While the trading world, or at least the kneejerk-reaction algos, is focused on today’s US nonfarm payrolls due out in just 2 hours (consensus expects 240K, with unemployment declining from 5.8% to 5.7%) the key event overnight came out of China, (where inflation printed at just 1.5% while PPI has imploded from -1.8% in September…
When it comes to stocks, income investors are mostly interested in dividends. Earnings and valuation don’t matter much, unless they impact the sustainability of a company’s dividend. For instance, an income stock that cuts its dividend is a killer to our portfolio value. Value investors often sneer at us, claiming that dividends are irrelevant to…
Uncertainty in the markets can be a scary thing and often prompt ill-timed moves that set your portfolio back from achieving your goals. The initial days of trading in 2015 have certainly shown an increase in volatility that may prove to setup new trends in the near future. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is more than…
by Russ Allen The last couple of weeks’ articles, which you can read here and here, dealt with the time value in a call option and its ups and downs. We’ll polish off this series with a description of a strategy that can be used to generate a moderate amount of income with a relatively small amount of…
The US dollar is slightly softer amid last minute position adjustments ahead of the US jobs data. After the outsized 321k increase in nonfarm payrolls in November, a more trend-like report is expected today. The three-month average of 278k was skewed by the November report. The consensus calls for a 240k increase, which is near the…
In November, Greeks withdrew €220 million from banks. In December, the figure soared to €3 billion. My advice to Greeks is simple: Get out while you still can. That means now! Via translation from Libre Mercardo, please consider ECB Threatens to Unleash the ‘Banking Yard’ The term “banking yard” is in reference to what happened to…
Expedia, Inc. (EXPE – Analyst Report) is perfectly positioned to capture the surge in travel that is expected in 2015 as consumers have more money in their pockets thanks to lower gasoline prices. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is expected to produce double digit earnings growth in 2014 and 2015. Expedia is one of the most recognizable…
Over the past few months the “blow off” camp has gotten fairly crowded. First, Jeremy Grantham said that we are very nearly in bubble in the stock market currently. However, he believes that bubbles don’t just fizzle out. They usually end in an epic move that runs faster and farther than anyone could ever imagine. Specifically, he’s looking…
Consumer credit growth has been trending down since July – but grew this month. It is interesting that student loan growth has not been distorting one’s view of the consumer credit growth as the rate of growth is now slightly decelerating. Overall, consumer credit is growing at roughly double GDP growth and repayment of consumer debt…
Gold rose on Friday ahead of a closely watched U.S. jobs report and the metal was set to post its first gain in four weeks thanks to safe-haven bids amid political uncertainty in Greece plus robust Chinese demand. Spot gold ticked up 0.3 percent to $1,212.21 an ounce by 0308 GMT but it was below a…
