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Michael Hartnett and the investment strategy team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently warned that the "risks of a bond crash are high." "While our core asset allocation remains bullish on equities and bearish on bonds, the risks of a risk-negative bond crash a la 1987, 1994 and 1998 remain...

The whole world has been anxiously waiting for this moment. The Federal Reserve will wrap up its 2-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday. At 2:00 PM ET, it will publish its FOMC statement as well as an update to its economic forecasts. Then at 2:30 PM ET, Fed Chairman Ben...

Last night, President Obama said in an interview, "Well, I think Ben Bernanke's done an outstanding job. Ben Bernanke's a little bit like Bob Mueller, the head of the FBI - where he's already stayed a lot longer than he wanted or he was supposed to." That raised some eyebrows and really...

Investors seem to fall a little bit less in love with Internet brokerage firms with each passing year. Overall investor satisfaction with self-directed investment firms dropped 16 points from 2012 in the latest J.D. Power & Associates 2013 U.S. Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction StudySM. The study measures how happy investors are with not...

The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the immigration bill currently being debated in the Senate would reduce the federal budget deficit by $875 billion over the first 20 years it becomes law.  The CBO said in its official scoring of the bill that it would reduce the deficit by $175...

FURTHER FURTHER READING - The (happily?) dull state of econoblogging.Continue reading: The Closer...

Spiking SHIBOR, an interest rate used among banks, has been showing signs of liquidity stress in China. We previously explained that the spike in SHIBOR, or the Shanghai interbank offered rate, could be attributed to demand for cash ahead of the Dragon boat festival which took place last week, decline in Forex...

Fox Business Network has terminated the contract of contributor Tobin Smith, who was paid $50,000 to tout the stock of Petrosonic Energy, a network spokesperson told Business Insider.  Smith's contract was terminated under the network's contributor policy, which states that "no contributor to FBN, nor his/her firm, and/or family members are allowed...

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisors. Hedge Funds Were Net Sellers Of U.S. Stocks (BAML h/t The Reformed Broker) The S&P 500 was down 1% last week and Bank of America Merrill Lynch clients were net buyers of U.S....

There are gold bears, gold bulls, and gold bugs. And then there's Ron Paul. The former congressman and presidential candidate is known for favoring gold, and he still believes it will go higher. How much higher? "Eventually, if we're not carefully, it will go to infinity, because the dollar will collapse totally," Paul...

Investors and traders fueled yet another big rally in the stock markets. First, the scoreboard: Dow: 15,318.2 +138.3 +0.9% S&P 500: 1,651.8 +12.7 +0.7% NASDAQ: 3,482.1 +30.0 +0.8% And now, the top stories: This week has been all about Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve, which started its two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting today. Tomorrow, they will...

Since early May, interest rates on 30-year fixed rate mortgages rose about half a percentage point, from 3.6% to 4.1%, leading some analysts to wonder: Is the great once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy a house going away?"  The reality is that yes, rates are creeping up (emphasis on creeping) but prospective home buyers shouldn't...

Many people are baffled as to why anyone thinks it would be a good idea for King, maker of the super-addictive mobile phone game Candy Crush Saga, to file an IPO. Bad things happen to mobile game companies who want to sell equity on the stock market, as Zynga has recently...

Thirty-one year-old penny stock trader Timothy Sykes spoofed Ben Affleck's famous speech from "Boiler Room" in a YouTube video promoting his trading education company. Here's Sykes' version: "I'm a millionaire.  It's weird, right? I'll tell ya, it's a weird thing to say. I'm a f------g millionaire!...I made my first million when I was...

Everyone knows the commodities supercycle is coming to an end as a result of slowing demand in China.  In a new note, Deutsche Bank's Taimur Baig and Jun Ma zero in specifically on the implications for declining global oil demand.  We just saw its (declining) prospects in BP's statistical energy review last...

The U.S. Treasury Department has just revealed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's new official signature. Check it out:  Here it is. Secretary Jack Lew’s official #signature as it will appear on U.S. currency starting this fall pic.twitter.com/Jvid5uOgBA — Treasury Department (@US Treasury) June 18, 2013 You can compare the new signature to his old one....

So, a plurality of the Finnish public may just agree with FT Alphaville. Click to enlarge. That’s a Gallup poll by Helsingin Sanomat on the Finnish government’s Greek ‘collateral’.Continue reading: Finland has a collateral credibility issue...

What to make of the 7 per cent levy which Hungary is imposing on bank holdings of local government debt? This is debt that is being assumed by the central government. So, it was curious to see the government insist on Tuesday that its $219m tax collection isn’t a hidden...

18th June 2013 The G8 has started a rollback in corporate secrecy by beginning the process of eradicating anonymous shell companies that enable corruption, tax evasion and state looting, said Global Witness today. However, the majority of G8 countries have not yet...

Kuroding yields and a Nikkei rout have put Abenomics on the back foot. Goldman strategists Naohiko Baba, Chiwoong Lee and Yuriko Tanaka’s considered opinion is that Haruhiko Kuroda is just, well, bad at central banker speak. They think the loss of “any positive market reaction” to Japan’s unprecedented easing has “largely been...