PayPal’s (PYPL – Free Report) stock closed the day down 1.5% on Tuesday to $42.10 after Google announced in a blog post that users would now be able to send and receive money in their Gmail app. Alphabet’s (GOOGL – Free Report) Google said that users would be able to receive and request money as an email attachment through their Gmail App on Android. This service will have no fees, and will work with other email services as well. Recipients can also arrange the money to go straight to their bank account. To use the new feature, users will have to set up a Google Wallet account if they don’t have one. Google’s mo...
Biotechnology continues to be a sector on the rebound after a punishing 2016. In the first two months of this year, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (IBB) has already climbed +12%, compared to the S&P (SPY) gain of +6% and the Nasdaq (QQQ) rise of +8%. The Prudent Biotech Portfolio also moved higher with a gain of +26% for the same two-month period. The biotech benchmark, IBB, stands poised at 52-week highs, at a technical level of 300, which has been a strong resistance level in the past but was recently breached earlier this month. Source: GraycellAdvisors.com In an article in November 2016, “Biotech Bonanza – 5 Reasons fo...
In Dow Jones news today, the Dow slid again as investors prepare for another interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve. Winter weather also played a role in pulling down transportation stocks as blizzard conditions on the East Coast stifle economic activity. Let’s look at the numbers from Tuesday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq: Dow Jones: 20,837.37; -44.11; -0.21% S&P 500: 2,365.45; -8.02; -0.34% Nasdaq: 5,856.82; -18.97; -0.32% Now, here’s a look at today’s most important market events and stocks, plus a preview of Wednesday’s economic calendar. DJIA Today: Dow Drops as Oil Slumps and Rate H...
Gold stocks have been on their not-untypical first-quarter ride, rallying 33% from the mid-December lows before giving back most of that move. The decline in mining circles is known as the “PDAC curse,” since it occurs right before the world’s largest mining conference in Toronto. This year’s show, which attracted over 24,000 attendees, up a little from last year though still down some 20% from 2012’s record, had an air of growing optimism, among both companies and attendees, though far from mania. One good sign: many exploration companies noted that the senior companies seemed more interested in doing deals than...
In this article, I will review the latest charts which show the speculative craze the stock market is in. Then, I will update you on the latest information on the GOP’s healthcare plan. On Tuesday, the NFIB will release its latest survey on business optimism; it has been the poster child for the positive survey data. It’s not that I don’t believe small business owners. I do believe them when they say their current business is weak; I simply disagree with the opinion that the future will see improvements. Restaurant Sales Plummet As you can see from the chart below, restaurant sales have dipped lower in February. Restaurant same store s...
Since Mr. Mulvaney has been criticizing the numbers produced by the BLS [1], and scoring by CBO [2], I thought it of interest to see Mr. Mulvaney’s record on predictions. To make things easy on Mr. Mulvaney, I thought it would be more fair to evaluate his “nowcasting” abilities. In July 2016, Mr. Mulvaney gave a speech to the John Birch Society in which he observed: the Fed’s actions have “effectively devalued the dollar” and harmed economic growth. It is difficult to assess the economic growth assessment without a counterfactual. However, we can easily observe what has happened to the dollar, as of July 2016, when Mr. Mulvaney...
Volatility picked up this storm day in NYC and on the even of a likely 0.25% rate increase. That said, the rate hike is baked in and I don’t see this little spat of weakness as anything other than that, for now. I saw some strength in metals and did try a NUGT position Monday but I was stopped out for about $0.30/share loss today. The miners usually lead the metals, and may again tomorrow, but I had toget out today. Metals usually do fine around Fed speak but so far not this time. SPY continues to hold nicely above the 21 day moving average as the uptrend continues, with a little rest right now. Wednesday will be interesting to see how stoc...
Nicholas Darvas Box Trades to watch for: Darvas Box trading was started by Nicolas Darvas a long time ago and even wrote a book titled, “How I made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market” and it is one of my favorite trading books of all time. It is actually a very quick read, and you can purchase a copy of it on the cheap right here. Essentially he was an individual trader with a full-time dancing career. He came up with a box breakout trading strategy that netted him over $2,000,000 in profits and remember, in the 1950’s that was an insane amount of money. So in honor of Nicolas Darvas and his incredible trading system, I have p...
Something had to give one way or the other. With all the oil traders piled onto the long side, either demand had to seriously pick up (or plausibly appear ready to do so) or the weak hands would start to capitulate. But as WTI has pulled back from $54 to around so far $48, the futures market remains nearly as net long as ever. There are still (as of the week of March 7) more than 418,000 contracts open on the long side, and though down from the peak two weeks before that level would still have been a record high six weeks ago. More remarkable is that to this point not many positions transferred to the short side. Oil bears remain as absent as...
Shares of Citrix Systems (CTXS) are under pressure today, shedding part of Monday’s gains after media reports said the company is working with advisers on a potential sale. Commenting on the news, Citi analyst Walter Pritchard told investors he believes Cisco Systems (CSCO) has the most obvious fit among the strategic buyers, but noted that a near-term deal may be unlikely. POSSIBLE SALE: According to a Bloomberg report Monday night, Citrix is working with advisers on a potential sale of the company. Citrix tapped Goldman Sachs to sound out possible suitors including private equity firms, the report noted, adding however that there has ...