It wasn’t a big surprise for the financial markets to see the Federal Reserve hike the interest rate by 0.25% last week, and the stock market moved swiftly higher on the back of this announcement which has removed some uncertainty. Source: propertyobserver.com.au As expected, the interest rate was hiked by 0.25% citing better circumstances in…
That didn’t take long. Recall that just two months ago Speaker John Boehner announced he would abruptly resign right in the middle of his term. He said he was tired of taking gaff from conservative backbenchers on account of his serial sell-outs of even tepid House GOP efforts at fiscal discipline. We greeted Boehner’s announcement with a Bronx cheer: Good riddance to Johnny Lawnchair, the…
Declines in coal shipments and oil prices have been major disappointments for the freight railroad industry. Owing to the mature nature of the industry, railroads require steady investments to maintain competitiveness, which in turn makes it susceptible to a few external and internal challenges. Also, rail-based companies need to access the capital market on a…
It has been a tough four months for biotech investors since the indices hit all-time highs in early July. The sector then staged a substantial pullback that moved it into official bear market territory before the main biotech indices hit a bottom in late September. Since then a definite pattern has emerged as the sector…
Deals and Financings AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) announced plans to invest $800 million in China drug development over the next ten years to speed up development of its portfolio of innovative biologics and targeted medicines for China patients (see story). As part of the plan, AstraZeneca will make WuXi AppTech its designated China biologics manufacturer, though this arrangement…
The ‘farm products’ industry has caught my eye in recent weeks as I have been slowly adding to my Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM) holding as better prices, value and yield for this dividend stalwart began to emerge. While I’m not a huge fan of commodity based businesses, (I see ADM more as a consumer staple play with commodity ties, rather…
There is a good deal of worry in recent weeks over the sharp increase in junk bond yields and what they might portend for the future of the economy. I wanted to explore this a bit more closely to see if we can’t decipher what might be going on here. First, it’s important to put…
On October 24th, I introduced the Smart Alpha Equity Income model. With three months having past since the portfolio was initially put together, it’s time to publish and updated list of stocks (see below) and look in on how the model has fared since it went live. Assessing Yield Risk We know that Mr. Market is incredibly averse…
Giving the Kremlinologists Something to Do As is well known by now, on Wednesday the US central monetary planning bureau finally went through with its threat to hike the target range for overnight bank lending rates from nothing to almost nothing. Photo credit: Luca Brenta The very next day, the effective federal funds rate had increased from…
