The enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it’s the illusion of knowledge (Stephen Hawking)

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so (Mark Twain)

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NEW$ & VIEW$ (30 JUNE 2016)

China to tolerate weaker yuan, wary of trade partners’ reaction – Reuters’ sources

China’s central bank is willing to let the yuan fall to 6.8 per dollar in 2016 to support the economy, which would mean the currency matching last year’s record decline of 4.5 percent, policy sources said. (…)

“The central bank is willing to see yuan depreciation, as long as depreciation expectations are under control,” said a government economist, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“The Brexit vote was a big shock. The market volatility may last for some time.” (…)

GM’s U.S. Market Share Shrinks as Auto Sales Peak U.S. market share for the nation’s largest car maker has tumbled to a more than three decade low amid strong demand as its dealers say they are saddled with too many cars and too few pickups and SUVs.

(…) Its current 16.7% chunk of the domestic market is a more-than-three-decade low for the nation’s largest auto maker. In contrast, No. 2 U.S. auto maker Ford Motor Co. has crept up to 15.3% and should inch closer in June, say analysts.

While GM executives have pinned the decline on a decision to sell fewer low-margin fleet vehicles, its inability to keep up with sizzling demand for pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles also plays a major role in the decline. (…)

IMF Says Brexit Clouds Germany’s Growth Outlook

(…) The IMF further forecast that German economic growth will slow to 1.5% next year from an estimated 1.7% this year, but cautioned that its estimates are already outdated and that it will release new forecasts as part of its World Economic Outlook in mid-July. (…)

ECB No Closer to Inflation Target After Series of Stimulus Measures

(…) Eurostat said consumer prices were 0.1% higher than in June 2015, having been 0.1% below their year-earlier level in May. (…) In June, core inflation—which excludes items such as food and energy, the prices of which are set mainly in world markets—picked up to 0.9% from 0.8% in May, but remained below the 1.0% rate recorded at the start of the year. (…)

SENTIMENT WATCH
U.S. funds hold portfolios steady, equities near survey lows: Reuters poll

(…) The survey of 13 U.S. fund managers conducted June 15-30 but with all responses coming in after the Brexit vote, showed that global equity allocations accounted for 51.1 percent of the model portfolio in June.

That was unchanged after four months of falls. Bond allocations came to 35.7 percent, according to the survey.

Those allocations have been steady this year but are down considerably compared with early 2013, when they stood above 60 percent for equities and below 35 percent for bonds, suggesting a shift towards assets seen as safer over the past three years. (…)

Soros: Brexit Has ‘Unleashed’ a Financial-Markets Crisis

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has “unleashed” a crisis in financial markets similar to the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, George Soros told the European Parliament in Brussels.

“This has been unfolding in slow motion, but Brexit will accelerate it. It is likely to reinforce the deflationary trends that were already prevalent,” the billionaire investor said on Thursday. (…)

Fed Clears 31 of 33 Big Banks to Boost Returns to Investors The largest U.S. banks got permission from regulators to return profits to investors, but the U.S. units of Deutsche Bank and Banco Santander were held back again.

(…) Overall, the 2016 stress tests reflect the Fed’s view that the banking sector is much stronger than it was leading up to the 2008 bailouts. Bank regulators have steadily raised capital requirements for the largest banks since the crisis to make banks—and the financial system—more resilient and better able to absorb losses. The changes have forced banks to fund themselves with less borrowed money and more investor funds, such as common equity that can’t flee when market turmoil strikes, and many analysts said those changes helped contain the damage from the Brexit market rout. (…)

​Banks that received approval for their capital plans will be able to pay out as much as around two-thirds of projected net income for the coming four quarters, a senior Fed official said. That also means, though, that banks will continue to retain capital, which could also reassure investors worried about their ability to withstand any continuing Brexit-related market tumult. (…)

(…) Gerard Cassidy at RBC said Citigroup was set to distribute $10.4bn in dividends and buybacks, Bank of America $8bn and JPMorgan Chase $17.4bn — each up more than half from a year ago. (…)

From the FT’s Lex column:

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Clinton Leads Trump 44%-38% in Fox News Poll

NEW$ & VIEW$ (29 JUNE 2016)

My timing was pretty good. Apart from Brexit (from the Euro and out of the Euro Soccer ball), there wasn’t much on the eco and finance world in recent days. But the Atlantic salmon was very present on the Moisie River.

U.S. Consumer Spending Rose 0.4% in May Consumer spending climbed in May, suggesting a key pillar of the U.S. economy has bounced back after a lackluster start to the year.

Personal spending, which measures how much Americans paid for everything from autos to airfare, increased 0.4% in May from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Consumption had climbed a revised 1.1% in April and was flat in March. (…)

Personal income, which includes wages, government benefits and other sources, climbed 0.2% in May. Wages and salaries advanced 0.2%. (…) The personal saving rate in May was 5.3%, the lowest level of the year and well down from a near-term peak of 6% in March.

The personal-consumption expenditures price index rose 0.2% in May from the prior month. From a year earlier, the index climbed 0.9%.

So-called “core” prices, which exclude the volatile categories of food and energy, climbed 0.2% from the prior month and 1.6% from a year earlier.

From Bloomberg:

After adjusting for inflation, which generates the figures used to calculate gross domestic product, purchases rose 0.3 percent in May after a 0.8 percent increase in April that was also the biggest gain since August 2009.

Here’s the darker way of looking at the same numbers:

After an exuberant April, spiking hope that everything was awesome with a surge in spending, May has dragged US consumers back down to earth. The 1.1% (revised) jump in spending in April (highest since Aug 09) is over as May’s 0.4% gain is back in the land of ‘normal’ once again. Income rose just 0.2% MoM (less than expected) slowing dramatically from last month to near the weakest YoY growth since March 2014. The savings rate fell once again on the back of this (down 0.1%) to 5.3%. (…)


Pending Home Sales Skid in May

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, slid 3.7 percent to 110.8 in May from a downwardly revised 115.0 in April and is now slightly lower (0.2 percent) than May 2015 (111.0). With last month’s decline, the index reading is still the third highest in the past year, but declined year-over-year for the first time since August 2014.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says pending sales slumped in May across most of the country.