Canada has become one of the fastest growing economies in the developed world. The IMF in its most recent forecast notes that “there has been a very strong data release on monthly GDP in early 2017 for Canada, which bodes very well for growth in the early part of the year.”[1] GDP grew at an annualized pace of almost 4 per cent in the first quarter, according to the Bank of Canada. That’s the fastest growth among other G-7 economies. One would expect that this robust start to the year would turn the head of bond investors in the direction of higher rates. So why has the bond market, across the entire yield curve, moved in exactly the op...
A lot can change in a month. It was just a little over a month ago that the Federal Reserve hiked rates at their March meeting. As we were coming into March, there was little expectation for the Fed to actually make a move. Sure, they told markets they wanted three hikes in 2017 at their previous hike in December; but after years of hawkish banter with only two rate hikes to show for the past nine years of ‘accommodation’, market participants had grown dubious of the Fed’s hawkish threats. So as we came into March, odds for a rate hike two weeks later were abysmally low. But a slew of Fed speakers with hawkish assurances combined with...
Investing in a biotechnology company involves most of the time considerable risk, however, this kind of businesses could bring tremendous reward when a new drug is approved. On the other hand, when a new drug in development fails in the trial, shares of the company could crash. To demonstrate this situation, let’s observe the 52-week price change of the shares of the best biotechnology performers and the worst performers. The average 52-week price change of the best ten performers among the 172 biotechnology companies which are included in Russell 3000 index was at 215.5%, while the average of the ten worst performers was a decline of 8...
Yesterday, ahead of the London Fix, Gold was monkey-hammered lower on yuuge volume, only to rip back higher. Today, having failed to keep the precious metal down (25,000 contracts dumped in a minute), they went for it again with a $3 billion notional pummeling in futures… And the dollar is deja vu-ing too…...
Headquartered in Menomonee Falls, WI, Kohl’s Corp (KSS – Free Report) operates about 1,100 stores across 49 states and an e-commerce site. Falling estimates sent the stock back to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). Weak Guidance Reflects Rising Challenges The retailer reported adjusted earnings of $1.44 per share for Q4, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.32. Earnings were however down 9% year-over-year. Revenues were also in-line with the estimates, but down 2.8% year-over-year. “Sales results were weak for the quarter in total, driven by declines in brick and mortar traffic, and offset somewhat by strength in online demand,...
“I realized that becoming a master of karate was not about learning 4,000 moves but about doing just a handful of moves 4,000 times.” — Chet Holmes I’m not seeing this market today as a strong one. Stocks aren’t acting great on earnings so far and charts are looking for at least more pause in many cases, or a further fall. Gold and silver continue to look great and should continue higher anytime so that remains where my positions are focused. SPY is holding the 232.50 area for now but it’s not yet above 235 which would be positive. Let’s see how it goes. Bonds are strong, which often means stocks weakness and GS is also a tell ...
ASML Holding NV (ADR) (NASDAQ: ASML) early Wednesday posted better than expected first quarter earnings results and offered an in-line outlook for the second quarter, as demand remains high for its semiconductor equipment....
USD/CHF seems to be trading in a corrective wave 2), as a reaction to the previous five wave rise within wave 1). That said, downside may be limited for wave 2) around the 50.0/61.8 Fibonacci ratio and around the lower corrective channel line. As we know, corrections usually consist out of three waves A-B and C and as we can see in our case, wave 2) may already be trading in final stages of sub-wave C. That said, a break above the upper channel line would signal a reversal and more gains to follow. USD/CHF, 1H...
Ok, so this is one of those “dammit, I hate to show the same chart everyone else in the world is showing, but then again, when everyone else in the world is showing it that means I have to” moments. As you’re no doubt acutely aware, the French elections are the biggest scheduled geopolitical risk event (an example of an “unscheduled” geopolitical event would be: “mushroom cloud on the Korean Peninsula”) and we’ve documented the unfolding drama that is the tense four-way race for the runoff extensively (most recently here). Well as we and others have noted repeatedly, there are all kinds of indicators flashing bright red in ...