Amgen (AMGN) reported on December 3, 2014 that the FDA has approved their Leukemia drug Blincyto (blinatumomab) for the treatment of Philadelphia Chromosome-negative Relapsed or Refractory B-cell precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This disease is an uncommon form of blood cancer where patients had few or no treatment options. With the approval of Blincyto patients now…
China has officially surpassed the United States as the largest economy in the world, based upon economic output as measured by the International Monetary Fund. China’s production of real goods and services will touch about $17.6 trillion this year, while the US will produce $17.4 trillion. This gap will continue to grow, according to the IMF….
As long as corporations continue borrowing money to buy back their own stocks and the yen keeps dropping, the SPX will continue lofting higher. Why is the S&P 500 rising, even as valuations are getting stretched, profit growth is declining and sales are stagnant? Two charts explain it all. Here is a chart showing the S&P…
The U.S. Daily Cash Deficit for Thursday 12/4/2014 was $6.2B bringing the December 2014 Deficit through 4 days to $66B. As is typical, I have taken the liberty of adjusting by days of the week in an attempt to sync up 2014 and 2013 to give us a little bit more accurate picture of the…
Consumers often gripe that government price data understate the true nature of inflation. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that the cost of goods and services has been rising at a steadily slower rate in most countries. In fact, according to GaveKal Capital, global inflation just hit a 59-month low. And the recent, steep decline in the price of…
As good news for the labor market goes these days, today’s numbers from Washington for November payrolls rank as one of the better reports in recent memory. Private-sector employment increased by a strong 314,000 last month, way above the +225,000 consensus forecast. “Job gains were widespread, led by growth in professional and business services, retail trade, health…
Wal-Mart (WMT) is the largest discount retailer in the world. Wal-Mart is the 8th largest publicly traded US corporation. Wal-Mart is 4.3 times the size of Costco (COST) and 5.8 times the size of Target (TGT) based on market cap. Wal-Mart has generated 5.67 times the amount of revenue Amazon (AMZN) has over the past 12 months. Wal-Mart is the dominant force in discount…
Click on picture to enlarge 2007 was a unique year in Japan as their stock market peaked and Yen was about to embark on a strong rally…for a while. The above chart reflects that the Nikkei and Yen have had a wild ride the past 7 years. The Nikkei peaked in 2007, fell hard for…
