Yesterday in my subscriber post, I asked the following question: How can the HYG (high-yield) ETF only be off 10% since May given that the great majority of junk bond issues show 10% plus losses for three months running? Is there a unique two-tier pricing system? Debunkers, please help an old-fangled guy understand. While we are at…
Value stocks are stocks that tend to trade at a price that is lower than its fundamentals (i.e. earnings, book value, debt-to-equity). It is common for some investors to invest in value funds for the income or yield. However, not all value funds are comprised solely of companies that primarily use their earnings to pay…
No ifs, ands or buts… Junk Bonds (high yield) have entered a bear market as they just broke down below the October 2014 lows, which is the bear parameter for the stock market as well. JNK is similar… worse actually. Never mind 20% rules about bear markets, this is now a downtrend on an intermediate…
If you haven’t already been looking at fixed-income ETFS, chances are you will be in the near future. Stocks remain turbulent and we’re seeing all sorts of rhetoric extolling the benefits of diversifying with fixed income. And with ETFs so easy to trade and track, this seems to be turning into the preferred way to…
This morning we had to face some hard truths. The economy’s beginning to show its true colors. Last month the economy added just 142,000 jobs. August was revised substantially lower to just 136,000 jobs. Analysts were expecting 200,000-plus jobs growth like it would go on forever. Of course, I’m not the least bit surprised. You know I’ve seen…
The jobs number came in sharply lower than expected showing that U.S. employers have not been hiring over the last two months and wages as well fell in September. With this turning point 2015.75, we should begin to see declining economic numbers and a closing on the Dow below 15970 today will warn of a…
Initial Reaction This report was a veritable disaster. Although the establishment survey sported 142,000 jobs it was much weaker than expected. Downward revisions for the last two months totaled 59,000. The labor force fell by 350,000 driving the participation rate to a 40-year low. Government jobs rose 24,000 so private payrolls accounted for a mere…
There’s a big gap between the PayPal (PYPL) story/investor slide deck and market reality. As an investor we like it – hits all the right notes and management has all the right answers. But as a user we scratch our head and wonder where all the innovation is. (PayPal was very innovative in the early days….
Well, all you bears have me to thank again, since my trip to Atlanta, Georgia has caused the market to complete reverse itself. The jobs report had a little to do with it too, because here’s the situation we’re in folks: (1) Interest rates are at zero; (2) The Fed’s credibility equals Yellen’s likelihood of being the…
While the September jobs number was an absolute disaster, here is the real punchline: in September, the people not in the labor force soared by a whopping 579,000 to a record 94.6 million, up from the previous record 94.0, even as number of people employed – according to the household survey used to calculate the…
