Those hoping for a slew of negative news to push stocks much higher today will be disappointed in this largely catalyst-free day. So far today we have gotten only the ECB's weekly 3y LTRO announcement whereby seven banks will repay a total of €1.1 billion from both LTRO issues, as repayments slow to a trickle because the last thing the ...

Evercore chairman Roger Altman was on CNBC this morning arguing that austerity in Europe was not a "choice" but rather something that was forced onto countries by raging credit markets that were rebelling against high debt loads. This is incorrect, and provably so. Here's a chart going back 3 years of Italian borrowing costs (the yield on the 10-year Italian ...

Evercore chairman Roger Altman was on CNBC this morning arguing that austerity in Europe was not a "choice" but rather something that was forced onto countries by raging credit markets that were rebelling against high debt loads. This is incorrect, and provably so. Here's a chart going back 3 years of Italian borrowing costs (the yield on the 10-year Italian ...

While everyone's attention this morning will be focused on the sheer, seasonally-adjusted noise that is the monthly NFP report (keep in mind that any number +/- 200,000 of the actual, is entirely in the seasonal adjustments and is thus entirely in the eye of the Arima X 13 beholder), which is expected to print at 140,000, resulting in an unemployment ...

The Fed may or may not be able to afford schizophrenia regarding the future of its monetary decisions (for now), but the ECB, in charge of a continent mired deep in depression, does not have that luxury. While consensus overwhelmingly expects a 25 bps cut in the main refinancing rate, some have warned that should the ECB not engage in ...