$5 Billion Down the Drain Russia’s Gazprom has finally thrown the towel on the South Stream pipeline, after spending $5 billion on it. This follows repeated attempts by the EU to shoot itself in the foot using its “competition rules” as a pretext. These nonsensical rules are employed as a pretext for a great many…
ADP reported non-farm private jobs growth at 208,000. This should be again be considered a strong report. What is interesting this month is that the rolling averages have been unchanged for the last 4 months. Follow up: The market expected 205K to 240K (consensus 225K) versus the 208K reported. These numbers are…
Recent statements by Federal Reserve officials would lead just about anyone to believe that one of the bank’s central missions has always been to guard against the lurking threat of deflation. They warn that since official inflation has remained below the Fed’s 2 percent target for almost two years, the country is liable to fall into a stagnant morass unless…
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has a market cap of over $300 billion, making it the largest publicly traded health care company and 6th largest publicly traded US company overall. Johnson & Johnson has a streak of 30 consecutive years of earnings increases; the longest streak of increasing earnings I have encountered. In addition, the company has 52 consecutive…
Powell Industries, Inc. (POWL – Snapshot Report) announced fourth quarter fiscal 2014 earnings of 20 cents per share, outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 7 cents. However, the bottom line lagged the year-ago earnings of 75 cents per share by 73.3%. In fiscal 2014, Powell’s earnings were $1.62 per share lagging the Zacks Consensus Estimate…
The status for today’s ‘in a vacuum’ view is that risk is still ‘ON’ with yields rising (bonds dropping) and short-term yields rising more, meaning players are not seeking out liquidity. It’s stock favorable and gold unfavorable as it stands at the moment by this measure. 10, 5 & 2 year yields from Bloomberg
Click on picture to enlarge Many feel investors should “listen” to the message coming from Junk Bonds, due to them sometimes being a leading indicator for the stock market. The 2-pack above takes a look at the two largest Junk Bond ETF’s. (JNK) and (HYG) could be breaking 5-year support, as they have been a…
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)’s new privacy updates seem to be upsetting users, with many resorting to posting a hoax privacy notice on their walls. They hope to protect their posts and photos from being tapped into, without their consent. However most users don’t realize their hoax notice does not provide any substantial protection. All of this…
The economic mover and shaker this week is the Friday employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This monthly report contains a wealth of data for economists, probably the most publicized in the near term being the month-over-month change in Total Nonfarm Employment (the PAYEMS series in the FRED repository). Today we have the November estimate…
Dave Ramsey’s ‘Debt Snowball’ hits the target Being in debt is rarely a good idea, and even if you have just a limited number of obligations, it’s wise to start paying them off before they snowball out of control. The debt snowball Dave Ramsey, one of the most straightforward financial gurus that you’ll find online,…
