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  • Finance 0

    LinkedIn Plunges 43%, $11 Billion Wiped Out: Where Did The Money Go?

    LinkedIn Plunges 43% Earlier today, in a strange twist of fate I exchanged emails with Georgetown University professor Salil Mehta regarding Facebook (FB). I replied to Mehta with a comment not regarding Facebook but rather regarding LinkedIn (LNKD): “Pray tell, what the hell good is it for everyone in the world to link to everyone else in the world?” I had not yet seen the carnage in LinkedIn. I looked just now thanks to an email from reader Tibor who writes “I know it’s not quite a FANG, but dang! A $50B company down 43% in one day!” LinkedIn Daily Chart Mish Personal Experience From my own personal experience, LinkedIn customer s...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    The Biggest Technology ETF Of Them All

    State Street has had a tremendous advantage in the exchange-traded fund world by being the first issuer of dedicated sector funds. Their highly successful SPDR sector series debuted in 1998 and has spent nearly two decades building a world-class reputation. Everyone from professional to novice investors respect SPDR ETFs for their liquidity, transparency, low-costs, and tax efficiency. The original suite of 9 sector funds is built on the Standard & Poor’s Global Industry Classification Standard. This is published by a panel of experts to clearly delineate each company within the S&P 500 Index into individual categories based on thei...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    5 Stocks Unlocking Value On Breakup Pressure

    Spinoffs have historically been great investments, and right now a number of companies are feeling the pressure to break apart to unlock more value. These are the stories you should be buying and selling. With the S&P 500 now down nearly 5% over the last year, companies are looking to unlock value any way they can. This includes spinning off parts of their business or doing full-blown breakups. Now, spinoffs have historically been great investments. Joel Greenblatt has one of the best investing track records ever, thanks to investing in spinoffs and other special situations. Greenblatt started his hedge fund, Gotham Capital, in 1985. For ...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Empty Consumers

    If the Chinese were intent on financial reform, and that meant trying perhaps the impossible task of a managed bubble deformation, the genesis of the idea was forged in the United States. China’s vast industrial machine was made to service US consumers and financed with the full throat of euro/dollar expansion, leaving so many goods for sale in US stores stamped “Made in China.” In terms of numbers, the Chinese expected 20-40% export growth to the US; on this side that meant something like 20-30% growth in US imports from China. Outside of the brief burst of optimism in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, when that economic ...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    SP 500 And NDX Futures Daily Charts – That’s Key Support, Bring On Next Week

    Nice economic recovery. Not. Stocks have fallen to key support. I still think the SP 500 is forming a symmetrical triangle or a bear flag with more downside to come, but we’ll have to see how next week goes. There will be no sustainable recovery until there is meaningful financial and economic reform. The natives are restless, but confused. And so the outcome is uncertain. Have a pleasant weekend....
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Coca-Cola Q4 Earnings: Will It Beat Despite Fx Woes?

    The Coca-Cola Company (KO – Analyst Report) is set to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results on Feb 9, before the market opens. Last quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 2.00%. In fact, the cola giant surpassed earnings estimates in all the past four quarters with an average surprise of 5.85%. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement. Factors to Consider Coca-Cola’s aggressive cost-cutting and strategic initiatives improved results in 2015. Disciplined quality advertising investments supported volume growth in the first three quarters of 2015, especially in North America. We ex...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Market Talk – January 5, 2016

    We have ended a busy week for equities with a mixed session for Asia and it was the Nikkei that was to spoil the party yet again! Closing the day down 1.3% this puts the Nikkei index return on the week at -5.9%. Had we not seen a large bounce at the close the losses would have been substantially more! This evening things are not looking any better either, as having seen the US employment numbers, the Nikkei Futures have lost an additional -1.9% in late US trading. Worth mentioning also is that Dealers continue to point at the currency as a cause but who is following who? Last seen late this evening is $/Yen trading at 116.90 (hi today 116.20...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Stocks End Week Lower As Tech Melts Down Despite Strong Alphabet Report

    Stocks ended the week lower, with the Nasdaq index the clear laggard, as a number of well-known tech stocks felt the brunt of the market pullback. The week was bookended by a strong report Monday night from Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), which still ended the week lower despite its better than expected earnings, and weak guidance Thursday evening from social media name LinkedIn (LNKD), which was severely punished by investors and analysts alike in the wake of its outlook. MACRO NEWS: In the U.S., nonfarm payrolls rose 151,000 in January, versus expectations for an increase of 190,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9%, versus expectations f...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    S&P 500 Snapshot: A Selloff To End The Week

    Our benchmark S&P 500 ended the week with selloff in two waves. The index sank at the open and trended downward to a late morning low. It then traded sideways until a second wave of selling after the lunch hour sent the index to its -2.23% intraday low. A bit of buying in the final hour trimmed the loss to -1.85%. Technology stocks were particularly hard hit, as reflected in the -3.25% plunge in the NASDAQ. The 500 is now down 8.02% year-to-date and 11.77% off its record close on May 21st of last year. The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.86%, down 1 basis point from the previous close. Here is a snapshot of past five sessions. Here ...
    On February 5, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Valuations Remain Low Due To Market Pullback

    ValuEngine tracks more than 7000 US equities, ADRs, and foreign stock which trade on US exchanges as well as @1000 Canadian equities. When EPS estimates are available for a given equity, our model calculates a level of mispricing or valuation percentage for that equity based on earnings estimates and what the stock should be worth if the market were totally rational and efficient–an academic exercise to be sure, but one which allows for useful comparisons between equities, sectors, and industries. Using our Valuation Model, we can currently assign a VE valuation calculation to more than 2800 stocks in our US Universe. We combine all of ...
    On February 5, 2016 / By