The Daily Shot Brief – January 16th, 2020

Greetings,   The United States: The January manufacturing report from the NY Fed (Empire Manufacturing) showed some hopeful signs. The Empire State index improvement bodes well for manufacturing activity at the national level (ISM).   The United Kingdom: The market-based probability of a BoE rate cut this month climbed further in response to the CPI …

The Daily Shot Brief – January 13th, 2020

Greetings,   United States:  Let’s begin with the December employment report, which was weaker than the markets were expecting. This chart shows the changes in employment by sector in 2019.   United Kingdom: The economic impact of Brexit-related uncertainty has been substantial.   Asia Pacific: According to BCA Research, Chinese and Korean government bond yields …

The Daily Shot Brief – January 10th, 2020

Greetings,   Equities: Downside protection in the S&P 500 is near recent lows, indicating rising investor confidence   Credit:  Investors are piling into investment-grade bond funds.   Emerging Markets: Argentina’s central bank has accelerated money “printing” since the elections.   Eurozone: Pantheon Macroeconomics expects the ECB to play it safe in the first half of …

The Daily Shot Brief – January 7th, 2020

Greetings,   The United States: Turning to manufacturing, the ISM and Markit PMI measures have diverged further. Part of the difference is the ISM indicator’s higher correlation to factory activity in the Midwest, which experienced significant deterioration in recent months (see chart).   Will a rebound in manufacturing in 2020 provide a tailwind for economic …

The Daily Shot Brief – January 3rd, 2020

Greetings,   Equities: The S&P 500 hit a record high after China’s central bank cut reserve requirements, which will release a substantial amount of liquidity into the financial system (see #3 here). As discussed previously, technical indicators signal that the market is overbought.   Credit: Here is S&P’s credit upgrades-to-downgrades ratio.   Europe: Will we see …