October has proven to be a tremendous month for the S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite following September’s sharp losses. Both indices are trading near record levels amid strong corporate earnings and have raised the question, one more time: How much more can stocks continue rising? S&P 500 Index (SPX Index) 5-year monthly chart October, Read More
What is the Value of Anything?
I was reminded of this question earlier in the week when Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, announced that the value of bitcoin is going to zero. Investors take notice when the CEO of the largest bank in the United States makes a prediction concerning the future value of an asset. Bitcoin / Read More
Harnessing Climate Change with a Trend Following Hedge
With the recent bout of devastating weather events including drought, frost, fires, flooding and heat, we are reminded of the potential for more frequent and extreme climate variability in the years ahead. Market dislocations due to weather have the potential to occur more frequently and more severely, impacting food prices around the globe. While much attention Read More
From the Trading Desk: Another Stock Rebound?
The CPI figure of 0.3% was lower than the estimate of 0.4% and significantly less than the 0.5% reading posted in July. The lower-than-expected figure offers some support to the Fed’s and Biden administration’s view that current high inflation levels will be temporary, as it shows prices surged less than expected in August. U.S. Stocks Read More
View from Crystal Bay: The Ballad of Kumtor Gold
Central Asia is the region between the Caspian Sea and China, bounded in the north by Russian Siberia and in the south by Iran and Afghanistan. In the old days, it was known under the names of Transoxiana or Western Turkestan. It was inhabited both by nomadic herders who roamed the steppes and by urban Read More