Investors are increasingly betting that the dollar will weaken against the euro, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Positions “shorting” the dollar, or poised to make money as the dollar’s value falls, reached $24.7 billion last week, rising for the fourth consecutive week and jumping up from $18.8 billion the week before....
Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT
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CORPORATE DEBT BOMB IS TICKING
With interest rates low and going lower over, U.S. businesses are $17 trillion in debt, which accounts for 79 percent of U.S. GDP. As the economic recovery sags and equity markets rattle, we forecast a sharp rise in corporations defaulting on their debts, which will result in more businesses going bust and millions more filling...
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FED HEAD PLAYS COVID CARDS
Repeating the mainstream Presstitute and political mantra, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell declared last Wednesday that besides pumping in more digital money backed by nothing and printed on nothing to inflate the economy… public vigilance, such as social distancing, is crucial to the speed of the economic recovery. He added that even if millions of...
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LUXURY RENT CRASH
We had forecast this would happen long before the nationwide lockdowns began in March. And now, a bad situation is turning much worse. In “Ghost Town” New York City, average asking rents along 16 major retail shopping strips in Manhattan slid in 2020’s second quarter, the 11th consecutive quarter rents have fallen. Rents in these...
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U.S. MARKET FRONT
At 11 AM ET this morning, when clicking on “Gold” on CNBC’s website, this was the headline: “Gold edges back from record peak as firm U.S. data dims shine.” CNBC went on to say, “Gold was little changed on Tuesday, hovering below the previous session’s record peak as fears over the pace of economic recovery...
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GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS
E.U. ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURING PLAN WORTH ALMOST €2 TRILLION. Another day, another list of government plans to rescue nations from falling in depression. The latest is the European money pumping scheme to reinvigorate the EU economy as many of its nation’s GDP rapidly decline. Highlights: The European Commission (EC) will borrow €750 billion on the open...
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GOING DOWN AND OUT
DIAMONDS LOSE THEIR SHINE. With millions out of work and weddings fallen victim to social distancing, the sale of diamonds has crashed. Jared, “the Galleria of Diamonds,” reported sales down by 40.5 percent for the quarter ended 2 May. Alrosa, a diamond wholesaler partly owned by the Russian government, said sales of rough and polished...
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TOY SALES FALL. BOUNCING BACK?
Toymaker Mattel posted second-quarter revenues of $732 million and a loss of 26 cents per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $679 million in revenue and a per-share loss of 34 cents. The company also announced a gross margin of 43.8 percent, an improvement over the same period a year earlier. The company’s gross margin improved...
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TWEETS UP, AD SALES DOWN
It’s a century’s old trend. One of the first cuts from business budgets when sales go down are advertising expenditures. And when the COVID Panic struck and politicians locked down people and economies, cut-away they did. From newspapers and TV to online media and social media sites, while viewership’s are rising, ad revenue are diving....
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QUITTING THE GYM?
About 59 percent of U.S. gym members will not renew their memberships, according to a TD Ameritrade. More than 56 percent of respondents said the economic shutdown led them to find cheaper ways to exercise. More Americans are jogging or walking, using workout apps, or buying home exercise equipment, according to Molly Passantino, TD Ameritrade’s...