Blog Posts by Bernice Napach

Two seconds: that’s the lead time a select group of investors had to receive a copy of the University of Michigan consumer confidence report before other institutional investors. While two seconds may not sound like much, it was often worth millions of dollars to high-frequency traders who account for about half of all daily U.S. stock trading.

Thomson Reuters distributes the consumer sentiment report as part of an arrangement with the University of Michigan, and until this week it sent the report to a select group of clients two seconds before all other clients. Reuters reportedly paid the university an additional $1 million to distribute the data to a group of elite clients who paid the media giant $6,000 a month for the 2-second advantage. Reuters would not confirm these figures.

Following a review by the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman keying off a whistle-blower complaint, Thomson Reuters is now suspending the two-second early release for selected investors.

“It

Earnings season is now in focus but "taper talk" won't go away quietly. This Wednesday may bring more insight into the Fed and, investors hope, the taper timeline when FOMC minutes are released. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke roiled financial markets last month when he announced the Fed may begin reducing asset purchases as early as this year and end them in 2014 if the economy continues to improve.

Stocks have since resumed their rally but Treasury rates haven’t retreated, and economists continue to debate the Fed’s next move.

Related: Fed Won't Reduce Bond-Buying, Will Continue Inflating Bubbles

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says he has “a hard time understanding... the rush to taper.”

He tells The Daily Ticker: “We’re down somewhere about 8.5 million jobs from trend… six percentage points below potential GDP, inflation is nowhere to be seen and if anything we probably want a higher inflation rate, as Bernanke has indicated himself. “Given all