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  • Finance 0

    Oil Prices And Asian Stocks Seek To Erase Losses

    Reports by the U.S. Energy Information Administration of a reduction in U.S. crude stocks sent oil prices slightly higher on Thursday morning, helping the commodity recover steep losses suffered on Wednesday. U.S. WTI crude futures gained 12 cents on Thursday morning, to trade at $50.56 per barrel after falling 4 percent overnight, while Brent crude futures gained 15 cents per barrel to trade at $53.08 per barrel. U.S. crude stocks fell by 1 million barrels last week, fueling hope that global oversupply will be declining, despite expectations that U.S. production will continue to increase in the coming weeks. Asian stocks followed oil price...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Recent Stock Purchase II April 2017

    I usually end my ‘stock considerations’ posts the same way by saying that Mr. Market always has the last word and that sometimes stocks that I’m not considering in a particular month may suddenly become attractive once again because of a serious sell off (usually after poor earning reports and guidance). While I added to my General Mills, Inc. (GIS) last week as near term headwinds are affecting the stock keeping prices depressed I didn’t expect to make another buy so quickly but decided to continue to nibble on positions as they falter. With that being said: I have added to my taxable account 2.0 shares at $195.07 for a total...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Subprime Pet Rental Company Files For Bankruptcy

    Two months ago, Bloomberg’s Patrick Clark penned an article that promptly went viral as it touched on a rather unorthodox topic: a pet leasing, or rather rental, company aimed at subprime borrowers who could not afford to buy their pet outright. The company in question is Wags Lending, a/k/a Bristlecone, was founded by Dusty Wunderlich in 2003. A brief background from the original BBG piece: Wunderlich dreamed up Wags Lending in 2013, then used the pet-leasing business to launch an improbable collection of financing vehicles—writing leases against furniture, wedding dresses, hearing aids, and custom auto rims. In a little more than...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    The End Of Quantitative Easing – Perhaps Now It Will Be Inflationary?

    One of the greatest monetary experiment in financial history has been the global central bank buying of government debt. This has been touted as a form of “money printing” that was supposed to produce hyperinflation. That never materialized as predicted by the perpetual pessimists. Nevertheless, the total amount of Quantitative Easing (QE) adding up the balance sheets of the Fed, the ECB and BOJ is now around $13.5 trillion dollars, which by itself is a sum greater than that of China’s economy or the entire Eurozone. If QE failed to produce inflation, then ending QE may actually produce the inflation people previously expected. Where’...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Indian Indices Trade Marginally Higher; Realty Stocks Witness Buying

    After opening the day on a flat note, share markets in India witnessed some buying interest and are presently trading marginally higher. Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with stocks in the realty sector and consumer durable sector witnessing maximum buying interest. The BSE Sensex is trading up 68 points (up 0.2%) and the NSE Nifty is trading up 21 points (up 0.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.7%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 1%. The rupee is trading at 64.63 to the US$. In the news from the initial public offering (IPO) space, New Delhi-based textbook publisher S Chand & Co is l...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    4 REITs Building Investors Hopes This Earnings Season

    We are at the onset of the Q1 earnings season and investors are glued to quarterly releases. One can be lured to stocks that have already impressed with profits. But instead of betting on them, picking stocks that are set to beat can be far more rewarding. This is because, an earnings beat essentially serves as a catalyst and raises investors’ confidence in the stock. This in turn pushes up its price and fetches more gains from one’s investments. Further, buying an earnings play with less initial investment translates into great returns when the stock eventually trades at a higher price. Now, this brings us to the REIT industry – we’l...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    The Tightening Fed, Geopolitics And Order In The S&P 500

    The U.S. stock market has, for the most part, behaved in a very orderly fashion since the first quarter of 2016 ended just over a year ago. But since 1 March 2017, when the S&P 500 reached its all-time record peak closing value of 2,395.96, the S&P 500 has dropped diagonally by three standard deviations from that peak value with respect to its fundamental trendline, as determined from the relationship between its value and the S&P 500’s trailing year dividends per share.   To be fair, some would call that reverting to the mean, but since the S&P 500 peaked on 1 March 2017, the news that influences investors expectations...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Sterling Retraces Tuesday’s Gains Though Short Squeeze May Continue

    Video length: 00:28:59 Wednesday appeared to be a day of retracing Tuesday’s large moves with one exception. Canadian Dollar weakness continued as USD/CAD traded at its highest level in over a month after the weekly EIA numbers in the US showed that Gasoline Stockpiles rose for the first time in 9-weeks. USD/CAD was supported by the retracement higher in the USD and will look to Friday’s CPI for further direction. However, there remain signs that USD weakness could persist despite periods of sellers taking the day off. Another theme worth watching is the positioning and technical shift in Sterling. While Wednesday saw the price re...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    EUR/USD Extends Gains On French Polls, USD Weakness

    EUR/USD is on the rise once again, extending the recent gains and reaching the highest levels during the month of April, reaching a high of 1.0747. These recent gains are an extension of the bounce within the uptrend channel. Further resistance awaits at 1.0775 and 1.0830. Why is EUR/USD rising? Looking at other charts, it is easy to see that the US dollar has resumed its falls after a correction and an attempt to recover. US yields remain depressed and this does not help the greenback. The ongoing theme is a disillusion from Trump: the grand plans for tax cuts and infrastructure spending seem unrealistic. But the euro also enjoys a favorab...
    On April 20, 2017 / By
  • Finance 0

    Sensex & Nifty Open Flat; Yes Bank Slips 3.5% Post Q4 Results

    Stock markets in Asia are higher today following key earnings on Wall Street and as oil prices came off two-week lows set earlier in the session. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.13%, while the Hang Seng is up 0.35%. The Nikkei 225 is trading higher by 0.31%. The US equities closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with IBM and oil prices pushing down the Dow Jones industrial average. Meanwhile, share markets in India have opened the day on a flat note with a positive bias. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 60 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 5 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index have opened the day up by 0...
    On April 20, 2017 / By