In the EU referendum the UK said no to the EU’s bureaucracy, and that was indeed the people’s refusal of any bureaucratic failures in general, in which the OECD should be counted, as proven by its own reactions to Brexit.
As a result of the referendum, the UK regained several rights of freedom, one of which is fiscal freedom. The EU imposes austerity to its member countries, and they are required to maintain their budget deficit below 3% of their GDP, and thus the UK is now ready to enjoy their freedom outside the EU.
The earning releases of the US shale oil firms have been published in May 2016, whilst the oil price is rebounding from its bottom. The following is the chart of the WTI crude oil futures:
Then, how are the financial situations of the US shale oil industry? Would the financial results justify the recent rebound?
In the first quarter of 2016, Japan’s real GDP grew -0.05% (year-on-year), slowing down from 0.85% in the previous quarter. This is the first time since 2013 for Japan’s economy to grow negatively, excluding the four quarters after the consumption tax hike.
The Form 13F for the first quarter of 2016 has been published, and the portfolios of hedge fund managers revealed.
In the disclosure, Mr George Soros’s Soros Fund Management appeared to have started positions in gold and a gold miner and also to have continued short selling of US stocks as he claimed in Davos in January 2016.
Since the first rate hike in Dec 2015, the Fed has been in the course of normalizing interest rates. Although we as well as many of the famed hedge fund managers expect the central bank will eventually cease raising rates and resume easing, it is still reasonable to assume one or two rate hikes in 2016 are still possible.
Even if it happens, rate cuts will follow it anyway, but it is important for investors to consider how to trade on the temporary monetary tightening. As federal funds rates futures expect only one rate hike in 2016, two rate hikes will be a surprise if it happens.
The GDP data of the US economy for the first quarter of 2016 is published, and the real GDP growth turned out to be 1.95% (year-on-year), slightly slowing down from 1.98% in the previous quarter.
As the economic growth in mid 2015 was greater than 2%, the figure indicates the economy has decelerated after the Fed ceased quantitative easing.
The crude oil price is surging even after the disagreement in the oil producers’ meeting in Doha, but it will try its bottom again soon. The only thing that has changed in the oil market is the price, and the long-term oversupply of oils would not change as nobody is willing to cut their production.
In the long-term chart, the oil price seems just trying to recover after a radical fall. Is this so-called a dead-cat bounce? We presume so and will explain the reasons.
S&P 500 has recovered from the plunge in the beginning of 2016. Many famed hedge fund managers published their own view on the stock market, and who has been right so far? We would like to review the predictions by great investors such as George Soros, Ray Dalio and Bill Gross.
The oil price is surging as investors expect the oil producers’ meeting in Doha on 17th of April could stop the oversupply of oils, and so the WTI crude oil price is now trading in $40s. This could provide a very good opportunity for investors to short sell.
In 2016, the Fed is trying to raise interest rates. The US economy is actually starting to decelerate, but the Core CPI (excluding food and enegies) is edging higher. If this uptrend is long-term, the Fed might be forced to rush for rate hikes undesirably.
Will that happen? Is the US economy going into stagnation? In this article we argue the outlook of inflation in the US and its influence on rate hikes, the stock markets and the gold price.
