If you’re into retail and want a true contrarian play, look no farther than beleaguered chain JC Penney (JCP). It’s been beaten to smithereens, presently about 10% of its prior peak price, and it seems to be hammering out a bottom.
t’s unlikely we will be seeing much action over the next few days. I have memories of Thanksgiving Friday been good for bulls, but with holiday trading anything can happen. The index most likely to enjoy a good holiday break is the Russell 2000.
Gold and silver held their prices well today with silver actually gaining some ground. Not bad for the day after a Comex option expiration. This Friday the December contract becomes active on first notice, so we might see some changes in open interest. Not much to report in the delivery category, but the Comex warehouse…
Written by Gary The averages have closed all over the place. The DOW closed flat and in the red while the small caps closed fractionally higher in the green. Volume was low for most of the afternoon with some moderate trading at the close. By 4 pm the averages looked weak and uninspiring as we suspected…
Even a global economic growth slowdown will not seriously impact the future of the shale oil patch, Rudolf “Rudy” Hokanson tells The Energy Report. The Barrington Research analyst’s job is to think long and hard about the target prices he assigns to the best and brightest junior firms playing in the Bakken and other shales. He likes…
Recently I wrote about the risk of cyber crime on the investment scene in Caveat Emptor. The article emphasizes the need to mitigate the risk of cyber security in your portfolio. To do this, I suggest reviewing company’s published statistics on the cost of online crime. I also suggest gaining an understanding of the broad…
Never in the history of US equity markets has the S&P 500 closed above its 5-day moving average for 28 days in a row… until today. While most indices tracked sideways in a very narrow range today, Trannies outperformed (helped by weaker oil, but even when oil rallied intraday Trannies rallied too). VIX tracked back below…
Utilities and Health Care. These are the top two sectors in the S&P 500 this year, which may come as a surprise to many as we’re being told that economic growth is set to accelerate. Given this defensive leadership, one would assume the financial markets and economy would be having a more difficult year in 2014. As…
The purpose of central bank financial repression and ZIRP is to distort and inflate asset prices. Our monetary politburo even admits that it is in the monetary scam business via its self-serving doctrine called “wealth effects”. The game here is to drive the stock market averages ever higher through massive liquidity injections into the Wall Street dealer markets….
If admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery, then China is making progress. The question is progress to what, because the generic answer, “another debt-fueled boom” is no longer applicable. Recall that as we noted here initially in the summer of 2013, the very reason why China finds itself in a reformist quandary…
