work ever sold at auction. 

Authored by Axel Merk via MerkInvestments.com,

The Fed’s “balance sheet reduction” may have profound implications for the dollar, gold, stocks and bonds. We’ll provide an outlook...

It is said forecasts are difficult, especially when they relate to the future. Investors might want to pay attention nonetheless, not so much because I believe I have a crystal ball, but because investing is about managing risk. And there’s a risk that I’m right.

Quantitative Tightening

Heading into today's meeting with a smorgasbord of 'relatively' good data recently, Governor Poloz had the perfect excuse to raise rates (for the first time since 2010) and tamp down the firey bubble in home prices. Not a total surprise, given hawkish comments from BOC officials in recent weeks, but the Loonie is surging on the hike but CAD stocks (which were rallying into the decision) are limping lower.