Kevin Hawkins's (kevinhawkins) Blog

Wall Street gave investors a wild ride, in a week that began with the death of Osama bin Laden and ended on a mixed April jobs report. The net result was that after two weeks of gains, all three major stock indexes slid a bit. Commodities also took a hit, with crude oil prices off almost 15% for ...

While Crude Oil is trading north of $100 today, last week's 15% decline was the first time that Crude has been under $100 a barrel for two months. Bloomberg notes that this weekly decline was the biggest one seen since 2008. Unfortunately the price drop may be short-lived, according to reports to...

Forecasting Federal Reserve policy changes in coming months...Even though more economists are talking about the need for the Fed to raise the Funds rate to curb inflation, virtually none believe Chairman Bernanke will listen to them any time soon. Note: In the lower chart, a 1% probability of cha...

Weaker than expected economic data tends to send bond prices up and interest rates down, while positive data points to lower bond prices and rising loan rates. Economic Calendar for the Week of May 9 - May 13  Date Time (ET) Release For Consensus Prior Impact WMay 11 08:30 Trade Balance Mar -$46....

Last week (ending April 29, 2011), bond prices moved higher, reacting positively to the tame inflation report and the slowing economic recovery reflected in the lower GDP growth number. The price of the FNMA 4.0% bond we watch ended the week UP .97, closing at $99.17. Higher mortgage bond prices ...

Last week's reports showed the progress of the housing market recovery is definitely on a zigzag trajectory. Zigging upward were new home sales, UP a strong 11.1% in March, hitting the 300,000 threshold annual rate. The supply of new homes dropped to 7.3 months and the inventory fell again, to it...

Once again, investors on Wall Street sent stock prices higher and the Dow Jones Industrial Average wound UP 4% for April, its best monthly gain since December. This happened in spite of the still slipping home prices covered above, plus a preliminary Q1 GDP reading of just a 1.8% annual growth ra...

From beginning to end, this week features answers to those two burning questions: Monday's ISM Index for April is expected to show a slight slowdown in the growth of manufacturing, although the expected reading is still well above 50, indicating expansion. Wednesday's ISM Services is forecast to ...

If anyone doubted it, Chairman Bernanke said it himself at last week's historic press conference -- rates will stay at their current rock bottom level "for an extended period." Many economists are taking that to mean till the end of the year. Note: In the lower chart, a 1% probability of change i...

Weaker than expected economic data tends to send bond prices up and interest rates down, while positive data points to lower bond prices and rising loan rates. Economic Calendar for the Week of May 2 - May 6  Date Time (ET) Release For Consensus Prior Impact MMay 2 10:00 ISM Index Apr 59.7 61.2 H...