Archive - Dec 2, 2015

Prepare for Keynesian Lift Off!

• Yellen, in back-to-back appearances, could close out era of zero rates (Reuters)
• ECB stimulus hopes keep Europe stocks at three-month high (Reuters)
• ECB to Test the Limits of Its Bond-Buying Program (WSJ)
• Watch for U.S. recession, zero interest rates in China next year, Citi says (Reuters)
• Euro’s Loss Being Yen’s Gain May Be Headache for BOJ (BBG)
• Yahoo Board to Weigh Sale of Internet Business (WSJ)
• Islamic State Prevents Civilians From Fleeing Iraqi City of Ramadi (WSJ)

As previously noted, it has been a bad year for some of the marquee hedge fund names, with Einhorn's Greenlight Capital down 21% YTD, and as reported last night, Ackman's Pershing Square is not doing much better and as of November 30, was down 20.8%.  On the weekly table one can clearly see when Pershing's fortunes turned in mid August when the fund dropped from being up 11% for the year to going negative for the year on the heels of the collapse in Valeant shares.

It is only logical that a day after the S&P500 surged, hitting Goldman's 2016 target of 2,100 more than a year early because the US manufacturing sector entered into a recession, that Europe would follow and when Eurostat reported an hour ago that European headline inflation of 0.1% missed expectations of a modest 0.2% increase (core rising 0.9% vs Exp. 1.1%), European stocks predictably surged not on any improvement to fundamentals of course, but simply because the EURUSD stumbled once more, sliding by 40 pips to a session low below the 1.06 level.