Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
“The Cost of Missing the Market Boom is Skyrocketing”, says a Bloomberg headline today. That must be the scariest headline I’ve seen in quite a while. For starters, it’s misleading, because people who ‘missed’ the boom haven’t lost anything other than virtual wealth, which is also the only thing those who haven’t ‘missed’ it, have acquired.
While in recent days Bridgewater has been in the news not for its investing acumen (or lack thereof), or the outspoken, contrarian views of its founder Ray Dalio, but rather the recent spirited attack by Jim Grant who in not so many words hinted, if not explicitly stated, that there is something very rotten in the state of (Westport) Connecticut (a theatrically sponsored defense was inevitable), it is still the case that any major investing move the hedge fund...
A quick glance at the soaring Italian stock market and one would have faith in the future of the euro, with Alitalia just a 'storm in a teacup'. However, bond traders are as worried about political uncertainty as ever with Italian bond risk surging to over 3 year highs.
As Bloomberg reports, the FTSE MIB Index is trading near a 15-month high after ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resoundingly won back the leadership of the Democratic Party.
While most of the world is enjoying it last day off from the 2017 holiday transition, with Asia's major markets closed for the New Year holiday, along with Britain and Switzerland in Europe and the US and Canada across the Atlantic, European stocks climbed to their highest levels in over a year on Monday after the Markit PMI survey showed manufacturing production in the Eurozone rose to the highest level since April 2011.
European and Asian markets rose, while U.S. index futures were little changed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average pushing for yet another record, as traders digested the Italian referendum news, await the ECB's Thursday announcement and reflect in a notably quieter overnight session. Oil slipped from a 16-month high after 4 straight days of gains, as doubts emerged about how OPEC will implement the first supply curbs in eight years. European bonds gained with stocks.