You know, I don’t do a lot of “that’s a wrap” or “the day that was” posts. For one thing 4:30 is beach time (and usually just the right beach weather) and for another, the last thing I want to do after staring at 3 monitors for damn near 12 hours is make a bunch of charts in a hurry. That’s a real pain and besides, all it takes is one last minute vol crush to antiquate your whole chart collage (as one of my former colleagues would undoubtedly attest to). But I can’t help wanting to mention that from where I’m sitting Tuesday looked like a complete sh*t show. It was pretty clear from the word “go” that it was going to b...
Goldman Sachs’ Charlie Himmelberg and Marty Young find evidence that “animal spirits” are driving sentiment along party lines… and that may be a concern… Sentiment indicators have rallied hard since the election of Donald Trump. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, for example, has risen to its highest level since December 2000 (+24.8 points from October). The University of Michigan’s survey of consumer sentiment has also rallied (+10.8 points). And the NFIB measure of small business optimism (+9.8 points since October) hit a post-crisis high in December following its largest two-month ...
We saw a mixed session in Japan today with the Nikkei bouncing from yesterdays lows eventually closing up +0.35% whilst the currency rejected the 107 handle last trading mid 108 level. Shanghai has lost -0.8% also watching the Hang Seng give up 1.4%. It should be no surprise that markets are feeling jittery given current market uncertainties, so this retracement only makes a small dent following the impressive (near 10%) Q1 return. However, it was not until the European session that things started to get whippy – so lets just fast forward to events there! It was the surprise announcement from UK PM Theresa May that spooked life into prices....
This week on the Estimize Roundtable, Estimize’s CEO, Leigh Drogen and SVP of Media, Christine Short, are joined by guests Jeff Macke of Macke Asset Management and Sean Udall, the CIO at Quantum Trading Strategies. With the Q1 Earnings season officially underway, we asked our guests to provide their picks for biggest expected surprises both to the upside and the downside. Their answers might surprise you! Audio Length – 00:59:35...
Dish Network (DISH) shares have dipped after research firm Macquarie downgraded the stock to Neutral, arguing that the company’s $6.2B splurge on the recent wireless spectrum auction could deter a potential suitor and appears misaligned with the coming rollout of 5G technology. DISH DOWNGRADE: Downgrading Dish to Neutral while cutting her target price to $61 after the recent spectrum auction, Macquarie’s Amy Yong argues that the company’s $6.2B spending spree – the second largest of the auction and far ahead of the next highest buyer – is a “thesis changer” that negatively impacts M&A optionality....
Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) Tuesday posted market-beating fiscal third quarter earnings results and offered a bullish forecast for the current period… Written by StockNews.com The Fremont, CA-based semiconductor equipment maker reported: Q3 earnings per share (EPS) of $2.80, which was $0.25 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $2.55. Revenues surged 63.9% from last year to $2.15 billion, also beating analysts’ view for $2.13 billion… Total shipments were $2.41 billion in the latest period, up 25% sequentially from the fiscal second quarter. Non-GAAP gross margins were 46.1%… Operating margins hit 26...
Pull into Pinos Altos, NM and get a sense of the old Wild West. Trade the current market and also get a sense of the old Wild West. Both the market and the Wild West are fraught with myths and truths. Determining what is myth and what is truth makes them difficult to figure, while at the same time making them full of intrigue. For example, the California Gold Rush of 1849 was not the first, but the third gold rush. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral didn’t amount to much nor did it take place at the O.K. Corral. The whiskey served in the saloons was strong stuff made of a combination of raw alcholol, burnt sugar and chewing tobacco. Well, that...
Having finally established that the economy of the “rising dollar” was appreciably worse than first estimated, we can turn our attention back toward figuring out what that means for the near future and beyond. According to the latest estimates for Industrial Production, growth has returned but in the same weird asymmetric sort of way that is actually common for the past decade. Year-over-year IP expanded by 1.5% in March 2017, the highest growth rate since February 2015 more than two years ago. Though that sounds impressive, it says more about the decline than the rebound. As the Federal Reserve currently has it, the trough of what was ...
Last quarter, IBM almost fooled the market when it “beat” but only thanks to using the lowest effective tax rate in recent history (excluding one charge-fulled quarter when the rate was negative). Well, fast forward one-quarter when IBM has done it again, if only on a GAAP basis, because, in the three months ended March 31, IBM reported GAAP pre-tax net income of $1.424BN. What was its after-tax net income? Some $326 million higher, or $1.750 million to be precise. In other words, no longer bothering with flowing a positive GAAP tax rate through the P&L, IBM went negative to the tune of -23.1%. Of course, when it comes to IB...
Stocks ended the day slightly lower as poor earnings from GS and JNJ pulls the markets down. However, the big mover of the day was the Bond market. For those that don’t know the bond market is much larger than the stock market. Bonds are a flight to safety and with volume extremely light in stocks all of the action has been in bonds. In tonight’s video find out why you should be concerned if you own stocks… Video Length: 00:08:48...