Category Archive: Finance
Featured Stocks In March’s Most Attractive/Most Dangerous Model Portfolios
Recap from February’s Picks Our Most Attractive Stocks (+3.5%) outperformed the S&P 500 (+1.5%) last month. Most Attractive Large Cap stock Micron Technology (MU) gained 24%. Most Attractive Small Cap stock Oclaro (OCLR) was up 11%. Overall, 21 out of the 40 Most Attractive stocks outperformed the S&P 500 in February. Our Most Dangerous Stocks (+1.9%) underperformed […]
XIV & SVXY – What Really Happened?
Introduction The volatility markets have already experienced two seismic events in 2018. First the sharp devaluation of inverse VIX Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) on February 5th leading to the retirement of the Credit Suisse issued VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV) and the lesser known Tokyo listed Nomura Next Notes S&P 500 VIX Short-Term […]
They Should Have Called It Another “Great Depression”
The Reason the Great Recession Isn’t Over Is Because It’s Another “Great Depression” There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that if you own a portfolio heavily weighted in favor of defense stocks, you may even expect gains in 2018. This is especially true for those who boarded that train early on—that is, before […]
Breathe In, Breathe Out
It was just Wednesday afternoon when we noted the following: It’s starting to seem like stocks are worried more about a recession than they are runaway inflation – curve is starting to flatten pretty aggressively. The is something that Bloomberg’s Ye Xie observed as well, noting that “in early February, the stock correction was accompanied by […]
Stanley Black & Decker: A True Dividend King
Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) has put together an amazing track record of dividends over time. The company says it has paid dividends for an almost unbelievable 141 consecutive years and the last 50 of those years have each seen increases in the payout. Track records like this are almost unheard of and as such, Stanley Black […]
New Residential Housing Starts Down In February
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have now published their findings for February new residential housing starts. The latest reading of 1.236M was below the Investing.com forecast of 1.290M and a decrease from the previous month’s revised 1.329M. Here is the opening of this morning’s monthly report: Housing Starts Privately-owned housing […]
Tech Momentum Shines In Turbulent First Quarter
It’s been a turbulent year for US stocks so far, but technology shares are an exception as this corner of the market roars higher in 2018. These firms have outperformed both the broad market as well as the other major sectors on a year-to-date basis, based on a set of ETF proxies. Technology SPDR (XLK) […]
Is The Economic Summer Coming?
Cycles, cycles everywhere. We’ve already discussed the current state of the U.S. business cycle, arguing that the expansion should last for a while, although it is more advanced than in Europe. However, business cycles aren’t the only creatures living in an economic zoo. They are simply the most popular within the modern macroeconomics. The post-war business cycles […]
TGIF – Closing Out A Weak Week For The Markets
Not just a weak week but a weak 45 days since February. After testing our 30% line on the S&P 500 at 2,860 at the end of January, we plunged down to our 20% line at 2,640 in early Feb and now, 5 weeks later, we have struggled to hold the 25% line, which has now […]
Barclays Lowers Apple Estimates, Price Target After Visiting Asia Suppliers
“The lone trouble spot is smartphones, while most other segments appear to be in good shape,” Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz tells investors in a research note after visiting a group of Asia supply chain companies. For the smartphone market, suppliers expect limited to no unit growth in 2018, the analyst adds. For Apple (AAPL), iPhones […]
