Monthly Archives: December 2014

Amazon Psyched For Cyber Monday

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) believes this holiday season will be one of the best it has ever experienced as Black Friday already gave the e-commerce giant a clear indication of what to expect. It recorded impressive sales results in the U.K, just only four years after the event was launched. The company reports that it surpassed…

November 2014 ISM Manufacturing Survey Declines Insignificantly.

The ISM Manufacturing survey continues to indicate manufacturing growth expansion with an insignificant decrease in the rate of growth. This survey should be considered good news as it reconfirms a rather strong report last month. Key internals improved. The ISM Manufacturing survey index (PMI) declined from 59.0 to 58.7 (50 separates manufacturing contraction and expansion). This was…

Oil, Cartels, And The ECB

OPEC is a cartel but it is a strange species in the sense that it only accounts for about 40% of oil production. In the past exerted its influence by cutting production, as in 2008, and driving up prices. Now it faces a different challenge. New supply has come on the market, which threatens the cartel’s…

Break On Through To The Other Side

Of all the ridiculous reasons I’ve heard for pushing this astonishly overpriced market into higher highs is the “Santa Claus Rally”. What’s wrong with you people? I even checked in with some of the Barron’s luminaries; here’s their take on the notion of a Santa Claus Rally: Mario Gabelli: “Ghey.” Marc Faber: “Totally ghey.” Abby Joseph Cohen: “Gheyer…

Dividend Aristocrats In Focus Part 50: Archer-Daniels-Midland

Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) is the largest publicly traded farm products corporation with a market cap of $34 billion. The company is nearly 3 times larger than its closest rival, Bunge Limited (BG) which has a market cap of $13 billion. When I last analyzed Archer-Daniels-Midland, I was impressed with the management’s ROIC improvements and strong third quarter…