The U.S. Fed decided to hike rates with another 25 basis points. Markets were quite volatile after the announcement. Interestingly, there was a lot of fuzz on price changes in stocks, gold and currencies, but almost nobody was talking about the moves in what is becoming one of the most attractive markets: emerging stock markets. Today, emerging stock markets were able to break out which, as always, is an unusually important event. That should not come as a surprise as InvestingHaven’s research team saw that coming a long time ago. Almost a year ago, we published this article: Will emerging stock markets become the investment of 2016 and 2...
In this article, I will discuss my prediction of what the Fed will do on Wednesday. I am writing this article before the announcement, but you may be reading it afterwards. It’s still valuable insight because it gives you an idea of where the Fed is in the monetary cycle. The three parts to discuss are the Fed’s decision on rates, it’s guidance for future changes in rates, and its guidance on what it will do to its balance sheet. The other aspect of the Fed’s presentations is its opinion on the state of the economy. Usually there’s nothing new on the economic front because it is simply rehashing publicly available data. I’m not k...
Retail sales comparisons were for February 2017 skewed by the extra day in February 2016. With the leap year February 29th a part of the base effect, the estimated growth rates (NSA) for this February are to some degree better than they appear. Seasonally-adjusted retail sales were in the latest estimates essentially flat when compared to the prior month (January). That leaves too much guesswork to draw any hard conclusions. Once the data for March 2017 is collected and reported, we can, like Chinese figures comparing dissimilar calendar quirks, make more reasonable determinations about the state of the consumer. The tentative view of Februar...
Bulls are looking to build swing lows with some respectable buying across markets. Best of the market action went to the Russell 2000, gaining 1.5% with a close near today’s highs. The gain was enough to return the index above the 50-day MA, but there wasn’t much technical improvement. The Nasdaq 100 played to its strong trend as the year’s market outperformer posted a new closing high on higher volume accumulation. The only negative was the holding MACD trigger ‘sell’, but more action like today’s will quickly rectify that. Stops can be trailed along the 20-day MA. The S&P also enjoyed an accumulation ...
Well damned if this wasn’t a good news type of day. We’d wager the only people unhappy with how Wednesday turned out are Treasury shorts (and there are a lot of them) who got burned badly by a Fed that managed to sprinkle just enough dovish pixie dust into today’s hike to send yields plunging. Oh, and bank stocks were understandably unhappy… “Treasuries surged after the Fed raised rates as expected and maintained forecasts for additional increases for the next two years, dashing expectations it might signal a quicker pace of hikes,” Bloomberg wrote on Wednesday afternoon, adding that “traders who were speculating on a more ha...
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) late Wednesday [Mar 15, 2017 | 4:21pm] posted mixed fourth quarter earnings results and offered a tepid Q1 outlook, but its 2017 forecast was better than expected, and its shares rose in aftermarket trading....
The fund-of-funds ETF structure provides an efficient and economical approach to the implementation of many investment strategies. Although critics often complain that fund-of-funds ETFs only put fees on top of fees, the reality is often quite different, making the structure a welcome addition to the investment world. Typically, an ETF directly owns the securities in the index it is tracking. For example, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) owns all 500 stocks in the index. When the index adds or removes a stock, the ETF does the same thing. However, a fund-of-funds ETF owns other ETFs instead of own the underlying stocks, bonds, or other securiti...
For investors seeking momentum, WisdomTree Strong Dollar US Equity ETF (USSD – Free Report) is probably on radar now. The fund just hit a 52-week high and is up about 27.2% from its 52-week low price of $23.49/share. But are more gains in store for this ETF? Let’s take a quick look at the fund and the near-term outlook on it to get a better idea on where it might be headed: USSD in Focus USSD seeks to provide exposure to U.S.-based companies that generate more than 80% revenues from the domestic market and are less vulnerable to a strengthening dollar. Holding 235 stocks in its basket, it is highly diversified across components wit...