The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

The BoJ and FOMC, BFF. Overnight, the BoJ held hands with the FOMC in keeping rates at virtually zero. They also expanded its 3 month credit program to 20t yen from 10t. Japanese stocks rallied and the yen is down but 10 yr JGB’s are little changed. Commodity prices are rallying in response. Chinese stocks rallied 2% after a PBOC Q1 inflation expectations index fell from the record high in Q4. UK jobless claims were much better than expected and the pound is rising to a 4 week high. The US$ index is at 6 week low with the Canadian $ in particular .01 shy of parity to the US$. The weekly ABC confidence poll showed big improvement, rising 6 pts to -43, its highest level since Jan 5th and is now 4 pts above its one year avg. The MBA said the avg 30 yr mortgage rate fell to a 12 week low at 4.91% but purchases fell 2.3% and refi’s were down 1.7%. II: Bulls 46.1 v 44.9 Bears 21.3 v 23.6