The Consumer Price Index increased 2.74% in February 2017 over February 2016. That was the highest inflation rate registered in this format since February 2012. As has been the case for the past three months, the acceleration of headline inflation is due almost exclusively to the sharp increase in oil prices as compared to the lowest levels last year (base effects). It is the only part of the CPI report which captures anything like it. The energy price index was up 15.6% year-over-year, compared to an 11.1% increase in January. The gamma of energy and therefore the CPI is already fading, with oil prices having been stuck at $52-$54 during the...
Yes, austerity really kills real people, and it kills the societies they live in. Let’s try and explain this in simple terms. It’s a simple topic after all. Austerity is a mere left-over from faith-based policies derived from shoddy economics, and economics is a shoddy field to begin with. The austerity imposed on and in several countries and their economies after 2008, and the consequences it has had in these economies, cannot fail to make you wonder what level of intelligence the politicians have who did the imposing, as well as the economists who advised them in the process. We should certainly not forget that the people who make these...
Photo Credit: Louis Raphael Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) Information Technology – Software | Reports March 16, After Market Closes Adobe Systems kicks off fiscal 2017 tomorrow with its scheduled first quarter report after the closing bell. The significant strides Adobe made in the Creative Cloud and Marketing Cloud businesses continue to translate into robust financial performance. Earnings and revenue in each of the past 10 quarters exceeded analysts expectations, leading to a strong surge in the stock price.Shares climbed nearly 40 percent in the past 12 months and historically increase an additional 3 percent immediately following an ...
The Federal Reserve delivered the much-anticipated rate hike. There was one dissent, the Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari. In the first paragraph of the FOMC statement tweaked the assessment of business fixed investment, saying that it appears to have “firmed somewhat,” while in February it characterized it as having “remained soft.” The statement also recognized that inflation is moving closer to the Fed’s target. In the second paragraph, the Fed retained its risk assessment, which is roughly balanced. The Fed reiterated its commitment to gradual increased(though previously it said the approach was ...
Photo Credit: Norman Maddeaux ==================================== February 2017 March 2017 Comments Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has continued to expand at a moderate pace. Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in February indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has continued to expand at a moderate pace. No real change. Job gains remained solid and the unemployment rate stayed near its recent low. Job gains remained solid and the ...
The following stock valuation is about Procter & Gamble, one of the first stocks in my portfolio and probably a core holding in every dividend growth Portfolio. PG has increased its dividend for 60 years and is therefore one of the dividend Aristocrats. Nevertheless, the growth of PG slowed down in the recent years and the payout ratio went up significantly in the last years. But let’s see if or when there will be a good entry point. The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) is a consumer goods provider. It sells its products in more than 180 countries and sells various items including beauty and grooming products and home-good product...
Dividend investing is one of the most actionable, repeatable methods of building wealth over time. Fortunately, there are many resources available to learn about dividend investing. Many of them are published by some of the most successful dividend investors in the business. These include books, websites, and even shareholder letters. One particular example is the portfolios of large, institutional investors, made visible through the 13F filings required of institutional investment managers with more than $100 million in qualifying assets. Warren Buffett oversees a $100 billion+ common stock portfolio which holds many dividend-paying compan...
Today the Federal Reserve raised the base US Fed Funds interest rate a quarter percentage point to the range between 0.75% and 1.00%. There was only one dissent from Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari. And because this move was anticipated by everyone, the real question now goes to what comes next. When we think of how the Fed will move going forward, we have to remember that the Fed has only two formal mandates— price stability and full employment. There is nothing about economic growth, exchange rate volatility, yield curve steepness or anything else that is directing Fed policy. The Fed does have an underlying role in preserving fin...
The stock market fell slightly on Tuesday as it prepares for the Fed to hike rates on Wednesday. In this article, I will discuss the latest changes to the macro environment, namely the decline in sentiment surveys and the increase in the producer price index which may soon reverse because of falling oil prices. Bull markets usually end when they run out of buyers, not because of bearish short sellers. The shorts have been claiming stocks have been overvalued for a while. The bearish case may have been reasonable, but the bulls always had a counterclaim why stocks should rally in the short-term. Their arguments are now starting to wear thin. ...
…You can learn a lot from watching the pros when it comes to building an investment plan and, while there’s no shortage of noise out there, it can be worth looking at what the “long-term money” is doing: the pension funds, portfolio managers, consultants and others who are collectively responsible for the financial futures of thousands of clients and millions of workers, retirees, individual investors. Written by Martin Small One unmistakable trend among institutions is the rapid growth of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These investors continue to discover innovative ways to use ETFs… [and,] like the rest of us, they are seek...