There is no doubt 2014 has been a great year for the consumer, but as the economy continues to strengthen, there has been a noticeable divergence in consumer dining trends. Casual dining restaurants such as Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory and Buffalo Wild Wings continue to steal market share from traditional fast food joints. One prominent example is…
The headlines say the durable goods new orders declined. Our analysis agrees – and everything seemed soft. Econintersect Analysis: unadjusted new orders growth decelerated 7.1% (after accelerating a revised 0.6% the previous month) month-over-month , and is down 1.4% year-over-year. the three month rolling average for unadjusted new orders decelerated 2.7% month-over-month, and up 3.2% year-over-year. Year-over-Year Change of 3 Month Rolling Average –…
In the last couple of months, the sharp reversion in oil prices has certainly caught the world’s attention. While the majority of economists and analysts continue to expect incorrectly that falling oil prices are a positive input to economic growth, the reality is that it is not. The negative impact to economic growth from the…
But, but, but… who would buy bonds when they only yield 2%? It appears, for the 10th year in a row that the smartest people in the room have been totally and utterly wrong about the direction of interest rates. As 2014 draws to a close with stocks at all-time highs and 1% of the nation cock-a-hoop…
The Chart of the Day belongs to Healthcare Trust of America (NYSE:HTA). I found the stock by sorting the All Time New High list for the stock having the most frequent new highs in the last month then used the Flipchart feature to review the charts. Since the Trend Spotter signaled a new buy signal on 12/19 the stock gained 1.27%….
GDP growth for the third quarter was revised higher, from 3.9% to 5.0%. But I’m viewing the numbers with a healthy dose of skepticism. I tossed out my thoughts on StockTwits this morning: The BEA’s tables dig deeper into the data. Of the 5.0% in GDP growth, 0.80% was increased government spending, and 0.78% was an increase in…
I have already written a mea culpa on zulily, Inc. (ZU). However, I feel that my trade on this stock was so bad, it deserves a SECOND one… especially since as I write, the stock is down about 8% in what looks like continuation selling from November’s post-earnings breakdown and gap down. The stock is apparently…
In their third estimate of the US GDP for the third quarter of 2014, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the economy was growing at an astounding +4.96% annualized rate, up an additional +1.07% from their prior estimate for the 3rd quarter and now up +0.37% from the already very healthy 4.59% annualized growth rate…
The Dow continues to press higher. Despite the yelling and screaming this is a huge bubble. The oscillators even dispute that claim. Here is the Dow reconstructed back to 1790. We are just starting to poke through to the upside warning that high is not yet in place. Our year-end number for…
It seems like every day there is a new burger startup. Companies are springing up in this space all over the country, and they are eating into the market share of traditional burger giant McDonald’s (MCD – Analyst Report). MCD is being left in the dust by a number of upstarts that are either offering arguably better…
