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  • Finance 0

    Suffering Stock Market Stress? Consider This Market With Negligible Volatility And Consistently Rising Values Instead

    Introduction It would be an understatement to call the recent stock market activity turbulent. High stock price volatility makes investors anxious and some people even become downright frightened. These emotional responses are often exaggerated for people in or near retirement. Therefore, I contend that all investors need to find ways to keep their emotions in check in order to avoid panicking, which typically leads to the making of a devastating financial mistake. I believe there is a viable antidote that is capable of calming investors down by empowering them to focus on one of the least volatile markets in all of finance. The market I’m ...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    The Great Economic Task Ahead

    The wholesale level of the supply chain continued its divergence, though it seems increasingly likely that inventories have at least rolled over even if they are still building. Sales fell by 4.2% unadjusted year-over-year while inventories were up only 1.8%. That was the slowest inventory growth since the summer of 2010, but it still leaves the inventory gap as unbelievably wide. Petroleum is still blamed as the extent of the growing discrepancy, but the wholesale level is broadly shrinking even outside of oil prices. Total wholesale sales were $461.7 billion (seasonally adjusted) in December 2014 but only $440.0 billion in December 2015. Of...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Silver Prices To Trade At $15.98 If The Correlation To Gold Holds

    With the DAX 30 reaching a new monthly low this morning, silver prices may rally once again. Technical Trend Is Bullish Above $14.90 Silver prices are consolidating after yesterday’s strong gains and traders will probably see a break to yesterday’s high of $14.49 as an opportunity to add to their bullish exposure. On a break to the high, silver may reach the October 9 low of 15.62. A move higher is also suggested given the correlation to gold prices, a simple linear regression analysis suggesting that silver is trading at a discount to gold, and should be trading at $15.98 on gold prices trading at or above $1192 dollar per ounce. T...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Masco Corporation Beats 4Q Earnings, Cabinet Sales Up Y/Y

    Masco Corporation (MAS – Analyst Report) is one of the leading cabinetry manufacturers in the U.S. and holds one of the largest shares in faucets. The company is also one of the major national installers of insulation for new homes. Its popular brands include KraftMaid and Merillat cabinets, Delta and Hansgrohe faucets, Behr paint and Milgard windows.   Demand for Masco’s products has been benefiting from an increase in new home construction and home improvement activities in North America. The repair and remodel market recovery is also gaining traction. However, international revenue is hurt by unfavorable foreign currency transl...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    3 Small Cap Biotechs Ripe For A Takeover

    Big biotech is about to go on a shopping spree to replenish their pipelines as many small cap biotechs are selling for lows not seen since 2011. Here are three likely candidates that might get snatched up soon for big premiums. Few sectors of the stock market have been hit harder in 2016 than the biotechnology space. Through the first week of February, the bellwether biotech ETF, iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology (NYSE: IBB) is down 27% and recently hit a new 52-week low. In contrast, the S&P 500 Index has dropped by over 8% during the same time period. With unfettered panic sweeping the market over the past few weeks, many investors have be...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Deutsche Bank Is Scared: “What Needs To Be Done” In Its Own Words

    It all started in mid/late 2014, when the first whispers of a Fed rate hike emerged, which in turn led to relentless increase in the value of the US dollar and the plunge in the price of oil and all commodities, unleashing the worst commodity bear market in history. The immediate implication of these two concurrent events was missed by most, although we wrote about it and previewed the implications in November of that year in “How The Petrodollar Quietly Died, And Nobody Noticed.” The conclusion was simple: Fed tightening and the resulting plunge in commodity prices, would lead (as it did) to the collapse of the great petrodollar ...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Of Morality Plays And Technocratic Assessments

    Breaking up the big banks might provide some visceral joy, but it’s not clear to me that solves the key problem of financial fragility in modern capitalist systems. I recently talked on C-SPAN’s BookTV about my book, Lost Decades , coauthored in Jeffry Frieden. In it, I recounted the story of how, by hubris and ignorance of the basics of finance, we mired ourselves in the biggest financial crisis in living memory. It strikes me it is useful to place assessments of the cause of the global financial crisis, over-simplistically for sure, into two categories: (1) moral hazard due to implicit government guarantees incentivizes financial enti...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Will The “Star Wars Effect” Help Drive Disney Earnings Tonight As It Did EA And HAS?

    Photo Credit: Anime Nut Walt Disney Co. (DIS) Consumer Discretionary – Media | Reports February 9, After Market Closes Walt Disney (DIS) is scheduled to report its FQ1 2016 earnings February 9, after the market closes. Despite beating on the bottom line quarter after quarter, Disney shares have failed to reflect this trend. In the past 3 months Disney shares have plunged 22%, even with the success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This quarter the Estimize consensus is calling for EPS of $1.46, just two pennies higher than Wall Street, and revenue of $14.909 billion vs. the Street’s $14.928 billion.  Compared FQ1 2015, this represent...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Junk Bond Yields Highest In Four Years, Goldman Discusses Oil In Teens; 150 Energy Companies May Go Bankrupt

    Under $20 Oil? Oil dipped below $30 again today. As usual dip buyers or shorts covering pushed the price positive for a while. This time, however, the bounce did not last even one day. Oil is flirting with $29 and Junk Energy-Bond Costs Soar. The cost for U.S. high-yield energy companies to borrow in the bond market soared to the highest level in more than four years as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said oil may drop below $20 a barrel. The yield premium investors demand to hold the junk-rated debt sold by energy companies over ultra-safe Treasuries widened to the most since 2012, part of a global rout that has seen stocks tumble toward a bear ma...
    On February 9, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Rising Competition May Weigh On PayPal Margins, Analyst Says

    Research firm Piper Jaffray warned that PayPal (PYPL) continues to face increased competition, which may weigh on its results. Meanwhile, the company announced a change in its Chief Technology Officer. Piper sticks with sell rating: Other leading digital payment systems are becoming more competitive with PayPal’s offering, according to well-known Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. More financial and technology competitors – including Visa (V), MasrterCard (MA), Google (GOOG,GOOGL), Samsung and Apple (AAPL) – are offering “similar functionality” to PayPal, Munster believes. Moreover, Apple and and Samsung will be...
    On February 9, 2016 / By