The metals showed a little more action this morning, but the lid stayed firmly on the kettle. Let’s hope it does not make a mess when it boils over. They’ll never learn. ...
During the day on Thursday, we get a handful of announcements that could move the marketplace. We get the ECB releasing an interest rate announcement and of course the following statement, we get initial jobless claims coming out of the United States, and of course we get retail sales coming out of Great Britain. CAC The French markets initially fell during the day on Wednesday, but found enough support at the €4500 level to turn around and form a relatively positive looking candle. If the market can break above the 4525 level, it’s very likely that call buyers will be encouraged to continue to trying to push the French market higher. Gol...
eBay (EBAY) released its latest earnings report after closing bell tonight, posting non-GAAP earnings of 45 cents per share on $2.217 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 44 cents per share on $2.18 billion. In last year’s third quarter, the online auction firm reported 43 cents per share in earnings on $2.1 billion in revenue. eBay’s profits shrink eBay’s GAAP earnings fell to 36 cents per share or $418 million from 45 cents per share or $509 million in the year-ago quarter. The company moved $20.1 billion worth of gross merchandise volume during the third quarter, representing a 5% increase on a currency-neutral...
The S&P 500 spent the early trade in apparent indecision following the pre-market release of upbeat residential building permits but downbeat starts, hitting its -0.07% intraday low about 30 minutes into the session. The index then rallied to a relatively narrow trading range from mid-morning to its 0.22% closing gain, about half off its 0.41% intraday high around 2 PM, which coincided with the reasonably sound Fed Beige Book update. The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.76%, up one BP from the previous close. Here is a snapshot of past five sessions in the S&P 500. Here’s a daily chart of the SPY ETF, which gives a bett...
Housing starts unexpectedly fell sharply, for once justifying the use of the description without quotation marks. The decline was concentrated in the multi-family segment. Though apartment construction statistics are highly volatile, this is far beyond the usual wide variation. The seasonally-adjusted annual rate had been above 400k each of the prior three months, so to suddenly tank to just 250k raises some questions. Those would have to begin with the statistics themselves, as clearly there is a good possibility that this is a true anomaly. Whether it is or is not, however, doesn’t actually change the outlook for apartment construction al...
The Nikkei opened on a wobble but after the first couple of hours progressed steadily to close up +0.3% on the day. As JPY found the renewed bid, and even in late trading, the Yen was knocking on the 102 handle as futures trades close to unchanged. Shanghai also found comfort with Q3 GDP reporting at +1.8% growth which takes us to a 6.7% growth rate for the year; still in line with the governments 6.5-7% forecast. Fairly uneventful days trading in Asia as we opened the Europe session. It took all day but all core European indices closed better despite weaker morning trading. It was not until after lunch that market found their way into the po...
Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, social media has become an integral part of our day-to-day lives. These companies have been successful on the premise that we must know what each other is doing at a moment’s notice. Now that they are all publicly traded companies, lofty expectations have been placed on them to grow their user base, increase revenue, and expand out of social media, all at the same time. Photo Credit: Andreas Eldh Facebook has largely lived up to the expectations, Linkedin was steadily improving until its takeover by Microsoft, and Twitter is still struggling to find its identity. Facebook (FB) Information Tec...
The Federal Reserve is, at last, acknowledging at top levels and in fairly clear language that its economists are completely baffled, its recovery is failing, that the Fed cannot raise interest and may even have to heat up its stimulants, or we may end up with a permanently scarred and stagnant economy. Federal Reserve bank president expresses deep reservations about Fed’s recovery Last week, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren opened a meeting with Fed Chair Janet Yellen with the following statements: He said the “nonconformist” behavior of the economy remains a challenge for policymakers trying to determine whether l...
Gasoline was the weak part of the EIA Report today, along with what appears to be an outlier in Oil Imports, which tapered any enthusiasm for the market at the close. Do we get a big build next week as Imports hit the calendar week? Video Length: 00:15:34...