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Category

Investments

Jun 04
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Zach Abraham Weighs in On the EU’s Historic Coronavirus Stimulus Package

By | Geopolitical Affairs, Investments, Stock Market

Zach Abraham’s comments on the historic European Union’s $826 billion coronavirus stimulus package (750-billion-euro) were recently featured on both Bezinga.com* and Yahoo! Finance.

 

The European Union is proposing a ($824 billion) coronavirus recovery plan to assist the bloc with its recovery. The funds, as well as targeted reinforcements to the long-term EU budget for 2021-2027, will bring the total financial firepower of the EU budget to 1.85 trillion euros, according to the European Commission.

EU Must Evolve To Survive, CIO Zach Abraham Says

“While the EU relief package will certainly help things in Europe, it appears to be more of a stop gap measure and pales in comparison to actions taken by the U.S. government,” said Zach Abraham, chief investment officer and principal at Bulwark Capital Management.

“Although we are keeping a watchful eye on all ECN and EU relief measures, we are far more focused on recent comments by Macron and Merkel that point to a willingness or at least an openness to a tighter fiscal union.”

In Abraham’s view, the EU cannot continue as it is structured today.

“Either Germany will have to relent on ECB guidelines which restrict the central bank from applying unilateral QE and other forms of monetary stimulus (currently the ECB can only apply monetary stimulus evenly across all member countries) or more countries, specifically Italy and Spain, will be forced to leave.” This issue is far more critical to the economic prospects of the EU as a whole, the professional investor said.

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Interestingly, Germany announced it was seeking a fresh $112 billion coronavirus stimulus package, just days after the EU launched its historic $826 billion plan: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/germany-economy-112-billion-coronavirus-stimulus-rescue-plan-2020-6-1029271636

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You can read the original articles here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/european-union-sets-750-billion-192730975.html

https://www.benzinga.com/news/20/05/16115773/european-union-sets-out-750-billion-euro-coronavirus-recovery-plan

* With an estimated unique monthly visitor count of almost 1.5 million, Benzinga is a news and analysis service that focuses on global markets. It provides original, accurate and timely global financial content and features articles from industry experts and experienced analysts.

Apr 28
0

Zach Abraham: Coronavirus’ Effect on Cryptocurrency ‘Unpredictable’

By | Investments, Market Risk, News, Stock Market

Zach Abraham was recently quoted by Decrypt Debrief in their article, “Coronavirus, Bitcoin and the economy: what can we expect?”

Zach Abraham, Chief Investment Officer of financial services firm Bulwark Capital Management, agreed that the current economic situation is “incredibly unique,” and hard to predict.

“This is a different situation than 2008 but in some ways it’s much more unpredictable as the problems caused by excess are in every market,” he said. “The variables are endless and most of them aren’t looking too hot at the moment.”

You can read the full article HERE.

 

 

Mar 27
0

Zach Abraham Appears on Yahoo! Finance

By | In The Headlines, Investments, Stock Market

Zach Abraham, Principal and Chief Investment Officer of Bulwark Capital Management, appeared on Yahoo! Finance on March 13 to discuss the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on stock markets.

 

Back on March 13, the date of this interview, Seattle was the area of the United States hit first by the coronavirus—it was right on the front line with the COVID-19 outbreak. (Seattle is located about 34 miles from Bulwark Capital Management’s headquarters in Tacoma, Washington.) During the interview, Zach Abraham predicted at the time that people “might not be taking [the virus] seriously enough,” though the stock market certainly already was.

That afternoon, the government was expected to announce measures to help the economy, and Zach said that government intervention might stem the market sell off and help move markets to the positive. “We have a market that’s been fueled by the central banks’ intervention for the last decade, so there is a ‘Pavlovian’ psychological response built-in for that.”

But he warned about the long-term. “No one has a crystal ball, but one of the things we’ve been talking about for the last several years is that eventually the world is going to have to face some issues—something that more debt and printed money won’t fix.” For example, the drop in oil demand is just one example of how the corporate high-yield debt market could become a future negative factor for markets.

