A new phase in the markets began this month. The Federal Reserve ended its QE3+ purchases. The Bank of Japan unexpectedly and dramatically stepped up its asset purchases under its QQE operations. The government’s largest pension fund announced aggressive portfolio diversification plan. Contrary to some press reports, the ECB remained unanimous in favor of additional…
There is an obvious relationship between supply and demand. In the rental housing market, demand is eroding supply at a rapid rate according to recent data – likely due to changing demographics and preferences. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is based 40% on housing costs – so the logical conclusion is that a rapid rise…
by James Preciado and Jeff Baron , U.S. EIA Since August, both crude oil and currency markets have been influenced by lower economic growth expectations in countries outside the United States. Prices in both markets recently broke out of established trading ranges, driven by concerns about weaker future global demand. The current situation, with the dollar index…
Australia-based e-commerce platform Bigcommerce today announced raising $50 million (USD) in Series D funding. The company will use the funds to invest in product development, grow sales and marketing, and expand its business to new markets. The financing was led by SoftBank Capital, a venture firm affiliated with SoftBank Corp., and included Telstra Ventures and…
Podcast: Play in new window | Play in new window (Duration: 13:17 — 6.1MB) DOW + 91 = 17,810 SPX + 10 = 2063 NAS + 11 = 4712 10 YR YLD – .02 = 2.32% OIL + .77 = 76.62 GOLD + 5.80 = 1201.30 SILV + .15 = 16.50 Record highs for the Dow and the S&P….
I spent most of Wednesday between the computer repair shop, the Doubletree hotel where an investor day was being held by one of our recommended companies, and Bloomberg’s offices and mine, all a short walking distance from each other. It was bitter cold. But given the weather in Buffalo, I figure I got off lightly….
This information was originally sent to subscribers on Nov. 14, 2014. Oil Market Conditions and Opportunities Oil prices are in a period of strong decline. That has hurt the prices of energy companies generally, as you see in the following chart. West Texas Intermediate Crude (gold line) is down about 23% YTD, and that has…
Big-tech behemoth Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) leapfrogged ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) last week to become the second-largest company in the world by market cap. MSFT stock weighs in at a valuation of $405 billion compared to $402 billion for XOM stock. Both still have a long way to go before catching up with Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) world-leading…
The Chart of the Day belongs to Validus Holdings (NYSE:VR). I found the stock by sorting the All Time High list for the best Barchart technical buy signals then used the Flipchart feature to review the charts. Since the Trend Spotter signaled a buy on 9/26 the stock gained 4.09%. Validus Holdings, Ltd., through its…
For all the obfuscation surrounding the topic of stock buybacks and corporations returning record amounts of cash to their shareholders, the bottom line is as simple as it gets. This is what you are taught in CFO 101 class: if you see organic growth opportunities for your business, or if you want to maintain the…
