The minutes from the August 7 Fed meeting were released yesterday, showing that Fed heads were feeling a little torn and uncertain about the effect of subprime mortgages on the overall U.S. economy, but expected “a return to normal market conditions” – although it may take a while. Of course, everything that happened after that [...]
August 30th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 2 comments | ContinuedArchive for Kate Incontrera
Kate Incontrera is the managing editor of The Daily Reckoning. She is also the author of The Daily Reckoning's Weekend Edition, a weekly wrap-up of contrarian investment analysis.
U.S. Consumer Confidence Experiences Sharpest Fall Since Hurricane Katrina
Here’s a shocker: consumer confidence in the United States is down the most since Hurricane Katrina hit two years ago. Honestly, what do consumers have to be confident about? The markets are up and down – but mostly down… jobs aren’t exactly plentiful, wages are going nowhere… mortgages are harder to pay… houses are worth [...]
August 29th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 0 comments | Continued
Home Equity ATM Tapped Out, Hello High Interest Debt
Looks like the home ATM is tapped out. Home lending has down-shifted in the past few months, and more and more homeowners are finding it nearly impossible to use their home equity line of credit to pay for their credit card bill, a practice that has become widespread in the past few years of EZ [...]
August 28th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 1 comment | Continued
Living Without China in Our Lives
This year, our annual Agora Financial Symposium going on right now in Vancouver is based around the crisis and opportunity found in global investing – with an emphasis on Asia. So, as we flipped through the paper today, we had China on the brain. An article called “Living Without Chinese Imports” caught our eye. Hmmm…it [...]
July 25th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 1 comment | Continued
China Construction Boom Boosts Steel Demand
“You wouldn’t believe the amount of construction that’s going on China,” our friend, and director of our upcoming documentary reported upon his return from the Far East. “Construction cranes crowded every street.” It’s looking like the construction boom isn’t just confined to China; according to the U.S. Census Bureau, “spending on nonresidential construction was up [...]
May 31st, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 0 comments | Continued
Water Most Precious Commodity of 21st Century
As we’ve mentioned in these pages before, there is a commodity that is often overlooked by investors: water. Well, we’re willing to bet that those days are coming to an end, as crumbling water infrastructure opens up opportunities for water companies worldwide to step up to the plate. In the United States alone, there are [...]
April 18th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 0 comments | Continued
More Volatility To Come In Grain Markets, Ethanol Demand
China’s trade surplus almost doubled in the first quarter, widening to USD$46.4 billion – up from USD$23.3 billion in 2006. “Obviously, the U.S. consumer isn’t finished buying flat screen TVs from Wal-Mart!” EverBank’s Chuck Butler told us. “Not as long as the credit card companies keep sending out credit cards to every Tom, Dick and [...]
April 12th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 1 comment | Continued
Strong Job Market A Load Of BLS
Surprise, surprise… “Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record High in First Quarter” reads a headline on CNBC.com. CNBC’s Steve Liesman (there’s a name you can trust) reports, “Delinquency rates are up in 44 of the 50 states.” An analyst for Moody’s Economy.com thinks that we are nowhere near the bottom of this housing free-fall – especially as [...]
April 11th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 2 comments | Continued
HSBC Has ‘Household’ Problems
The ECB opted to leave interest rates as is yesterday, and the Bank of England followed suit, triggering a major sell-off in the British pound against the U.S. dollar, euro and Japanese yen. This sell-off against the dollar was intensified by a WSJ report, released yesterday, saying that the United Kingdom’s #1 bank, HSBC (LON: [...]
February 12th, 2007 | Kate Incontrera | 2 comments | Continued
