NEW YORK (Reuters) – Much of the United States may be frying in near-record temperatures but Wall Street has been feeling the heat for months. Wrangling over the debt ceiling has kept markets on edge, and investors are still waiting for a breakthrough that leads to a deal to avoid a devastating default.
Investors have viewed as extremely unlikely the possibility of a U.S. default if the federal government does not agree to raise the debt ceiling. B
Over the last several years, China has been one of the major purchasers of treasury securities. Now it turns out, China has eliminated about 97 percent of its holdings of United States treasury bills, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government. Back in May of 2009, $210.4 billion in T-bills were held by China, the all time high. Full Post…
The current week offered several housing data points, including the Housing Market Index (home builder sentiment), Housing Starts (new construction), Existing Home Sales, Weekly Mortgage Activity and the FHFA House Price Index. Four of five reports showed improving trends, though each report showed the usual low level of activity on an absolute basis.
Students of securities markets will recall that it is the forward outlook which matters to markets, and so change in trend or the anticipation of it acts as catalyst to start securities higher. My articles this year have called for and reported that change in trend, oftentimes against the tide of overwhelmingly negative real estate market sentiment.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks closed near unchanged on Wednesday, a day after Wall Streets best rally since March, as the oncoming debt ceiling deadline overshadowed strong earnings from Apple Inc.
Apple (AAPL.O) hit another all-time high one day after the maker of the iPhone and iPad reported quarterly revenues that far exceeded expectations.
The stock jumped 2.7 percent to 386.90 but, overall, investors sat on their hands amid the unresolved debt ceiling crisis in Washington. The White House and Congress were negotiating a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling before a looming default on August 2.
“The big elephant in the room is the debate about the debt ceiling, and as the clock ticks we all know that we are going to have a deal. I