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While last week certainly had its share of risk events that helped move currencies, the major theme in currency trading was continued weakening/consolidation for the U.S. dollar.
This week, the weakening will be a key focus for us. We have some very weighty top-tier data events occurring in the next few days.
This window of opportunity won't stay open for long, however...
by Shah Gilani
Today, in New York, investors will be pitched the first-ever REO-to-rental securitization deal. The $500 million deal bundles foreclosed single-family homes, "real-estate-owned" by Blackstone Group, into securities that pass-through rental payments to investors.
The new securitization of rental properties comes at a time when home prices have rebounded dramatically across the country. But rather than confirming a bull market in housing, the "trade," as Reuters calls the transaction, likely heralds a coming double-dip.
The upward trajectory of housing prices, fueled by private equity companies and hedge funds' cash purchases, now faces institutional liquidity demands – and their potential exit.
Here's what the Blackstone deal is all about, why its structure is problematic, how the ratings agencies will view it, and what it portends for the future.
For her sake, it's a good thing Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius isn't working in the private sector.
If she did, the former Kansas governor would be out on the street right now. (By the time you read this, she might be.)
and there’s still plenty of upside…
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Money Morning Capital Wave Strategist Shah Gilani joined Stuart Varney of FOX Business' "Varney & Co." today (Tuesday) to talk about the latest potential social media IPO on the horizon – Snapchat.
Snapchat is a social network that emphasizes privacy; compare it to Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), which touts the benefits of openness. Snapchat finds benefits in keeping conversations and pictures from spilling over to your entire list of contacts.
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Since the mid-1990s, China and a host of other foreign governments have quietly acquired one-third of all United States public debt. Foreign holders of United States debt held more than $5.6 trillion in Treasury securities as of August 2013.
But continued debt-ceiling drama in the United States is starting to change that.
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The curtain has risen and fallen on America's latest piece of political theater, and the last minute debt-ceiling deal pushed the next one to early February.
Although economists will probably argue for years about the "real cost" of the federal shutdown in terms of lost wages or productivity, the drama has already impacted America's credit rating.
Here's are the world's safest places to put your money right now...
by David Zeiler
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has a strong quarter ahead of it, and plenty of catalysts to drive the Apple stock price higher, but you'd never know it from the reaction to yesterday's (Monday's) earnings report.
Investors, it seems, can't get past an admittedly murky Apple earnings report.
Here's why he thinks Apple is going gangbusters...
by David Zeiler
Small-cap stocks don't get much attention, but in 2013 they've certainly outshined their larger brethren.
While the financial media focused its daily attention on The Dow Jones Industrial Average, and to some extent the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, the best stocks to buy in terms of largest gains were in the Russell 2000 index.
The performance of small-cap stocks this year has been nothing less than remarkable.
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After more than 30 years in the markets, I've seen all kinds of new technologies that are supposed to change the world. Most are pumped by little-known companies with overly hyped marketing, aggressive underwriters, and little more than vaporware. To say I'm jaded would be an understatement.
But I ran across something recently that positively made my mouth drop.
We already know about 3D printing. It's all the rage right now, because you can buy a printer for a few thousand bucks and cook up whatever your computer can plot.
But 4D printing?
I don't know whether to be terrified or excited as all hell about this.
In the middle of earnings season, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is claiming center stage as it readies to release its fourth-quarter results after the closing bell today (Monday).
Apple stock is up 0.5% at $528.34 today, having risen nearly 25% since its last earnings report, and today's results will include the initial impact of the company's latest iPhone and iPad release. AAPL is trading in a 52-week range of $3.85 to $614.00 and at about 13 times forward earnings.
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