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  • Finance 0

    Is Trump’s Tax Plan Feasible?

    The stock market roared higher on Monday because Macron appears to have locked up the French presidential election. He beats Le Pen in all the polls by at least twenty points. This makes me wonder what it takes for stocks to fall. Stocks rallied after the populist wins which were Brexit and Trump. They then rallied on the establishment victory by Macron. This supports my thesis that stocks would have rallied if Hillary won the U.S. election. Stocks go up on good and bad news. The rally in U.S. equities on Monday makes no sense because the 3% mini correction was not caused by angst over the French election. The stock market fell because of w...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    EUR/CAD – Runaway To 1.5000?

    The gap open in the euro that blasted the pair through the 1.0900 level continues to exert its force higher even into what is likely to be a generally dovish ECB meeting this Thursday. In the meantime, the loonie has been hammered by the double whammy of weaker oil prices and a new set of tariffs against Canadian lumber just issued by the Trump administration. Fears of a trade war with US biggest trading partner have some traders concerned that USD/CAD could push towards the key 1.4000 level as capital flees from the Great White North. Even without any additional tension, the slow drift lower in oil could hurt the loonie for the foreseeable f...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Current Research On How ETFs Can Affect Financial Markets

    We’ve heard a lot of questions recently from clients and readers regarding how ETFs might affect financial markets. The short answer is “nobody knows.” The long answer is researchers are trying to figure it all out. In this piece we inventory some of the more interesting research articles on the subject and encourage readers to explore these articles in depth. How ETFs Might Influence Markets I’ve already written a bit about how ETFs are impacting asset prices via an article I shared at ETF.com. Here is a link. The piece discussed some work from Lin William Cong and Doug Xu, which delivered 3 core predictions: Market Efficiency In...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Crude Hammering A Bottom?

    My bearishness toward energy has been chilling quite a bit lately. As I mentioned, I sold my ERY long position on Friday (at a nice profit), and I’ve been reducing the quantity of my energy shorts. It’s kind of a shame, since this was sort of the last bastion of bearishness, but crude seems to be forming a hammer on its front month, and tomorrow morning’s inventory report might provide a relief rally, so I’d rather not be short the sector....
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    This Emerald Shines Bright Ahead Of IPO

    Overview Emerald Expositions Events (Pending:EEX) filed for its IPO on March 31, 2017. The company expects to raise $295M through the offer of 15.5 million shares at an expected price range of $18 to $20 and to make its debut on Thursday, April 27. If the underwriters price the IPO at the midpoint of that range, Emerald Expositions will have a market capitalization of $1.4 billion and trade at a price/sales multiple of 4.37x. Lead Underwriters: Barclays Capital, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs Underwriters: Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, RBC Capital Markets, and Robert W. Baird, Inc. We p...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    5 Best-Ranked Liquid Stocks For Impressive Returns

    The liquidity position of a company often indicates whether its business is going in a profitable direction. A company with a favorable liquidity position has the potential to provide higher returns as liquidity drives growth. However, one should exercise caution before investing in such stocks. While a high liquidity level may imply that the company is meeting its obligations at a faster rate compared to peers, it may also indicate that the company is failing to use its assets efficiently. Hence, one may consider the efficiency level of a company in addition to its liquidity to identify potential winners. Measures to Identify Liquid Stocks L...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    More Small Things

    On April 23, 2015, the US Treasury auctioned off $18 billion in inflation-indexed bonds maturing in April 2020. These 5-year TIPS stopped out at the lowest yield for that particular security class in almost a year before then. Coming as it did during the spring of 2015, it was met with the usual textbook applied commentary, where bond investors were supposedly pricing Janet Yellen’s “transitory” scenario. The oil and commodity crash of late 2014 was by convention nothing more than an aberration, and the auction results appeared to confirm as much. The sharp bidding for inflation protection particularly without a similar move in the 5-ye...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Sentimental Journey

    Like a good attorney, we rarely ask a question for which we don’t have the answer. In the case of looking at sentiment in the economy and in the stock market, we like watching to get a feel for what our professional and individual investor clients are going through to see if it matches what we are hearing and seeing. The bifurcation in the economic sentiment surveys is that sentiment and confidence in economic growth are high, but those enthusiasms have yet to show up in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.  Source: http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/04/economic-data-hard-data-soft-data/ There appears to be two possible outcomes from the d...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Potential Government Shutdown And Gold

    If the U.S. Congress does not pass a bill before April 28, the government will run out of money. What would this mean for the gold market? The specter of a government shutdown is haunting the U.S. again. The deadline is set for April 28. Without the funding bill presented to the President before Friday, the government would not be authorized to pay its bills and a shutdown would begin. A government shutdown could be positive for the gold market. It would be a signal of political division in Washington and Trump’s ineffectiveness. If there is a problem even with funding the government when Republicans control the Congress, the implementation...
    On April 25, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Potential Government Shutdown And Gold

    If the U.S. Congress does not pass a bill before April 28, the government will run out of money. What would this mean for the gold market? The specter of a government shutdown is haunting the U.S. again. The deadline is set for April 28. Without the funding bill presented to the President before Friday, the government would not be authorized to pay its bills and a shutdown would begin. A government shutdown could be positive for the gold market. It would be a signal of political division in Washington and Trump’s ineffectiveness. If there is a problem even with funding the government when Republicans control the Congress, the implementation...
    On April 25, 2017 / By