cartoon by Jonny Hawkins

Bloomberg: The nation’s largest hedge funds had $1.47 trillion in net assets and more than $1 trillion in borrowings as of the fourth quarter, according to the first report compiled on confidential data they provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC’s Division of Investment Management issued the report to Congress last week using figures…

Here’s where the major markets stand in 2013 through the end of July (via Bank of America Merrill Lynch). As you can see by the YTD column, hedging activity or diversification of any kind with either treasurys, gold or vix options has cost many portfolios quite a bit. The key is to remember that this…

This morning we learned that the US economy created only 162,000 jobs in July, but enough people were killed by drones or amusement park rides so that the unemployment rate actually ticked down to 7.4%. This number will be revised up and then revised down or in the reverse order at some point in the…

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Justified or not, it happened. The proximate cause for today’s rally – a big jump in the monthly ISM survey included stellar strength in New Orders. Plus, weekly jobless claims dropped to a level not seen since January of 2008 – five and half years ago. In addition, global markets rallied overnight as China put…

Merrill Lynch’s wealth management biz has become the crown jewel for Bank of America recently. Its results have shone brightly in the last few earnings reports in terms of both profits and growth. So of course, it’s time to screw around with it. The Wall Street Journal’s Corrie Dreibusch: Bank of America Corp. BAC +2.19% plans to raise fees…