Bloomberg (February 21)
“The American love affair with stocks is deepening as everyone from frenetic day-traders to staid institutions dive further into the market…. While aspects of the craze—the growing obsession with penny stocks and options, primarily—are the basis for daily warnings about a bubble, bulled-up positioning is proving a sturdy backbone for the rally.”
Tags: Backbone, Bubble, Craze, Day-traders, Institutions, Market, Options, Penny stocks, Staid, Stocks, U.S., Warnings
Washington Post (November 30)
“The NFL was a joke Sunday, at a time when nothing about the coronavirus warrants laughter. In Baltimore, the Ravens reported a positive test for the eighth straight day, further jeopardizing a twice-delayed game against the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. In the Bay Area, the San Francisco 49ers were rendered temporarily homeless, if they want to keep playing football, because of local restrictions.” Make no mistake. “The coronavirus is in charge, and it is raging once again…. It’s impossible to play football out in the open, without a bubble environment”
Tags: 49ers, Baltimore, Bubble, Coronavirus, Delayed, Football, Joke, NFL, Pittsburgh, Positive test, Raging, Ravens, Restrictions, San Francisco, Steelers
USA Today (October 7)
The “superspreader” event in the Rose Garden will go down in history. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the “maskless Supreme Court nomination ceremony turned into a form of biological attack on the top echelons of U.S. government.” Symbolic of “America’s failing response to the novel coronavirus,” the event was “a sad brew of hubris and misapplied science.” White House officials and guests mistakenly thought “they could frolic in a kind of virus-free bubble, exempted from the preventative measures that have reshaped and constrained the lives of millions of average Americans.”
Tags: Biological attack, Bubble, Ceremony, COVID-19, Failing, Frolic, History, Hubris, Maskless, Nomination, Pandemic, Rose Garden, Superspreader, Supreme Court, U.S.
New York Times (August 9)
The $30 trillion U.S. stock market hogs the attention, but “the larger domestic debt market—at around $41 trillion for the bond market alone—reveals more about our nation’s financial health. And right now, the debt market is broadcasting a dangerous message: Investors, desperate for debt instruments that pay high interest, have been overpaying for riskier and riskier obligations…. with little concern that bonds can be every bit as dangerous to own as stocks.” The mispricing of risk is still rampant and when spreads rise and defaults begin, “trillions of dollars in invested capital could be lost.” Although, we’re not necessarily “on the verge of a recession. But the corporate debt bubble inevitably will play a role in causing it.”
Tags: Bonds, Bubble, Dangerous, Debt market, Desperate, Interest, Investors, Mispricing, Overpaying, Recession, Riskier, Stock market, U.S.
Euromoney (March 3)
“At what point does a boom become a bubble? The question needs to be asked in Asian high yield, where year-to-date issuance volumes are fast approaching the figure for the whole of 2016 in China and have already long exceeded it in India and Indonesia – after just eight weeks of the year, one of which was a write-off for Chinese New Year.”
Washington Post (January 14)
“The China bubble has burst,” but the nation’s trajectory remains unclear. “The worst outcome—a doomsday scenario—would have China fostering worldwide deflation. Its growth would continue to deteriorate sharply, extending the decline in commodity prices and the weakness of global trade. Around the world, there would be more production cuts, layoffs and bankruptcies.”
Tags: Bankruptcies, Bubble, Burst, China, Commodity prices, Deflation, Doomsday, Global trade, Layoffs, Outcome, Production cuts, Unclear, Worst
Bloomberg (June 17)
“It’s no longer a question of whether China’s stock-market rally is a bubble, but when the bubble will burst That’s the refrain from a growing number of analysts as valuations climb to levels that by some measures already exceed the peak of China’s last equity mania in 2007.”
Tags: Analysts, Bubble, China, Equity, Rally, Stock market, Valuations
Forbes (March 13)
“Like Iceland in its heyday, Singapore’s economic stability and vitality – on the surface at least – has made it the envy of the world at a time when most Western economies are languishing with feeble growth, and high rates of unemployment and poverty.” And, just like Iceland, the Switzerland of Asia will suffer when its economic bubble is punctured. In the meantime, “Singapore’s bubble economy may continue inflating for several more years if the U.S. Fed Funds Rate and SIBOR continue to be held at such low levels.”
Tags: Asia, Bubble, Economic stability, Fed, Growth, Iceland, Poverty, SIBOR, Singapore, Switzerland, U.S., Unemployment, Western economies
Financial Times (January 6, 2014)
After spectacular performance in 2012, some fear the U.S. stock market is set for a correction. “For now, these worries are probably overstated. The current outlook has little in common with the rampant overconfidence that accompanied the great speculative excesses of the past. But there are reasons to believe that the preconditions for a bubble are in place.”
Tags: Bubble, Excess, Outlook, Overconfidence, Performance, Stock market, U.S., Worries
Financial Times (August 7)Financial Times (August 7)
Gold has risen to $1,900 an ounce from $280 a decade ago. “The total market value of all the gold in existence…exceeds the combined capitalisation of the German, Chinese and Japanese stock markets.” When the gold bubble will end remains a question, but by some yardsticks it’s nearing a correction. “Gold is at a 120-year high (at least) relative to US house prices. Likewise, it is at a 74-year high relative to US wages, at multi-generation highs relative to wheat, coffee and cocoa.”
“Trust has broken down between IPO vendors and issuers and traditional investors in new stock offerings in Europe. Deal arrangers seem incapable of bridging the valuation gap between the two sides.” Issuer focus on achieving high valuation is colliding with investor expectation to buy at a discount. As a result, 50% of Europe’s large planned IPOs failed this year. The situation is only slightly better for IPOs of all sizes. “In the first seven months of this year, 143 initial public offerings were priced for European issuers, while 50 others, over one-third as many, were either announced and then postponed or launched and then pulled. That’s a very high failure rate.”