But with any economic crisis, It’s never just one thing or one issue at play. “I personally think that it will be at least a six- to eight-month timeline or longer to see the full effects of this market—to get economic clarity in terms of what the real backdrop is.”

 

Watch the full episode at this link:

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/video/more-government-injects-more-movement-164456333.html

Dec 19
0

Did the Fed and the White House Come to a Meeting of the Minds?

By | Bonds, Investments, Stock Market

On November 18, President Donald Trump invited Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell to meet at the White House with him and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Afterwards Trump tweeted, “Just finished a very good & cordial meeting at the White House with Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve. Everything was discussed including interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, Dollar strength & its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, E.U. & others, etc.”

While the Fed released a statement saying that the meeting covered “the economy, growth, employment and inflation,” the Fed said Powell’s remarks “were consistent” with those he made at last week’s congressional hearings. “[Powell] did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming information that bears on the outlook for the economy.” Powell told the president that monetary policy decisions will be “based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis,” the statement said.

Zach Abraham, principal/CIO at Bulwark Capital Management, told reporters at the Bondbuyer.com that, “This is simply a case of Trump throwing everything at the Fed but the kitchen sink. If we really want to keep China in check, the Fed and the White House must be on the same page. Beijing and the PBOC have strategically exploited Fed Independence and the inherent lag between monetary policy and economic reality on the ground.

“I’d assume Trump is merely trying to close this gap and make nice with Powell as he’s realized the need to be on the same page. I just don’t think the White House has realized that lower U.S. rates and a lower dollar are precisely what Beijing wants,” said Abraham.

Read the entire article here: https://www.bondbuyer.com/news/whats-behind-trump-powell-meeting

ABOUT THE PUBLICATION

The bondbuyer.com is designed for municipal finance professionals, bond issuers, government officials, investors and other decision makers in the municipal bond industry; the website receives nearly 59,000 unique visitors per month. It provides breaking news, analysis and data regarding all areas of municipal finance. The site features news on the national as well as regional levels, and it contains market statistics, graphs, charts, photos and weekly indices.

Dec 19
0

How Will Lower Interest Rates Affect the Bond Market?

By | Bonds, Investments, Stock Market

On October 31, along with other financial industry experts,  Zach Abraham, Principal and Chief Investment Officer for Bulwark Capital Management was asked to weigh in regarding the Federal Reserve’s recent lowering of interest rates.

At that time, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell had just made it clear the Fed expected to keep rates at a range of 1.50% to 1.75% unless events resulted in a “material reassessment” of the Fed’s outlook.

“While the rate cut certainly means that yields on treasuries are headed lower, it may not be so for the rest of the bond market,” said Zach Abraham, principal/CIO at Bulwark Capital Management.

“At some point in this cycle we will see spreads blow out. It’s inevitable, as it occurs in every cycle. Flight to safety puts a bid under treasuries while corporates are shunned as weakening economic fundamentals raise risks, or at least perceived risks, of corporate defaults.”

He called Powell’s claim that the Fed is on pause “a bit humorous.” The Fed trimmed the rate target by 75 basis points in the past three meetings and “launched a $100 billion standing repo facility (just quantitative easing by another name). It’s time we all face the facts. The Fed has a tiger by the tail and has no clue how to let go,” Abraham said. “Investors, as well as the market, are beginning to figure this out. Barring some exogenous/inflationary shock, we’re headed back to the zero bound.”

Read the entire article here: https://www.bondbuyer.com/news/how-feds-pause-will-impact-bond-market

ABOUT THE PUBLICATION

The bondbuyer.com is designed for municipal finance professionals, bond issuers, government officials, investors and other decision makers in the municipal bond industry; the website receives nearly 59,000 unique visitors per month. It provides breaking news, analysis and data regarding all areas of municipal finance. The site features news on the national as well as regional levels, and it contains market statistics, graphs, charts, photos and weekly indices.