While it is now virtually assured (odds are 95% according to the CME) that the Fed will announce a 25 bps rate hike today following an unprecedented attempt to reprice the Fed Funds market over the past month by Fed speakers - recall that as recently as three weeks ago, nobody expected a March move by the FOMC - what traders and analysts will be focused on today are hints for the future of the Fed's rate hike moves.
It is fitting that just a few hours until the Fed's second rate hike in two quarters, and one day after Goldman downgraded global stocks to Neutral for the next 3 months, not to mention with the results of the anticipated Dutch election due shortly, that global stocks as well as S&P futures are higher, while crude oil has finally managed to stage a rebound as the Dollar DXY index is fractionally in the red.
Authored by Nika Knight via TheAntiMedia.org,
Cambodians are responding with outrage to the U.S. government’s demand that the country repay a nearly 50-year-old loan to Cambodia’s brutal Lon Nol government, which came to power through a U.S.-backed coup and spent much of its foreign funds purchasing arms to kill its own citizens, according to Cambodia’s current prime minister Hun Sen.
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects American citizens from "unreasonable searches and seizures" and requires "probable cause" to obtain a warrant for such searches. But there are two places where the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply, even for U.S. citizens, and that's at border crossings and airports. Now, according to an investigation by NBC News, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are seriously ramping up efforts to take advantage of that fact.
While many have noticed the demise of volatility in the US equity markets - 104 days without a 1% drop, plunge in VIX, record low monthly ranges - it is the most highly speculative and most over-valued companies that appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of peak animal spirits. It has never been cheaper to hedge stocks in the Nasdaq...
The great moderation of risk is nearing unprecedented lengths...
While expectations of short-term stock volatility is jumping...