Author: Scott Hoffman

Q4 GDP in China rose by 10.7% – stronger than expected.  It’s good news for their economy, but it raises the pressure on the PBOC to raise rates.  Euro Zone PMI was weaker in January, more evidence their...

Stocks are lower overnight.  Overnight China’s chief banking regulator Liu Mingkang said that some Chinese banks had been asked to curb lending, raising fears of an equity correction.  Talk from Shanghai’s...

(That’s a little Monty Python reference in the title) I recently sent an email to people on my blog’s mailing list, telling them that I planned on changing the format, integrating the RSS feed to mail out notices of...

Assessing the markets around holiday periods isn’t as clear as it was before the rise of electronic trading.  Back then, when the markets were closed, they were closed.  Now there’s more gray area. ...

In Europe, UK inflation showed a record jump in December.  They’ve only been keeping this record since 1997, but it’s still a shock.  That pushed up the Pound, which is also being helped by Cadbury’s...

Overnight Chinese authorities said that the US was moving toward protectionism with the Google spat.  This is moving the trade war into a new arena – out of goods and into service and information.  Capital goods...

I was at the library last night dropping off some Wii games I checked out for the kids (I’d hate to spend $50 on a game they end up not liking) and while I was there I went trolling for books to read.  I got a couple...

Not much big news last night.  Euro zone IP was better than expected, but it couldn’t interest buyers.  Between China’s move to raise bank reserve requirements, the related Chinese asset bubble concerns,...

A good earnings report from Kraft helped to support stocks after yesterday’s losses then late recovery.  Debt gets center stage today; there’s a 10 year T Note auction today, and lots of corporate and sovereign...