We are now fast approaching a critical earnings season. Given the recent trade war volatility, investors are looking forward to a bullish earnings season to lift the markets. Luckily, hopes are high that companies are on track for a stellar earnings season with fundamentals remaining relatively strong. Indeed, earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are…
The current bull market in U.S. equities has been impressive on many fronts, and specifically with respect to its magnitude of returns and longevity. The magnitude of returns, up an impressive 335% on a cumulative basis over the March 2009 to March 2018 time period1, has also manifested itself in market valuations. Despite the market…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the March Consumer Price Index data this morning. The year-over-year non-seasonally adjusted Headline CPI came in at 2.36%, up from 2.21% the previous month. Year-over-year Core CPI (ex Food and Energy) came in at 2.12%, up from the previous month’s 1.85% and above the Fed’s 2% PCE target. Here…
Since its first fund in 1937, Putnam Investments has gradually evolved as one of the most renowned financial investment companies in the world. Putnam had assets of $169 billion under its management as of March 2018, of which mutual fund assets comprised $77 billion. The fund family allocated its assets in more than 70 mutual…
For the first time in 2018, investors have been able to take a breath with respect to the U.S. Treasury (UST) market. Indeed, after a tumultuous first six weeks or so of the year, the UST 10-Year yield appears to have settled into more of a range-bound pattern, rather than the relatively one-way trade to the upside that was…
Consumer prices dipped MoM 0.1% in March (the biggest drop in a year)… But as the distortions of the “Verizon effect” fade from the numbers, annualized CPI YoY rose to 2.4% – the highest since Feb 2017. As UBS notes, today’s CPI was effected by the ‘Verizon effect’, which was a statistical adjustment which…
The Dow has spent the majority of the past 70-years inside of bullish rising channel (A). It hit the top of this channel in January at (1), as monthly momentum was hitting levels last seen in 2007, 2000, 1987, 1957 and 1929. The 4-pack highlights look-alike patterns several indices have created since the Dow hit…
The consumer cyclicals sector includes twenty-eight industries ranging from Advertising Agencies to Apparel, Autos, Broadcasting, Department Stores, Gambling, Leisure, Lodging, Packaging, Personal Services, Shoes, Restaurants, Rubber, Plastics, Textiles, and all such consumer aimed enterprises. Today I’m reviewing a gambling firm. It’s a mid-cap stock with market capital between $2 billion and $10 billion. Its name is William…
Global financial markets are seeing a fresh wave of volatility entering Wednesday as trade tensions between China and the US have lingered, while the prospect of US military action against Syria have ratcheted higher. US President Trump took to Twitter this morning to warn Russia of incoming airstrikes on Syria for the Assad regime’s suspected…
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg endured five hours of questions in the US Senate on Tuesday, at one point conceding what’s probably inevitable: tighter government oversight of social media in general and his firm in particular. “My position is not that there should be no regulation,” he said, trying to get in front of what appears to be…
