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  • Finance 0

    Final Second Quarter “GDPNow” Forecast 2.4% Vs. Bloomberg Consensus 2.9%

    The Atlanta Fed second quarter GDPNow final estimate came in at 2.4%.  The second quarter GDP official “advance” estimate from the BEA is due out Thursday, July 30 along with the annual revision of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA). The Bloomberg Consensus Estimate for second quarter GDP is 2.9%, a half percentage-point higher than the Atlanta Fed model. I will take the under. First quarter GDP releases by the BEA have been all over the map. The initial reading was +0.2%, revised to -0.7%, then revised again to -0.2%.  Whatever number comes out Thursday, expect revisions, possibly in both directions. I expect t...
    On July 27, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    Thoughts From The Frontline: Europe: Running On Borrowed Time

    “I am sure the euro will oblige us to introduce a new set of economic policy instruments. It is politically impossible to propose that now. But some day there will be a crisis and new instruments will be created.” – Romano Prodi, EU Commission president, December 2001 Prodi and the other leaders who forged the euro knew what they were doing. They knew a crisis would develop, as Milton Friedman and many others had predicted. It is not conceivable that these very astute men didn’t realize that creating a monetary union without a fiscal union would bring about an existential crisis. They accepted that eventuality as the price of ...
    On July 27, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    5 Worst Performing ETFs Of Last Week

    The U.S. stock market suffered its worst week (ending July 24) in months thanks to disappointing earnings results, especially from Apple (AAPL), Caterpillar (CAT) and International Business Machines (IBM) as well as a string of bleak sales or earnings outlook (read: 4 ETFs to Watch Post IBM 2Q Results). This is especially true as total earnings for the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far are up 3.6% on an annual basis with a beat ratio of 73.3% while revenues have increased 0.9% with a beat ratio of 50.8%, as per the Zacks Industry Trend. While the beat ratios are better than the recent quarters, the earnings and revenue growth ...
    On July 27, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    SP 500 And NDX Futures Daily Charts – Rinse-A-Matic

    Stocks in the US continued to slide, in sympathy with China and a generally poor outlook for the world of real productivity and wealth. And in large part this is the rinse cycle of a wash-rinse stock market operation conducted by insiders that took US equity prices up to unsustainable levels in the first place.  It looks like our cynical outlook just after Wall Street squeezed out the Paypal IPO was on the money.   No credit really, given the screaming non-confirmation out of anything except for a very narrow rally in a few tech name.   If your favorite purveyor of market analysis was not saying ‘get out for now’ you may w...
    On July 27, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    July 2015 Texas Manufacturing Survey Manufacturing Activity Continues To Contract For Fifth Month

    Of the four Federal Reserve districts which have released their July manufacturing surveys – two forecast weak growth and three are in marginal contraction. A complete summary follows. There was no market expections from Bloomberg this month. From the Dallas Fed: Texas factory activity declined slightly in July, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, remained negative but rose for a second month in a row to -1.9, suggesting further moderation in the decline in manufacturing output. A similar pattern was seen among oth...
    On July 27, 2015 / By
  • Entertainment 0

    How Ant-Man’s Director Made Sure Civil War Got Ant-Man Right

    Peyton Reed might have only been working on Ant-Man for just over a year, but he grew very protective of the character throughout his time on the film. In fact, when the Russo brothers arrived in the Ant-Man editing suite to check over some footage and told Reed about their plans for the diminutive hero, the director couldn’t help but feel territorial. Peyton Reed made this revelation during his chat with ET Online, where he also admitted that he became a little bit envious when Paul Rudd went to shoot scenes as Ant-Man for Captain America: Civil War. But he made sure to showcase his supremacy when the blockbuster’s directors Anthony and ...
    On July 2, 2015 / By
  • Technology 0

    Samsung’s New Graphene Technology Will Double Life Of Your Lithium-Ion Battery

    Samsung claims to be developing a new technology that can extend the life of a lithium-ion battery to double its current capacity on a single charge. Battery life has always been a prickly issue for most smartphone users. While we have seen phenomenal advances in processors, displays and security, battery life remains a mediocre one day on average. Samsung says it might have found the solution by replacing the graphite anode, the part through which energy enters the battery, with graphene-coated silicon to make batteries with an energy density as much as 1.8 times more than current batteries. This is not the first time technology companies ha...
    On June 29, 2015 / By
  • Marketing 0

    14 Interesting Digital Marketing Stats From the Past Week Airbnb continues its ride toward big revenues

    The past week has been filled with great data points. Here are 14 of the more intriguing numbers we came across: 1. Airbnb is on track to make $900 million this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. That’s more than triple what it made in 2013 ($250 million). Internally, the sharing-economy juggernaut expects revenue to skyrocket to $10 billion by 2020, according to The Journal, which also reported that Airbnb is about ready to close on $1 billion in new funding. That would make its $24 billion valuation higher than 88-year-old global hotel brand Marriott ($21 billion). The times, they are a-changing. 2. With Facebook so often tweakin...
    On June 22, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    Trade deficit narrows to 3-mth low, exports contract

    India’s trade deficit narrowed to a three-month low in May, helped by lower gold imports, bolstering the outlook for its current account balance. But in a worrying sign, weak global demand as well as persistent domestic bottlenecks led to a sixth straight annual fall in merchandise exports. Exports account for about a fifth of India’s $2 trillion economy. The trade deficit shrank to $10.41 billion last month, its lowest since February, from $10.99 billion in April, data released by the trade ministry showed on Tuesday. The data comes days after India’s current account deficit, the broadest measure of its trade with the rest ...
    On June 16, 2015 / By
  • Social 0

    McKinney police officer resigns in wake of pool party video

    DALLAS — McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley condemned as “indefensible” the actions of Eric Casebolt, an officer who resigned Tuesday after a video showing him physically confronting teenagers at a pool party went viral, attracting national attention. Chief Conley said at a news conference late Tuesday that Mr. Casebolt, 41, resigned “on his own will” while under investigation and will get to keep his pension and benefits. “Our policies, our training and our practice do not support his actions,” the chief said. “He came into the call out of control and, as the video shows, was out of control during the incident. “I had 12 off...
    On June 10, 2015 / By