Benchmark JGB yield closes higher as stocks rally+

Stocks recovery rally to continue
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Stocks have had a great run since bottoming out nearly two years ago, and Wall Street experts anticipate 2011 to be no different. Investment Strategists and money managers expect the S&P 500 to rise 11%, on average, according to an exclusive CNNMoney survey. In fact, not one of the 32 experts surveyed by CNNMoney think the S&P 500 will decline this year. Email Print Comment "Everything seems to be in place for the Stock Market to rise," said Weeden &...;

Markets Vanish In a Flash
The historian Niall Ferguson (The Cash Nexus, War of the World) has written a paper on the risk imbedded in sovereign bond spreads between 1848 and 1914: "Political Risk and the International Bond Market Between the 1848 Revolution and the Outbreak of the First World War." Published in the Economic History Review earlier this year, his exhaustive study of weekly great-power bond prices (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia) comes to a surprising conclusion -...

Stocks push higher
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks pushed higher at the open, building on the previous session's optimism, as investors await key reports on factory orders and auto sales. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 27 points, or 0.2%; the S&P 500 (SPX) inched up 1 point, or 0.1%; and the NASDAQ (COMP) added 9 points, or 0.3% at the get-go Tuesday morning. Email Print Comment Stocks are coming off a rally on Monday, when the Dow closed at a fresh two-year high after Manufacturing and const...

What's Pushing Down Treasury Bonds? A Rising U.S. Economy
Stocks may be poised to deliver their best December performance in almost two decades, but it's the machinations in the Bond Market that have been captivating investors recently. The question on market-watchers minds is this: Does the recent rapid rise in yields on U.S. Government Bonds signal a return to economic normalization, or are the nation's creditors finally getting fed up with financing soaring U.S. Deficits? Both sides saw evidence to bolster their views this week. The doomsayers g...

How to Navigate the Bond Market in 2011
Related Articles 9 Strategies for This (Or Any) Market 50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2011 8 Investing Resolutions for 2011 The 100 Best Mutual Funds for the Long Term The outlook for the Bond Market in 2011 remains uncertain. Recently, treasury yields have moved upward, causing some investors to panic and forecasters to call for the end of the bond market's bull run. The big question: whether or not Interest Rates (and bond yields) will rise in the new year. That will depend on a num...

Morning Roundup: Americans Love a Good Bankruptcy
Goldman Sachs' investment in Facebook may help the social-networking site escape the added regulatory scrutiny that comes with an IPO. [NYT] On the other hand, the Securities and Exchange Commission is already conducting an inquiry into Goldman's plan to give its clients access to Facebook shares. Regulatory scrutiny may come one way or another. [Bloomberg] Many — as in 1.53 million — U.S. consumers filed for Bankruptcy in 2010. That's 9 percent more than the year before and also ...

Stocks turn mixed as an early 2011 rally pauses
Marc Rothman, second right, senior vice president and CFO of Motorola Mobility, and Dan Moloney, right, president of Motorola Mobility, visit the post where their company's stock is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. Describing the operation is specialist Evan Solomon, second left, as specialist Ned Zellis manages trades. A stock rally is pausing after indexes posted big gains to start the year the day before. Many investors are waiting for the Federal Res...

Stock rally pauses despite rising factory orders
NEW YORK -- A rally that pushed stocks up nearly 7 percent in December took a pause Tuesday as traders shrugged off a pickup in factory orders and a sharp rise in monthly sales from General Motors and Ford. Stock indexes started out with gains but mostly fell throughout the day, even after a better-than-expected report on factory orders for November. The Dow Jones Industrial average of 30 large company shares wound up slightly higher. Ryan Detrick, a senior analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Res...

FORTUNE: 2011: Year of the bank run?
The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose massive property-lending losses already have driven the government to accept an unpopular Bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Worse yet, it shows that the solutions policymakers slapped together in the fall of 2008 helped in some cases to create even bigger problems -- ones that are now coming due. Unconditionally guaranteeing bank deposits is just such a policy, in a country where loan loss...

2011: Year of the bank run?
2011: Year of the bank run? Posted by Colin Barr January 3, 2011 6:27 am Is a bank run about to bring Europe to its knees? Some market watchers say yes, pointing ominously to the torrents of money pouring out of Ireland. Not such a good bet Irish bank deposits declined in November for the fourth straight month, the Central Bank said last week. Overseas deposits fled the country at their fastest pace in more than a year. The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose ma...

2011: Year of the bank run?
Irish bank deposits declined in November for the fourth straight month, the Central Bank said last week. Overseas deposits fled the country at their fastest pace in more than a year. The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose massive property-lending losses already have driven the government to accept an unpopular Bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Worse yet, it shows that the solutions policymakers slapped together in the fall of 2008 h...

Commodities sell-off hits Asian stocks, dollar up
By Sanjeev Miglani Singapore | Tue Jan 4, 2011 10:39pm EST Singapore (Reuters) - Asian stocks slid on Wednesday following a broad commodities sell-off but the U.S. dollar edged higher after stronger-than expected U.S. factory data offered further evidence of an Economic Recovery. Oil fell for a second day as investors took profits from a sharp year-end rally. Gold inched up, though, after sinking more than 2 percent in the previous session. The fall in commodities to their Lowest Level in sev...

Stocks Rally to Ring in the First Session of 2011
Stocks started the new year with a robust rally Monday, helped by encouraging corporate and economic news that pushed the broad market to a 28-month high. The S&P 500 ($INX) has now reclaimed nearly 90% of its losses from the bear-market bottom of March 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) spent much of the day with a triple-digit gain before finishing up 93 points, or 0.8%, at 11,671. The blue-chip index last closed above that level in late August 2008, or just a couple weeks be...

