Economic Comments
John Davidson
John W. Davidson has more than 30 years of investment industry experience and holds an MBA in finance and a master's in mathematics from Boston College, as well as a bachelor's in economics from Amherst College. He lives in Camden.
Recent Posts by John W. Davidson
Economic comments, week ending March 3
By John W. Davidson - Mar 04Economic news was mostly positive again this week, but many remain skeptical about the durability of the recovery. Some will wait till next week ...
Economic comments, week ending Feb. 17
By John W. Davidson - Feb 20Economic news was mostly positive for the week. In fact, ISI's Economist Nancy Lazar reported that this has been the 20th successive week of ...
Economic comments, week ending Jan. 20
By John W. Davidson - Jan 23This week's releases were positive for U.S. growth and well-contained inflationary pressure. Equity prices were higher and government bond prices ...
Economic comments, week ending Jan. 14
By John W. Davidson - Jan 15After a string of positive economic releases for the U.S. economy, this past week's U.S. releases were on the softer side. European releases ...
Economic comments, week ending Dec. 16
By John W. Davidson - Dec 18Disappointment in the European Summit follow-up and in the lack of more accommodation on the part of the U.S. FOMC sent investors to seek safe ...
Economic comments, week ending Nov. 25
Nov 27Economic releases continued to support the expansion scenario in the U.S., but not in Europe. Even though the U.S. recovery has been within the ...
Economic Comments, week ending Oct. 21
By John W. Davidson - Oct 23This past week's releases show some signs of gradual improvement but also the start of a pick-up of inflationary pressures in the headline ...
Economic comments, week ending Sept. 23
By John W. Davidson - Sep 26This week's Economic releases and Fed comments heightened worries of a double dip contraction. Concern that a Greek default or restructuring could ...
Economic comments, week ending Aug. 5
By John W. Davidson - Aug 07The July U.S. employment report surprised on the upside as one of the few exceptions to this week's otherwise soft economic releases. The debt ...
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Economic comments, week ending July 15
By John W. Davidson - Jul 17This week's economic releases supported the soft patch case, but silliness in Washington and the continued sovereign debt crisis in the Euro-zone ...
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Economic Comments — Week ending April 8
By John W. Davidson - Apr 11While most economic releases this week showed that the global economy was solidly in the expansion zone, some signs of softening appeared. In ...
Economic Comments, week ending March 18
By John W. Davidson - Mar 21The magnitude of the human devastation in Japan was beyond comprehension. By week's end, over 8,000 people were known to have lost their lives and ...
Economic comments, week ending Feb. 25
By John W. Davidson - Feb 28The releases this past week suggested that the economy remained in the expansion zone even though U.S. Employment and Housing has yet to participat...
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Economic comments, week ending Feb. 18
By John W. Davidson - Feb 22At points of inflection in the economy, the messages are often mixed. So it was this past week. The recovery continued, but growth has been ...
Economic comments, week ending Feb. 4
By John W. Davidson - Feb 07This past week's economic and earnings releases remained solidly in the expansion zone with the notable exception of the U.S. Employment Report. ...
Economic comments, week ending Jan. 28
By John W. Davidson - Jan 30This week's economic and earnings releases portrayed a move from recovery into expansion, but the capital markets were under the siege of protester...
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Economic comments, week ending Jan. 14
By John W. Davidson - Jan 16This week's releases showed continued economic recovery and started to reveal evidence of a pick up of inflation. The WSJ poll of Economists ...
Economic comments, week ending Jan. 7
By John W. Davidson - Jan 09In the first week of the year, economic releases continued to support evidence of a global economic recovery in spite of a disappointing U.S. ...
Economic comments, week ending Dec. 30
By John W. Davidson - Jan 02In the final weeks of the year, most releases confirmed the global recovery. Even U.S. housing and employment enjoyed some kernels of good news. ...
Economic comments, week ending Dec. 17
By John W. Davidson - Dec 19This week's releases portrayed steady global economic recovery void of evidence of inflationary pressures. At the conclusion of the FOMC meeting ...
Economic comments, week ending Dec. 3
By John W. Davidson - Dec 05This past week's releases were full of contrasts. The strength in the Purchasing Manager's reports was in contrast to the weak U.S. Employment ...
Economic comments, week ending Nov. 26
By John W. Davidson - Nov 28In this U.S.-holiday shorted week, most releases were stronger and most revisions of past periods were higher. While some improvements were seen ...
Economic comments, week ending Nov. 12
By John W. Davidson - Nov 14This week had few economic releases, but most of them indicated that the economy is firming. This quarter corporations reported more positive ...
Economic comments, week ending Nov. 5
By John W. Davidson - Nov 08Both corporate earnings and economic releases posted positive surprises this past week. The mid-term elections in the U.S. provided a "shellacking"...
Economic comments, week ending Oct. 22
By John W. Davidson - Oct 24This past week, corporate earnings reports generated positive surprises, which were somewhat offset by the negative surprise announcement that the ...
Economic comments, week ending Oct. 1
By John W. Davidson - Oct 03This week's economic releases continued to portray a slowly firming environment. Financial conditions were little changed, but corporate spreads ...
