Banking on three solid quarters of 2014, the board of MasterCard Inc. (MA –Analyst Report) announced incremental capital deployment plans, thereby augmenting shareholder return. In an attempt to boost capital efficiencies, the company hiked its regular quarterly dividend by 45.5% to 16 cents per share from the prior payout of 11 cents. The raised dividend will be paid…
Here is the chart shown the other day, with the S&P 500 diverging from its sustaining Adjusted Monetary Base (AMB). Bulls will proclaim that the economy and the stocks of companies that make up much of the economy are ready to go the organic route; the Fed has removed QE because it is no longer…
Today the Institute for Supply Management published its latest Non-Manufacturing Report. The headline NMI Composite Index is at 59.3 percent, up from last month’s 57.1 percent. Today’s number came in above the Investing.com forecast of 57.5. Here is the report summary: “The NMI® registered 59.3 percent in November, 2.2 percentage points higher than the October reading of 57.1 percent….
A simple summary of the headlines for this release is that the growth of unit labor costs is lower than the previous quarter, whilst the rate of growth of productivity has improved. If one looks at the year-over-year data – it is saying the growth of unit labor costs is higher than the growth of…
CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE Take your pick, in the past 6 years, sometimes the U.S. Dollar moves up and the S&P goes down, other times its the opposite and then…..sometimes they move up together, like they have the majority of the past few years. Now the King Dollar may be breaking above a 6-year…
Consider: lower oil prices unequivocally “make everyone better off”, Right? Wrong. First: new oil well permits collapse 40% in November; why is this an issue? Because since December 2007, or roughly the start of the global depression, shale oil states have added 1.36 million jobs while non-shale states have lost 424,000 jobs. * * * This should…
Recently, Tim Duy wrote an interesting piece entitled “Yes, I am Optimistic” wherein he stated that: “The lesson no one wants to draw from this recovery is that the US economy is both stronger and more resilient than commonly believed. Do not dismiss the real improvement in the economy since 2009. It is not unimportant that 2014…
Many businesses give their entry-level products less effort than more advanced products. I certainly understand why some might think this way – revenue per customer is lower, support needs are greater and many are ‘tests’ or ‘proof-of-concepts’ of which only a small percentage may become viable products and long term customers. In my 30-year career,…
On Monday, the third quarter earnings season will officially close out, with H&R Block as the final S&P 500 company to report. The season is ending with impressive earnings growth of 11.7%, paired with revenue growth of 4.8%, proving that companies are still closely managing costs and using share buybacks to get a pop on…