Battle over the debt ceiling heats up
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Everybody's talking about Debt. No wonder: The country's tab is a whisker away from the current debt ceiling. The Rhetoric is already loud, harsh and, at times, misleading. And there is more to come. Email Print Comment Congress, Obama and your money To help counteract the half-truths and exaggerations, here are some debt ceiling facts worth noting. What is the debt ceiling exactly? It's a cap set by Congress on the amount of debt the Federal Government can legally borrow...

Fed Minutes: U.S. Economy Not Strong Enough to Wind Down QE2
When the Fed met last month, it -- like many Economists and business executives -- saw signs of improvement in the U.S. economy. But according to the minutes from the Fed's meeting, released Tuesday, the improvement wasn't enough to justify tapering its quantitative-easing bond-buying program, also known as QE2. The plan, announced in November, calls for the government to purchase $75 billion worth of bonds per month -- and up to $600 billion in assets through June -- to help stimulate the ec...

Food cost risk weighs on Supervalu, Safeway
By Lisa Baertlein Los Angeles | Tue Jan 4, 2011 1:23pm EST Los Angeles (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley advised investors to cut holdings in Supervalu Inc (SVU.N) and Safeway Inc (SWY.N) as rising food costs threaten to dent results, sending shares of two down 6.8 and 3.4 percent, respectively. Traditional U.S. Supermarket operators have been under intense pressure since the U.S. economy declined and their profits could be at risk if they are not able to raise prices to offset higher costs for food...

Nothing's Happening, So Stocks Are Just Floating Higher Again
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. There's been very little news so far this morning. No big econ data out of Europe or Asia. So... stocks are just floating higher again. Here's a look at the overnight activity....

Long Term Stock Market Growth (1871-2010)
I was kicking around some of the outstanding charts at Visualizing Economics, when these two below leapt out at me. The first chart shows the long term growth of the US Stock Market, using a smoothed exponential trendline, while the second adjusts the overall chart using a log scale. As I look at these two charts, a few things stand out to me: • Mean Reversion cannot be denied; • Growth Rates over very long periods of time are remarkably consistent; • This consistency is likely controlle

Blue fin tuna fetches record price at Tokyo's fish auction
A tuna has sold at auction for a record 32.49m yen in Tokyo, nearly $400,000 (£257,320). The fish was a blue fin, a variety prized for making the finest sushi. It was bought by a joint Japanese and Chinese bid. The first auction in January at Tokyo's Tsukji fish market is a cherished part of Japan's New Year celebrations, and record prices are often set. Japan is the world's biggest consumer of Seafood. After bells rang at 0500 local time (2000 GMT on Tuesday) to start the sa...

Giant tuna fetches record $396,000 in Tokyo
TOKYO - A giant bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000, in the first auction of the year at the world's largest wholesale fish market in Japan. The price for the 754-pound (342-kilogram) tuna beat the previous record set in 2001 when a 445-pound (202-kilogram) fish sold for 20.2 million yen at Tokyo's Tsukiji market. Japan is the world's biggest consumer of Seafood, with Japanese eating 80 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught. The two tuna specie...

Giant tuna fetches record $396,000 in Tokyo
TOKYO -- A giant bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000, in the first auction of the year at the world's largest wholesale fish market in Japan. The price for the 754-pound (342-kilogram) tuna beat the previous record set in 2001 when a 445-pound (202-kilogram) fish sold for 20.2 million yen at Tokyo's Tsukiji market. Japan is the world's biggest consumer of Seafood, with Japanese eating 80 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught. The two tuna species ar...

Tuna fetches record 32.49 mil. yen at year's 1st auction in Tokyo
Source: The Mainichi Daily News Tokyo (Kyodo) -- A bluefin tuna from Hokkaido fetched a record-high 32.49 million yen on Wednesday in the first auction of the year on the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, commonly known as Tsukiji market, market officials said. The price for the 342-kilogram tuna, caught off Toi in Japan's northernmost prefecture, is the highest since 1999 when comparable data became available. It was well above the previous record of 20.2 million yen marked in 2001. ...

Big tuna fetches record $396,000 in Tokyo
TOKYO (AP) — A giant bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000, in Tokyo on Wednesday, in the first auction of the year at the world’s largest wholesale fish market. The price for the 754-pound (342-kilogram) tuna beat the previous record set in 2001 when a 445-pound (202-kilogram) fish sold for 20.2 million yen, a spokesman for Tsukiji market said. “It was an exceptionally large fish,” said the official, Yutaka Hasegawa. “But we were all s...

Muni Investors Beware: America Is Full Of Chowchilla, Calif. Death Traps (MUN)
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Andrew Haigney is Managing Director of El CAP, a Registered Investment Advisor in the state of Vermont that provides investment-consulting services to individual investors, corporations, foundations, trustees, and endowments. Just prior to the full onset of the Financial Crisis, my wife and I left our jobs and put our belongings into storage and with our two toddlers embarked on a 12-month trip around the United States in a converted tour bus...

World Bank issues first yuan-denominated bond
The World Bank has issued its first yuan-denominated bond in a move that will help China as it tries to increase the use of its currency in global markets. The Washington-based lender said Tuesday it would raise 500 million yuan (76 million US dollars) from the two-year bond issue on Hong Kong's yuan-denominated Bond Market. The move will "further deepen the market and permit investors to diversify their currency holdings and expand Renminbi exposure", the World Bank said in a statement, using t...