The last week or so has seen both ‘hard’ real economic data and ‘soft’ survey data disappoint notably. This has sent the Citi Macro Surprise Index plunging to 5-month lows with its biggest drop since 2010. The question is – what happens to the stock market next? Of course, this is no surprise to bond traders…...
Written by StockNews.com Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE: SCHW) early Tuesday posted market-beating first quarter earnings results, as recent changes to its brokerage fees began to pay off handsomely. The San Francisco-based investment broker reported: Q1 earnings per share (EPS) of $0.39, which was $0.03 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.36. Revenues rose 18.0% from last year to $2.08 billion, also topping analysts’ view for $2.06 billion… Q1 new retail brokerage accounts totaled 235,000, up to a whopping 44% from last year. Total accounts at the end of the quarter were 7.2 million, up 4% year-over-year… Net new a...
<< Read More: Trade of the Year – Part II << Read More: A Short History Of The Post-WWII Oil price, From A Technical Perspective: Part I Is the Economy at the cusp of the next recession? or maybe worse? Part II takes a look at the macro economic backdrop for the trade of the year. Spoiler alert- its not a pretty picture, but don’t think doom and gloom, instead embrace crisis and opportunity! With our understanding of the history of oil we now focus on the macro backdrop for our Big Trade. “When the tide goes out you find out who has been swimming naked”– Warren Buffet “This time around everything gets revealed ...
After surging towards $1300, gold is taking a well-deserved short term rest. Can the rally continue? Geopolitics news has gotten most of the credit for this rally, but Indian dealers have been buying huge amounts of gold in preparation for the April 28 wedding season Akha Teej celebrations. Over the past two months, that’s where most of the demand has come from. Western analysts and investors often forget that Indian buyers follow Western news very closely.In fact, I would argue that India’s top gold traders are more in tune with gold-related news in the West than many Western analysts. For example, gold surged higher on the night Donal...
The S&P 500 is trading at a historically expensive valuation, propped up by low interest rates, quantitative easing, and positive investor sentiment. This has made it difficult to find bargains in today’s stock market. One of the best ways to identify value is by looking for companies experiencing short-term trouble. Cardinal Health (CAH) is an example of this right now – the stock has dropped more than 10% in today’s trading. Source: Yahoo! Finance Cardinal’s stock price is a result of lowered guidance for fiscal 2017 after the announcement of a $6.1 billion acquisition of Medtronic’s (MDT) Patient Care, Deep Vein Thrombos...
As we move further into 2017, economic statistics will be subject to their annual benchmark revisions. High-frequency data such as any accounts published on or about a single month is estimated using incomplete data. It’s just the nature of the process. Over time, more comprehensive survey results, as well as upgrades to statistical processes, make it necessary for these kinds of revisions. There is, obviously, great value in having even incomplete data estimates published in as close to real time as can be possible right now. Most of the time there aren’t major revisions to a data set because by and large growth is to some degree predict...
We are seeing the beginnings of de-risking as for the first time since the election as the S&P 500 has broken below its 50-day trendline, but is still just 3 percent shy of its all-time high, so let’s not get overly carried away here. Volatility, in the form of the CBOE’s volatility index (VIX), rose every day last week and has jumped 24 percent to be at its highest level since November. Meanwhile, those talking heads on mainstream financial media keep focusing on the same thing the herd does – which rarely results in successful investing. Ten big stocks are exerting an unusually large influence on the S&P 500 in 2017, the late...
Theresa May’s snap decision to call a snap election sent the pound higher. Here are our five reasons why the pound is rising. What targets should we look out for? Here is their view, courtesy of eFXnews: NAB FX Strategy Research notes that the GBP has stages a significant rally in reaction to UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s calling for a snap General Election on June 8th 2017. In that regard, NAB notes the GBP/USD exchange rate has broken its 200 day moving average for the first time since the day of the referendum on June 23rd last yea making a fresh high for 2017 and stands at its highest level since December 6th when it hit a best of...
I’ve mentioned KATE as a short many times (including this post, whose date is arrowed below). As Kate’s brother-in-law David Spade might say… ”Buh-bye”....
Demand for 3D printer systems and for materials used in the printers rose slightly last quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to research firm Piper Jaffray. Demand for Stratasys’ (SSYS) products improved significantly, and the company looks poised to report “solid” first quarter results, according to the firm, which upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral. However, other companies in the sector – including 3D Systems (DDD), Materialise (MTLS) and Voxeljet (VJET) – also benefited from improved demand last quarter, the firm believes, calling on investors “to revisit the 3D printing spac...