It would be preferable, of course, if what Janet Yellen said in any setting made little noise whatsoever. We aren’t nearly there yet, but are moving in that direction. Her testimony today before Congress in the Fed’s semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins kabuki relic might actually help in that matter. If economists like Yellen were caught so unprepared for what happened after 2014 because of their view of what was happening in 2014, that wasn’t supposed to be the case in 2017. This partly is the fault of policymakers who stoked expectations or at least failed to clarify what “rate hikes” actually mean in the post-“rising dollar” context...
3M (MMM) and Dover (DOV) are both tremendous dividend growth stocks. They are both Dividend Aristocrats, and Dividend Kings as well. The Dividend Aristocrats Excel spreadsheet has 51 stocks with 25+ consecutive years of dividend increases. 3M and Dover have increased their dividends for 59 years and 61 years in a row, respectively. Both are Dividend Kings, an even more exclusive group of dividend growth stocks. The Dividend Kings Excel spreadsheet has just 19 stocks, each with 50+ years of consecutive dividend increases. Both 3M and Dover have strong businesses, and leadership positions in their respective industries. This article will di...
More than a few commentators have noted how bizarre it is that the fate of the global DM hawkish lean hangs not on Janet Yellen’s testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday, but rather with the Bank of Canada, which has launched a concerted effort to telegraph a rate hike over the past several weeks. As Bloomberg’s Luke Kawa wrote on Tuesday, “a rapid repricing of monetary policy paths has markets seeing a Bank of Canada that’s moved rates nearly just as far away from zero as the Federal Reserve by this time next year.” “The Bank’s abrupt shift in rhetoric didn’t rock longer-term rates globally, like European Central Bank President ...
Yesterday, President Donald Trump’s eldest son released an email chain which suggests that Russia wanted to support Trump’s presidential campaign. What does it imply for the gold market? What a twist! Ahead of the surprise dump, gold was in a downward trend. And after the release, it jumped about $8 in minutes, as one can see in the chart below. In this way gold confirmed its safe-haven status. Chart 1: Gold prices over the last three days. Indeed, financial markets were jarred by the sudden disclosure. The S&P 500 Index decreased about 0.6 percent in minutes, while the U.S. dollar depreciated against the Japanese yen, as the chart b...
For the benefit of subscribers and to help yours truly to make good decisions, we plot an indicator with ten components on a daily basis, that we refer to as the GDI. On Monday the GDI closed at 39% and on Tuesday it moved into positive territory with a reading at 61%. Charts courtesy Stockcharts.com unless indicated. As the following chart (courtesy goldchartsrus.com) shows, the long-term historical pattern (black line), is for gold and mining stocks to rise for 8 months, once the June-July lows are put in place. The black line tracks a 45 year average of gold prices. Another component of the GDI is a chart that compares gold bullion to th...
Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum Media Group, discusses the future of Chinese company LeEco after it’s disastrous attempt to aggressively expand and it’s failed acquisition of Vizio. Video length 00:04:17....
US measures of core inflation fell from February through May. The US reports June CPI at the end of the week. There is a reasonable chance that the core rate stabilizes. However, the movement away from the target has spurred expressions of caution from numerous Fed officials, even though the minutes of the June FOMC meeting showed that most officials recognized transitory factors weighed on prices. A careful reading of Fed comments led us to conclude that a consensus on reducing the balance sheet was intact, though a consensus for another hike may prove more difficult until there is more evidence for the official suspicion. Hence we l...
BlackRock Inc. (BLK – Free Report) had a total of $5.4 trillion assets under management (as of March 31, 2017) across equity, fixed income, cash management, alternative investment, real estate and advisory strategies. It caters to institutional, intermediary and individual investors through a wide range of products and services. BlackRock offers an array of risk management, strategic advisor and enterprise investment system services. Its offerings range from individual and institutional separate accounts to mutual funds and other pooled investment options. In order to strike a balance between risk and opportunities, BlackRock aims t...
I am currently listening to Fed Chair Yellen address Congress in the Committee on Financial Services. A line of questioning just finished regarding social program (welfare) program growth and slowing GDP. Alan Greenspan was quoted by the Congressman saying that you cannot have both entitlement program spending growth and a consistent 3% GDP growth at the same time, as the ‘arithmetic simply does not work’ for both to happen at the same time. It was also noted by Congress that while unemployment is going down, labor force participation is weakening, which translates to fewer people working overall but the government not addressing ...
According to Technavio, the global home fitness equipment market including treadmills, weightlifting machines, and stationary bicycles is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.08% during the period 2017-2021. Peloton, which sells an Internet-connected indoor fitness bicycle, recently joined the Billion Dollar Unicorn Club. Peloton’s Offerings New York-based Peloton was founded in 2012 by CEO John Foley, COO Tom Cortese, CTO Yony Feng, Graham Stanton, and Hisao Kushi. The idea for Peloton was born when John and his wife became addicted to high-energy indoor cycling classes but were frustrated by the hassle of getting into the best classes as pe...