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  • Finance 0

    Moving Averages: November Month-End Update

    The S&P 500 closed November with a monthly gain of 2.81% after a monthly gain in October of 2.22%. All three S&P 500 MAs are signaling “invested” and all five Ivy Portfolio ETFs — Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (VEU), iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury (IEF), and Vanguard REIT Index ETF (VNQ), and PowerShares DB Commodity Index (DBC) — are signaling “invested”. In the table, monthly closes that are within 2% of a signal are highlighted in yellow. The Ivy Portfolio The above table shows the current 10-month simple moving average (SMA) signal for each of the five ETF...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Drilling Companies Lead The Precious Metals Market

    Despite precious metals and gold/silver mining stocks going flat this year so far, the drilling sector performs quite nicely:  Source: Simple Digressions To remind my readers – the DRILL index comprises the shares of the following drilling companies: Energold Drilling, Major Drilling, Orbit Garant, Geodrill and Capital Drilling. Note that the index can be considered as a leading indicator for the precious metals sector. For example, since March 2011 the DRILL index was under-performing against one of the most popular gold mining ETFs, GDX (the red arrow). For those that do not remember – gold made a top in middle 2011 and GDX t...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    This Has Never Happened Before In Global Equity Markets

    Unless the world comes to a very serious end overnight, global equity markets are about to do something they have never done before… rise for 13 consecutive months. Not one losing month so far in 2017…   The global equity gauge was on course to finish November with its 13th straight monthly gain – the longest monthly winning streak in the index’s 30-year history. The total gain over the 13 months nears 23 percent.   But then again.. the world has also never seen so many central banks, printing so much money, for so long a time…   Just don’t stop!!...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Sluggish Biotech Stocks: Five Underlying Factors Plus A Sector Shift?

    MegaCap Tech Stocks Take a Big Hit-Volatility Rising in a Sector Shift Market Rotation Supports Overall Market-S&P 500 Stable today up 17% YTD Sluggish Biotech Now Just a Market Performer With IBB up 17% YTD The booming tech sector sold off today with the XLK down over 2%. Harder hit were the 2017 high fliers such as the FAANG stocks: FB, AAPL, AMZN, NFLX and GOOG all down over 3%. Undoubtedly some big funds and robots were taking profits and an imbalance of trades roiled the market in the early am. The red-hot semiconductor sector also took a big hit with the Van Eck Vector ETF (SMH) down over 4%, but it is up over 40% YTD. Nvidia ...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Rally Monkey

    Stocks closed at record highs and November marked the eight straight monthly gain for the Dow and the S&P, the best stretch for the latter since January of 2007 and the best streak for the former since July of 1995: Trump wants you to know that if Hillary had won, the Dow would be at 12,000. That’s based on his extensive research and proprietary models: The Dow just broke 24,000 for the first time (another all-time Record). If the Dems had won the Presidential Election, the Market would be down 50% from these levels and Consumer Confidence, which is also at an all-time high, would be “low and glum!” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonald...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Greg Poole Snaps Up MA, V, PAYX For Billion-Dollar Fund

    Echo Street Capital Management LLC is one of the top performing hedge funds, consistently outperforming average hedge fund portfolios and S&P 500 benchmarks. The $2.94 billion fund is presently helmed by trading genius Greg Poole. As per the latest 13-F filings, the fund has made some intriguing portfolio moves in the burgeoning payments industry. Poole hiked his positions in three big payment stocks Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), as well as Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX). According to TipRanks, five-star hedge fund manager Greg Poole of Echo Street is ranked #16 out of 203 hedge funds, having achieved a staggering...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    General Stock Market Commentary – Thursday, Nov. 30

    Fresh highs for the market, but looking a little bit tired this afternoon. The Packaging Index is enthusiastically supporting the move higher for the general market. The bullish percent is pointing higher as well. This market has to crack at some point, but for now, it is a beautiful thing as shown by this 2-year chart. Outlook The long-term outlook is mixed. The medium-term trend is up. The short-term trend is up. ...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Senate Votes 52-48 To Start The Vote On Tax Cuts

    FANG Stocks Fall On Tax Cut Talks Wednesday’s stock market action was driven by the changes that will go into effect when the tax cuts are passed. The Russell 2000 was up 0.38% and the Dow was up 0.44% while the S&P 500 was down 0.04% and the Nasdaq was down 1.27%. As you can see from the chart below, the effective tax rate is much lower than the statutory tax rate. With the statutory tax rate going from 35% to 20% and some deductions eliminated, there will be some firms helped and some firms hurt. A company like Disney will be helped as it pays a 30% effective tax rate; that’s why its stock was up 1.77%. On the other hand, the FANG s...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Bank Regulations – Why The Current Approach Will Fail

    Introduction The 2008 banking collapse, leading to the most severe recession since 1929, prompted a wide-ranging set of efforts to insure it did not happen again. These actions have included requiring banks to hold larger cash balances and more precise definitions of the risk levels of various bank assets. The result? A new industry of “risk” professionals working for banks and bank regulators has emerged. Here, I spell this out in more detail, explain why it will not work and what should be done. The ABCs of Bank Regulation Banks take in cash as deposits. They are required to keep less than 10% of these on hand to cover the normal fluctu...
    On November 30, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    5 Best T. Rowe Mutual Funds To Buy Ahead Of 2018

    T. Rowe Price Group witnessed an inflow of more than $750 million in U.S. mutual funds in the third quarter alone. The publicly owned investment management firm also reported strong earnings during the same quarter on the back of higher revenues. Higher investment advisory revenues earned from T. Rowe Price mutual funds boosted the company’s total revenues in the quarter. Also, the company’s assets under management (AUM) increased significantly in the third quarter. The trend continued even during the first month of the ongoing quarter (October).  Steady inflows into its mutual funds and the ability to offer low-cost investment options c...
    On November 30, 2017 / By