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Showing 171 - 180 of 588 results for "Virginia"

Lies, stats and damned double seasonal adjustments

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 19 MAY 2015
... first-quarter growth fairly consistently, even though they are adjusted to try to account for seasonal patterns." Yes Virginia, that advance estimate of 0.2% annualised rate of GDP growth the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported the US economy ...

Damned lies and (actual) stats

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 18 MAY 2015
... consumer spending that lifts business profitability and investments, lifts wages and strengthen consumer spending. Yes Virginia, the BOJ is not engaging in a propaganda of untruths but in wishful thinking - hoping and wishing and praying that someday ...

Follow the money

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 15 MAY 2015
... dividend payouts) - both of which sends share prices on the up and up. Never you mind soft and/or shrinking profits, Virginia. "Celebrate good times, come on". Perhaps when the Fed finally does lift-off, Wall Street will go the same way they did the ...

Budget for uncertainty

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 12 MAY 2015
... trade, and then... it sputtered, it seized up to end 9.32 points (0.2%) from its pre-"Mother's Day" closing level. Yes Virginia, what the "F" indeed? It couldn't be the Australian dollar, it traded down to below US$0.79 compared with Friday's close of ...

Bond bears out of hibernation

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 7 MAY 2015
If even a dog can have his day, why not bears? Can't blame 'em Virginia, it's May after all - that month of the year when you, I and Irene are supposed to "sell and go away". But, but... but it may be more than the seasonality this May that's' taking ...

What might trigger a sell-off?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 21 APR 2015
Impressive! Nah Virginia, I refer not to the big bouncy bouncy Wall Street and European equity markets did last night - which almost instantaneously affirmed the rant I scribbled on this space yesterday that "the bad and the bad and the bad" that spooked ...

A fantabulous set of jobs numbers

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 17 APR 2015
... jobs data was released, while swaps data compiled by Bloomberg has it coming in from 73 per cent to 57 per cent". Yes Virginia, there's now almost an even chance that the RBA will remain away in May as it did in March and April. The A$ gamblers thinks ...

China's trade trouble

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 14 APR 2015
Crrr-unch! That's the sound of China's trade numbers collapsing. And it was a thunderous thud, Virginia. The country's trade surplus shrank to US$3.08 billion in March from $60.6 bil in February and expectations for a US$40 bil print. With imports dropping ...

Floating in money

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 13 APR 2015
What lifts all boats? Nah, Virginia, it's no longer "a rising tide" - not if you believe the IMF's latest annual World Economic Outlook (WEO) report published this month where it printed, "Output across advanced and emerging market economies remains ...

The first is always the best

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 9 APR 2015
... increasing by just 126,000 in March against expectations for a 247,000 addition and the lowest gain since December 2013. Yes Virginia. What hope do we lesser mortals have if even the great minds at the world's biggest central bank couldn't decide on ...