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  • Finance 0

    Redacted Version Of The January 2016 FOMC Statement

    Comments Policy stalls, as their view of the economy catches up with reality. The changes for the FOMC is that labor indicators are stronger, and GDP weaker. Equities fall and bonds rise. Commodity prices rise and the dollar falls.Maybe some expected a bigger move. The FOMC says that any future change to policy is contingent on almost everything. The key variables on Fed Policy are capacity utilization, labor market indicators, inflation trends, and inflation expectations. As a result, the FOMC ain’t moving rates up much, absent much higher inflation, or a US Dollar crisis....
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Are Russia And Saudi Arabia Friends Again?

    Are we about to break above the $33 a barrel level? This is the question for oil traders. How do we finish the trading week. The Russian production cut headlines supported the oil market and offset a large inventory build on Wednesday.  Video Length: 00:15:49...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Will Paypal Continue To Dominate The Digital Payment Space Amid Rising Competition From AAPL, AMZN & GOOGL?

    Photo Credit: K?rlis Dambr?ns PayPal is scheduled to report fourth quarter 2015 earnings this afternoon after the markets close. The Estimize community is expecting EPS of $0.35, only 1 cent higher than Wall Street. Revenue expectations of $2.5B are on par with the Street’s expectation, although they have been gradually falling since the Q3 report, down around 2%. If both of these expectations are met, it would result in EPS growth of 3% YoY, and much higher revenue growth of 15% due to increased consumer activity online during the holiday season. MA Spending Pulse reported that during the holiday shopping season online sales grew 20% from...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    EC Fed Says Little And Does Less

    The Federal Reserve tweaked its economic assessment, but generally kept the underlying message the same. It sees slack in the labor market continuing to be absorbed and believes the economic conditions warrant a gradual increase in rates. The market was looking for a more dovish statement, but the message is little changed from December.   The Fed continues to see the decline in oil prices as having a transitory impact on inflation. It also maintained the decline in import prices will “dissipate”, which is a to say the impact from the rise in the dollar will also have a transitory impact. As these pass, and labor market condition...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    December Semi Book-2-Bill Ticks Up, Machine Tools As Well… As Expected

    We had been reserving the SEMI data for private posts when we were scouting for changes to the previous trend, but since we noted the trend change in real time and are into a new one we’ll simply update each month in public posts. The SEMI book-to-bill took a bounce in December as I suspected it might for reasons similar to what happens like clockwork with Machine Tools every December (for tax management reasons). Again, it’s not so much the b2b but bookings that are important. “Both semiconductor equipment bookings and billings improved in December,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI.  “Despite softness in the equipm...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    EC Dear Hedge Funds: Index Funds Didn’t Eat Your Returns

    Indexing strategies have been the fastest growing segment of the asset management world in the last 15 years due to low fees, tax efficiency, diviersification and the failure of higher fee active managers to justify their higher fees. As this trend plays out we’re hearing more and more stories about how this trend is bad for investors and how we need these old high fee active managers to better manage the asset space. The latest story about the inevitable day of reckoning due to index funds comes from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. Ackman’s flagship hedge fund has failed to outperform the S&P 500 by a wide margin in the last few yea...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    E Wisdom Of The “Great One”

    Wisdom of the “Great One.” I’m probably the only guy in hockey who can win a scoring title and everybody is saying I had a bad year.  I don’t worry about it. ~ Wayne Gretzky This Gretzky Quote can be applied to the U.S. economy. Granted, even I am not thrilled about 2.0% annual GDP growth. However, when I look around the World, it is clear that the U.S. economy is the scoring leader. Yes, the U.S. economy is winning the title by scoring 30 goals instead of 50 goals, but the game has changed. Even Wayne has acknowledged that hockey has changed since he was in his prime and that he could not score as many goals in a season as ...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    The Great Migration: Active To Passive

    As this chart shows, investors continue to flee expensive actively-managed investment strategies in favor of low-cost passive strategies, such as ETF’s.This makes perfect sense for a variety of reasons.However, there are smart ways and not-so-smart ways to invest in passive ETF strategies. According to this article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, the great migration from active to passive continued in 2015 even though that was the first year since 2012 that active strategies outperformed passive.The article highlights the some of the benefits of passive ETF investing (low costs), but it also notes some of the risks such as compa...
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    How (And Why) To Trade Options On ETFs

    The markets have started the year in a significant nosedive. In fact, we’ve basically replicated the volatility we saw back in August and September of last year. Any day that we get a bounce, even a slight one, the pundits start asking if this is the bottom. And you start wondering where you should put your money.Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about finding the perfect stock. There’s a much better way to survive these markets: exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs Can Remove the Stress from Stock Picking People get fixated on finding THE best stock in which to invest. At one time, high flyers like Priceline Group Inc....
    On January 27, 2016 / By
  • Finance 0

    Can Under Armour Catch Nike With Strong Q4 Earnings?

    Photo Credit: Craig Hawkins  Under Armour, Inc. (UA) Consumer Discretionary – Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods| Reports January 28, Before Markets Open Once thought of as a viable threat to Nike’s dominance, Under Armour (UA) has fallen victim to a recent rough patch. Unseasonably warm weather has affected sales of items such as coats and winter hats. On the heels of a poor holiday season, shares of Under Armour plunged 25% in the past three months. In a competitive footwear and apparel industry, Under Armour has positioned itself as a premium brand against Nike and Lululemon. Typically, the fourth quarter is peak season for re...
    On January 27, 2016 / By