Good: 1. There was little change in the rhetoric from the G7 about Japan’s aggressive easing policies Read here 2. Retail Sales beat estimates Read here 3. Small businesses confidence rose to a 6-month high, helped by a stronger economy. Read here 4. Home builder Confidence topped estimates and rose 3 points to 44 in May. Read here 5. US [...]

Housing Starts Plunge 16.5% in April! The Commerce Department said that starts at building sites for homes plunged -16.5 percent last month to a 853,000-unit annual rate. That was below analysts’ expectations of a 945,000-unit rate. Definition: A housing start is registered at the start of construction of a new building intended primarily as a [...]

This disconnect is certainly one of the more remarkable features of the risk-on rally since 2011. Here’s an illustration from Julian Jessop at Capital Economics via FT Alphaville: Source: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/05/14/chart-o-the-day-the-stocks-commodities-disconnect/ It seems as though this makes no sense at all - shouldn’t commodities be benefiting from the same easy money policies as stocks are? - but the explanation can [...]

Curious how the student loan bubble, just shy of $1 trillion, and now the largest debt portion of the US household non-mortgage wallet,  bigger than credit card and auto loan debt – affects your state? Then the following three charts just out from the NY Fed are for you. What the data shows is that less than [...]

Good: 1. The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its benchmark cash rate at its monthly meeting overnight, shaving a further quarter-point off yields to 2.75%.  Read here 2.German factory orders beat estimates in March. Read here 3. Chinese exports and imports grew more than expected in April Read here 4. U.S. consumer credit rose by $8.0 billion in March which was [...]

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-aol-vs-netflix-2013-5

SOURCE: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/09/colorado-health-insurance-exchange-seeks-another-125-million-to-implement-obamacare/

SOURCE: http://washingtonexaminer.com/hhs-budgets-150m-to-teach-people-how-to-enroll-in-obamacare/article/2529290

SOURCE: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-03/elliotts-singer-bernanke-destroying-value-money-and-uprooting-basic-stability-societ