Searching For A New Theme
I feels like the markets are searching for a new theme. The signs of a U.S. dollar strength have scared off recent themes (falling dollar = rising risk assets). Combined with a Bank of America capital issuance and a desperate attempts of Citigroup and Wells Fargo to do the same have completely altered the investing landscape.
International headwinds (Dubai, Greece, Spain) brought the additional suspense.
U.K. imposed a new tax levy on banker bonuses and it is planing to raise income tax. Sometimes this kind of, on first sight, unimportant changes cause large sentiment swings. Bloomberg story: Darling Raises Taxes on Income to Curb Deficit.
Japan revised its third quarter GDP growth from 4.8% to 1.3%. I don’t understand how this large error is possible? Zero Hedge story: Absent Inventory “Bounce” Is Reason For Japanese GDP Miss.
I mentioned yesterday that U.S. government continuously stimulates the economy. Nice take on that from WSJ: Stimulus III.
And a mixed take on CRE and REIT IPO’s for the end. WSJ story: For REIT IPOs, Big Hit and One Miss. My opinion that we could have a nasty unwinding there in the near future. That’s why I am angry because my short IYR position was closed on a trailing stop loss order (away from the computer) yesterday at the trading session low. Will look for a reentry.