Latest Posts

  • Finance 0

    Separating Your Politics From Investing

    Investing is a contrarian game. The only way to win in the long run is to see things that others have missed, finding the value in places where it has been ignored. It is certainly based on sets of objective criteria, but also comes down to the human judgment of how to weigh multiple and complicated factors and is, therefore, an ultimately subjective endeavor. New investors are taught to “buy what you know.” This was especially en vogue during Peter Lynch’s heyday in the 1990s. The advice is not strictly false but can be wildly misleading. A 1999 feature in Fortune about Barbara Streisand illustrates this. “Where does the singer-ac...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Whole Foods Price Cut Leads To 25% Surge In Customers, Channel Checks Reveal

    Curious what the impact was of those dramatic price cuts by Amazon at Whole Foods two weeks ago? We now have the answer. As a reminder, at the end of August, just as the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods closed, Jeff Bezos slashed prices at his newest retail acquisition by up to 43%. As Bloomberg calculated then, some of the more prominent examples were as follows: organic fuji apples were marked down to $1.99 a pound from $3.49 a pound; organic avocados went to $1.99 each from $2.79; organic rotisserie chicken fell to $9.99 each from $13.99; banana prices were slashed to 49 cents per pound from 79 cents. And while such splashy price cuts alm...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Why JPMorgan Thinks You Should Just BTFD (Buy The Failed Dip)

    Ok, so the debate continues about what exactly it is that YTD lows in 10Y yields portend not just for Treasurys, but also for risk assets and for the global economy more generally. Needless to say, the recent bond rally doesn’t seem to say anything good about the future of the reflation narrative that drove yields, the dollar, and U.S. equities all higher in tandem after the U.S. election. Earlier today, we brought you some bullet points from Bloomberg’s Wes Goodman who outlines the case for a continuation of the Treasury rally in the face of calls for a retrace higher in yields. Well, JPMorgan is out on Monday with a BTFD-ish note tha...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Oracle (ORCL) To Post Q1 Results: Can It Beat On Earnings?

    Oracle Corporation (ORCL – Free Report) is set to report first-quarter fiscal 2018 earnings on Sep 14. Notably, the company has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters. Last quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 14.10%. Adjusted earnings of 89 cents per share and revenues of $10.94 billion comfortably beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 78 cents and $10.48 billion, respectively. Revenue growth of 3.3% (4% in constant currency) was also better than management’s guidance of 1% to 2%. Oracle’s top-line growth benefited from the ongoing cloud-based momentum. Total revenue for...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    E Weekly Energy Roundup: Oil And Gas Companies

    For quite some time, I published a series over at Seeking Alpha in which I tracked the performance of six selected large oil and gas stocks so that followers of this industry could get a quick idea of how the industry as a whole performed as well as be aware of any significant developments in the industry during that period. Admittedly, I allowed this series to fall to the wayside as I worked on several other projects and the industry lost favor with investors. I have since decided to revive this series given the recent global developments that have injected significant volatility into this market.  ExxonMobil (XOM)  ExxonMobil opened the w...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    GrubHub Shares Can Rise 75% Through 2021, Says William Blair

    GrubHub shares can increase about 75% through 2021 to roughly $100 per share, William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart tells investors in a research note. Credit Suisse this morning downgraded the stock to Neutral. The restaurant pick-up and delivery platform is down 1% to $55.30 in premarket trading. The analyst says he’s received many questions following GrubHub’s recent acquisitions of Foodler, OrderUp, and Eat24, regarding its potential size over the next five years. Despite “fierce” competition with other online food providers, GrubHub’s primary competitor still remains the paper menu, Schackart argues. His lon...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    E Recovery On GBP/NZD Looks Corrective; A Reversal In View

    Good day traders! Today’s focus is on GBPNZD and its 4h movement. GBP/NZD is showing us a bigger three-wave recovery, which can be a corrective pattern in play. Ideally, current and final leg C will unfold as an ending diagonal pattern and search for resistance and a top near the Fibonacci ratios of 50.0 and 61.8. From there we think bulls may slow down and a new reversal lower can come in play. GBP/NZD, 4H The ending diagonal is a special type of motive wave that occurs primarily in the wave 5 position when the price has moved too far and too fast. Some ending diagonal triangles appear in the C wave of an ABC correction. In all cases, ...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    E German DAX Sets Eyes On Another Merkel Victory

    The price action set up in the German DAX over the last week suggests that the markets are preparing for another Merkel victory. Political developments in Germany so far show that there is no strong opposition to the incumbent candidate. Although the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) led by Martin Schultz did manage to emerge a contender to the election race, it is quite clear that Angela Merkel has managed to lead by a significant distance. Opinion polls show support for SPD is falling Latest opinion polls from the DeutschlandTrend polls showed the CDU/CSU leading at 37% while the SPD was seen lagging behind at 21%. While support for ...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Tragedy Of The Speculations, Gold & Silver Report

    Bitcoin is often promoted as the antidote to the madness of fiat irredeemable currencies. It is also promoted as the replacement. Bitcoin is promoted not only as money, but the future money, and our monetary future. In fact, it is not. Why not? To answer, let us start with a look at the incentives offered by bitcoin. We saw a comment this week, which is apropos: “Crypto is so exciting and stimulating that is actually very hard for me to be interested in/do things unrelated to it lately.” This sentiment is chilling. It illustrates another way that bitcoin speculation is affecting the real world. Some people are actually producing less. Spe...
    On September 11, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Citi Warns Trading Revenue To Tumble 15% In Q3 Due To “Subdued Volatility”

    Exactly three months ago, in mid-June, Citigroup CFO John Gerspach warned investors at a Morgan Stanley investment conference that Citi’s second quarter trading revenues would be down 12-13%, mostly due to declining market volatility. A few weeks later, he was proven right when US banks – and especially Goldman Sachs – posted some of the worst trading revenues in over a year. Fast forward to today, when Citi did it again after CFO Gerspach, this time speaking at a Barclays conference, warned that markets revenue in the third quarter which is ending in less than three weeks, will be down 15%, as the third quarter “is l...
    On September 11, 2017 / By