As Amazon (AMZN) seeks to move into several different market sectors, companies including Zillow (Z, ZG), Best Buy (BBY) and Core-Mark (CORE) have been brought into focus on the risk of increased competition. REAL ESTATE: Amazon seems to be preparing to offer consumers the option to hire real estate agents through its professional services marketplace, real estate news site Inman reports. The service would likely be in exchange for referral fees, the website says. Inman noted that Amazon has a placeholder webpage, indexed in its Home and Business Services, that allows users to “Hire a Realtor,” and reported the company has sought ...
Increased oil production by Libya and Nigeria combined with increased production by Saudi Arabia lead the group’s total production to increase by 32.6 million barrels per day in June. The group’s production increase, roughly 393,500 barrels per day, comes despite OPEC’s commitment to production cuts that it confirmed in May and recently sought to extend through the first half of 2018. Libya and Nigeria are currently exempt from OPEC’s production cutbacks because their production is, ostensibly, already limited by the internal conflicts plaguing the nations. OPEC blamed its production increase in June to increased internal demand, an...
The bears are simply trying to show us now, how quickly it can blow golden opportunities. Yesterday’s 20 minute sell-off was impressive. For moment there, it looked like it could really, really get ugly, but it didn’t. Instead a change to the Senate schedule (favorable towards getting health care and tax reform done) was released and the market wiped out all of the losses on the day. And now the market is partying like it is nobody’s business. If you are bear in this market, get frustrated all you want, but fighting in, won’t change the market’s direction. Sure there might be some money to be made (rather quic...
When investors think of high-quality dividend stocks in the telecommunications sector, the first two businesses that come to mind are likely AT&T (T) and Verizon Communications (VZ). However, there are plenty of other attractive investment opportunities in this sector. Surprisingly, the Canadian telecommunications industry is a fantastic source of high yield dividend stocks. BCE Inc. (BCE) – or Bell, for short – stands out as the undisputed leader in the Canadian telecommunications industry. This blue chip stock is held in the portfolio of many self-directed Canadian investors. If you’re looking for information on additional blue ch...
Any frequent reader of our blog knows we are fans of momentum investing. At this point, investment professionals should know that momentum historically works, that momentum is painful, and we have our own opinions on how to implement momentum investing via our Quantitative Momentum Index. Sometimes we feel there is nothing new when it comes to momentum. However, a new momentum investing paper, “Overpriced Winners,” by Profs Kent Daniel, Alexander Klos, and Simon Rottke, is really cool and worth consideration. One key chart from the paper sums up everything: The results are hypothetical results and are NOT an indicator of future resu...
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” Alan Greenspan On July 12, 2017 in her semiannual testimony to Congress, Janet Yellen stated the following: “the Federal Funds rate would not have to rise all that much further to get to a neutral policy stance.” Currently the target for the Federal Funds rate is a range of 1.00-1.25%, having been raised four times since December 2015. Despite the increase from the zero level that persisted for seven years following the Great Financial Crisis, it is still at microscopic levels as shown below. D...
Don’t look now fans, but bonds may be back on the list of things to worry about in the stock market. Jeff Gundlach, who has apparently been anointed the new king of the bond market, has suggested that bonds are on the precipice of a bear market and that Ten-year Treasury yields are on course to move “toward 3 percent” this year. Just over two weeks ago, the yield on the U.S. Gov’t 10-Year closed at the low of the year at 2.137%. The thinking at the time was that inflation indicators were wobbling, the economic outlook was mixed, and the chances of Trump getting anything done in 2017 were falling fast. So, despite all the Fedspeak to t...
Photo Credit: Sam Valadi JPMorgan & Chase (JPM) Historically, JPM has tended to outperform both Estimize and the Street on earnings, 65% and 77% of the time, respectively. This quarter, Estimize predicts EPS to be $1.63 and the Street predicts EPS at $1.60. Regarding revenue, the stock tends to outperform both Estimize and the Street 61% and 75% of the time, respectively. For FQ2’17, Estimize is predicting $25.479B and the Street comes in at $25.017B. It should be interesting to see if these trends continue this quarter. JPMorgan has been in the media recently due to their expressed interest to acquire a British Payments Company, Worl...
Photo Credit: Sam Valadi JPMorgan & Chase (JPM) Historically, JPM has tended to outperform both Estimize and the Street on earnings, 65% and 77% of the time, respectively. This quarter, Estimize predicts EPS to be $1.63 and the Street predicts EPS at $1.60. Regarding revenue, the stock tends to outperform both Estimize and the Street 61% and 75% of the time, respectively. For FQ2’17, Estimize is predicting $25.479B and the Street comes in at $25.017B. It should be interesting to see if these trends continue this quarter. JPMorgan has been in the media recently due to their expressed interest to acquire a British Payments Company, Worl...
PayPal (PYPL) is rising after Apple (AAPL) added it as a payment option, which JPMorgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang sees as a “significant,” but difficult to size, win for the payment company. Also viewing the announcement as positive, his peer at Craig-Hallum argued that this is the type of “expanding relationships” that makes PayPal a potential “3 year double.” APPLE AVAILABILITY: In a post to the company’s corporate blog last night, PayPal COO Bill Ready announced that its customers will be able to pay for App Store, Apple Music, iTunes and iBooks purchases across iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices us...