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    Market Talk – Tuesday, March 13

    A pretty mixed bag for Asia today with most core indices playing around unchanged for much of the day. The late weakness in the DOW obviously didn’t help confidence but then futures are bouncing back in Asian trading. The talk surrounding US tariffs still add a dampener on the Asian producers and that may be a reason the commodity economies are lagging a touch. The Nikkei played either side then eventually rallied at the close after the Yen strayed closer to the 107 handle than 106. The Nikkei ended the day +0.7% whilst the talk concerning an unsettled government continues. The Shanghai drifted for much of the day but only to close at the d...
    On March 13, 2018 / By
  • Finance 0

    Welfare Versus GDP: What Makes People Better Off

    from the International Monetary Fund — this post authored by Geoffrey Bannister and Alexandros Mourmouras For years, economists have worked to develop a way of measuring general well-being and comparing it across countries. The main metric has been differences in income or gross domestic product per person. But economists have long known that GDP is an imperfect measure of well-being, counting just the value of goods and services bought and sold in markets. The challenge is to account for non-market factors such as the value of leisure, health, and home production, such as cleaning, cooking and childcare, as well as the negative bypr...
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  • Finance 0

    Weekly Unemployment Claims: Up 21K, Worse Than Forecast

    Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor: In the week ending March 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 231,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 210,000. The 4-week moving average was 222,500, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 220,500. Claims taking procedures in Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands have still not returned to normal. [See full report] Friday’s seasonally adjusted 221K new claims, up 21K from the previous week’s figure, was above the Investing.com forecast of 220K. Here is a close look at ...
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  • Finance 0

    My Leitner-Esque Moment

    They’re back. I thought they had all given up, but like an old college buddy who’s going through a bad divorce and just needs a place to crash for a ‘few days,’ the corporate credit skeptics are a tough lot to shake. This crew is a left-over remnant of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. After watching the global financial system implode in a crisis that threatened to topple the entire world economy, there is a group of market participants who believe the next dislocation is right around the corner – only this time will be even worse given the increased debt levels. Although their views can be nuanced, usually they believe the mark...
    On March 13, 2018 / By
  • Finance 0

    3 Biotech Stocks With Rising Earnings Estimates Post Q4

    The Q4 earnings season for the pharma/biotech sector was scattered with a few small biotech companies yet to report. The releases so far provide us with a clear picture of the sector’s performance. Overall, the sector performed reasonably well. Among the biotech/pharma bigwigs, Gilead (GILD – Free Report) , Celgene (CELG – Free Report) and Vertex (VRTX – Free Report) beat earnings and revenue estimates. Meanwhile, Biogen (BIIB – Free Report) announced mixed results with earnings beating estimates and sales lagging the same. However, Amgen (AMGN – Free Report) had a rather weak quarter as it missed exp...
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  • Finance 0

    Stocks Fall After Revenue Beats Expectations

    Beat Expectations, Stock Falls Anyway In the Q2 2017 earnings season, the market was acting weirdly. Stocks were falling when firms were beating sales expectation. My guess was that stocks priced in great results, so investors weren’t enamored after results were beat. In the Q1 2018 earnings season we’re seeing the same phenomena occur. As you can see from the chart below, the 4 day movement (2 days before report and 2 days after report) on stocks which beat revenue estimates was -0.4% this quarter. The 5 year average gain is 1.3%. The firms which missed estimates saw their stocks decline 1.2% which was 0.1% worse than average. Essentiall...
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  • Finance 0

    Wall Street Stands To Lose Billions As Trump Hangs A “Not-For-Sale Sign” On US Tech

    Broadcom executives should’ve seen this coming. For months now, Singapore-based Broadcom has pursued a merger with US-based Qualcomm, raising its bid for the largest US-based technology firm to $117 billion, which is developing chips that are expected to be integral to 5G network technology in the US. Then, national security issues reared their head. Earlier this month, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US inserted itself into the negotiations (following a request from lawmakers) by ordering Qualcomm to delay its March 6 shareholder meeting to give CFIUS more time to investigate the takeover bid. CFIUS’s involvement ...
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  • Finance 0

    E Keep EUR/USD And GBP/USD Long

    The USD fell against most major currencies on Tuesday after U.S. inflation data for February came in line with expectations, suggesting the Federal Reserve remained on track to raise interest rates at a gradual pace. The dollar also lost traction after U.S. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, marking the biggest shakeup of the administration’s Cabinet. This is how my forex trading strategies look like: EUR/USD Trading strategy: Long Open: 1.2330 Target: 1.2580 Stop-loss: 1.2210 Recommended size: 1.67 mini lots per $10,000 in your account S...
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  • Finance 0

    Weekly Gasoline Price Update: Regular And Premium Mostly Unchanged

    It’s time again for our weekly gasoline update based on data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The price of Regular and Premium were unchanged and down one penny, respectively, from last week. According to GasBuddy.com, Hawaii has the highest average price for Regular at $3.43 and San Francisco, CA is the most expensive city, averaging $3.48. South Carolina has the cheapest at $2.23. The WTIC end of day spot price closed at 61.36, a 1.9% decrease from this time last week. How far are we from the interim high prices of 2011 and the all-time highs of 2008? Here’s a visual answer. The next chart is a monthly chart ov...
    On March 13, 2018 / By
  • Finance 0

    Under Armour Drops As Dick’s Says ‘Significant Weakness’ Hurt Q4 Apparel Sales

    Shares of Under Armour (UA, UAA) dropped in morning trading following comments made by retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) on its quarterly earnings conference call. SIGNIFICANT WEAKNESS IN UNDER ARMOUR BRAND: On its Q4 earnings conference call, Dick’s Sporting Goods Chief Executive Officer Edward Stack commented that strong apparel sales growth in Q4 came from adidas (ADDYY), CALIA and Patagonia, but was offset by “significant” weakness in the Under Armour brand as expanded distribution and a highly promotional environment impacted its sales. Stack said Dick’s was “pleased” with its apparel business...
    On March 13, 2018 / By