Economic comments, week ending Sept. 24
By John W. Davidson - Sep 26This week's economic releases portrayed a slowly firming environment. The US Fed issued a post-FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting ...
Economic comments, week ending Sept. 17
By John W. Davidson - Sep 19This week's releases suggested economic firming and well contained inflation. Yet, the rate of resulting economic growth (outside the BRIC's) was ...
Economic comments, week ending Sept. 10
By John W. Davidson - Sep 12This week's releases were mixed, but they suggested more firmness in the global economy than previously thought. U.S. Financial Conditions ...
Economic comments, week ending Sept. 3
By John W. Davidson - Sep 06This week's releases continued to be soft, although several important indicators did better than expected, giving support to those who don't ...
Economic comments, week ending Aug. 27
By John W. Davidson - Aug 30The past week's releases offered further evidence of a slowdown in the U.S. recovery, but continued firming of the European recovery. US Financial ...
Economic comments, week ending Aug. 22
By John W. Davidson - Aug 25The past two weeks' releases offered surprising strength out of Germany for the euro zone, but continued softness in the U.S. economic data. That ...
Economic comments, week ending Aug. 6
By John W. Davidson - Aug 09This week's releases offered data that portrayed a softer economic environment, particularly in the United States. Financial conditions improved; ...
Economic comments, week ending July 30
By John W. Davidson - Aug 02This past week, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe seemed to fade into the background while the data in the United States confirmed that the ...
Economic comments, week ending July 23
By John W. Davidson - Jul 26This week economic releases were mixed and earnings reports were positive, but the most significant events took place in the regulatory arena. ...
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Economic comments, week ending July 16
By John W. Davidson - Jul 19The economic and earnings releases were both mixed this week, but investors remained cautious, focusing on the weaker data after last week's ...
Economic Comments, week ending July 9
By John W. Davidson - Jul 12After a string of softer economic releases, this week's data, particularly from Canada, was stronger. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) ...
Economic comments, week ending June 25
By John W. Davidson - Jun 28This week economic releases portrayed the global economy as having a more modest growth path with well-contained inflation. The Federal Open ...
Economic comments, week ending June 18
By John W. Davidson - Jun 21This week economic releases portrayed the global economy as having modest growth and well-contained inflation. Expectations improved on the ...
Economic comments, week ending June 11
By John W. Davidson - Jun 14There were few economic releases this week, but what we did get continued to expose the soft nature of the recovery. Financial conditions remained ...
Economic comments, ending June 4
By John W. Davidson - Jun 07This week's economic releases called into question whether or not the U.S. recovery has sufficient strength to create private sector jobs and ...
Economic comments, week ending May 28
By John W. Davidson - May 31This week's economic releases were soft. Fitch downgraded Spain's credit rating from AAA to AA+. Financial conditions remained weak with wider ...
Economic comments, week ending May 21
By John W. Davidson - May 24This week, the economic releases portrayed a softer recovery than previously believed. Once again, worries about eurozone-induced slower growth ...
Economic comments, week ending May 14
By John W. Davidson - May 17Economic sectors All sectors were positive this week, but industrials and small cap value sectors turned in the best results. Health and large ...
Economic comments, week ending May 7
By John W. Davidson - May 10"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was ...
Economic comments, week ending April 30
By John W. Davidson - May 03Corporate earnings reports and economic indicators were strong this week, but the capital markets were focused elsewhere. Nor were the capital ...
Economic comments, week ending April 23
By John W. Davidson - Apr 27The initial first quarter corporate earnings reports and economic releases pointed toward growth again this week. Financial conditions remained ...
Economic Comments, week ending April 16
By John W. Davidson - Apr 19The initial first quarter corporate earnings reports and this week's economic releases continued to point toward growth with well-contained ...
Economic comments for week ending April 9
By John W. Davidson - Apr 13Most releases, such as the PMIs for Services released this week, continued to support the case for economic expansion. Yet markets were more ...
Fixed income returns by sector, March 2010
By John W. Davidson - Apr 13The charts below show the total returns of various fixed income sectors plotted against a duration scale. Since the returns of Treasuries are also ...
Economic comments, week ending April 2
By John W. Davidson - Apr 06During this religious-holidays-shortened work week, releases showed that the economic recovery expanded. This was particularly true of the U.S. ...
Economic comments, week ending March 26
By John W. Davidson - Mar 29Both economic releases and financial conditions were divided in direction this week; Bloomberg's financial conditions index reached a fifth ...
Economic comments, week ending March 19
By John W. Davidson - Mar 23This week's releases were mixed, but the CPI releases showed that inflationary pressures were well contained (see the chart below). India's ...
Economic comments, week ending March 12
By John W. Davidscon - Mar 16This week, the economic indicators were again mixed with the balance on the positive side. Financial conditions firmed again this week; Bloomberg's...
Economic comments for week ending March 5
By John W. Davidson - Mar 09At points of inflection in the economy the indicators are typically mixed. Again this week's releases were mixed, but, unlike last week, the ...
