The Chicago Business Barometer which recently has spent more time in contraction than expansion.rose into expansion. This survey came in above expectations. From Bloomberg, the market expected the index between 49.0 to 53.2 (consensus 50.3) versus the actual at 53.6. A number below 50 indicates contraction. Chief Economist of MNI Indicators Philip Uglow said, The most…
flickr Nike (NYSE:NKE) stock fell over 4%, or $3/share, after earnings disappointed analysts last week. It could be a unique buying opportunity. While the numbers didn’t hit expectations, those expectations were severely inflated. The company’s growth story remains intact, and buying into it could lead to profits down the road for patient investors. For the quarter revenues were…
The idea of ‘value investing’ is no rocket science. The idea is to invest in stocks that you believe are undervalued– that is, those with their market value less than their ‘fundamental value’ or ‘intrinsic value’ – based upon your investment horizon. However, determining a stock’s intrinsic value is no easy task. An investor needs…
I am impressed with Richmont Mines (US ticker RIC). Their longevity and profitability in 2015 were rare in a junior resource producer. The main challenge ahead is to replace mined reserves, either with new discoveries or with better engineering to make discovered resources viable. The management team must be doing something correctly. Their mining engineer CEO has been…
Under Eurozone rules budget deficits can be no greater than 3%. Spain has missed every budget target for years even though Brussels has been very lenient time-wise in those targets. Today, not only did Spain miss its 6-time revised lower targets, it fell further behind with a whopping 5.2% deficit backtrack, nearly a full percentage…
The blogger wisdom series continued today with a question about diversity in finance. Tadas asks: It does not escape me that the entire distribution list on this “Blogger Wisdom” e-mail chain is entirely male. I have written extensively on why this is an issue for the investment industry. What, if anything, can be done to make the investment industry…
Shares of Endo Pharmaceutical (ENDP) fell in morning trading in New York after the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was suing the company for blocking generic versions of its Opana ER and Lidoderm. Opana ER is an extended-release opioid used to relieve moderate to severe pain and Lidoderm is a topical patch used to…
NYSE margin debt fell again during the month of February. After the selloff in stocks that kicked off 2016, this should come as no surprise. Investors are usually forced to reduce leveraged bets during these sorts of episodes in the stock market. In fact, this forced selling can actually exacerbate the volatility. And because margin…
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims The market expectations (from Bloomberg) were 260,000 to 275,000 (consensus 266,000), and the Department of Labor reported 276,000 new claims. The more important (because of the volatility in the weekly reported claims and seasonality errors in adjusting the data) 4 week moving average moved from 259,750 (reported last week as 259,750)…
“Stock whisperer” Janet Yellen has a major problem. Despite the world’s central banks’ coordinated easing-driven surge in stocks off the mid-Feb lows, consumer comfort in America has collapsed to its lowest since Dec 2015. The “wealth creation” engine is not transmitting to animal spirits and exuberance among average joes… despite Jim Cramer’s exposition that “Yellen is speaking for the…
