A survey’s bears way outnumber bulls. Good!
SECOND-LONGEST BEARISH STREAK: Just 28.6% of consumers surveyed by the Conference Board expect higher stock prices over the coming year, while 37.5% expect lower prices, resulting in…
Companies need to stop with earnings-guidance nonsense
ENOUGH ALREADY: Ugh. Wall Street’s and corporate America’s obsession with quarterly earnings kabuki really is pointless. “[Researchers at the University of Iowa] conducted in-depth interviews with some financial managers, most of…
Three cheers for the gaming of Libor
A CONVENIENT FICTION: Hang on. Is anyone surprised that at the depth of the 2008 credit crunch, when banks basically had no clue what their counterparties’…
Watch out. Rents are growing faster than incomes.
KEEP AN EYE ON APARTMENT RENT GROWTH: Since the pandemic began, apartment rents have grown at a much faster pace than incomes have. The median renter in…
Banks, start boosting your loan yields
BANKERS, RAISE YOUR LOAN YIELDS WHERE YOU CAN: In the first quarter of this year, the average loan yield at regional banks was 5.36% and the daily…
Credit gets back to normal
CREDIT NORMALIZATION: For the last year I’ve talked a lot about the process of credit normalization this cycle. It began with rising consumer delinquencies starting at the…
Investors are griping about . . . share buybacks?
BAD TAKE WATCH: Um, what? “RECORD BUYBACK SPREE ATTRACTS SHAREHOLDER COMPLAINTS “Record levels of share buybacks are attracting complaints from a growing number of prominent investors…
A looming short squeeze for bank stocks? Maybe!
WAY OUT OF FAVOR: A highly enjoyable short squeeze in bank stocks might be just around the corner! Fund managers surveyed by Bank of America say…
Slow to catch up
OUT OF THE BARN: How helpful! After bank stocks crashed and burned in the month of March . . . . . . the rating agencies…
Banks still lag in digital account-opening. That’s bad.
DIGITAL ACCOUNT-OPENING STILL A DISAPPOINTMENT: I thought improving the digital account-opening process was a problem that would be solved five years ago, but I was wrong, and…