Retail sales registered a stable increase last month, posting its best rise since last November. Upbeat sentiment over consumer spending boosted retail sales and is expected to continue to benefit retailers in the coming months. Stable job growth, better consumer confidence and a positive impact of tax cuts are expected to boost consumer spending and…
A strong breakout is brewing in commodities. There is even more: commodities are inches away from a new and strong bull market to start in 2018. This is why, and what investors should watch. Commodities may be strong right now, they were extremely weak last summer when we wrote Commodities Facing Huge Breakdown Risk. This is a…
The consolidated economic report from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts (Beige Book) stated: “Economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts in March and early April.“. The previous report stated, “economic activity expanded at a modest to moderate pace across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts in…
Let’s talk earnings for a bit. Specifically, how the 2017 tax cut affected S&P 500 earnings. We all know the story. America’s corporate tax rate was uncompetitive and created distortions in the economy that prevented companies from investing in the U.S. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was designed to level the playing…
General Electric (GE) is expected to report earnings Friday before market open. The whisper number is $0.14, three cents ahead of the analysts’ estimates and showing some confidence from the WhisperNumber community. Whispers range from a low of $0.10 to a high of $0.18. GE has a 39% positive surprise history (having topped the whisper…
The first chance for a short play got burned but there is a second one on offer for the S&P. The S&P tagged channel resistance and while today’s reversal off resistance didn’t amount to a big percentage loss it did register as a distribution day. There wasn’t any significant technical change so if this short…
Stocks were a bit soft for most of the day, which is understandable given how far and how fast they have risen lately. There will be a stock option expiration this Friday. I have included that calendar below. April is not a particularly robust expiration, but it is sufficient to provide a little incentive for…
The big news at the end of the day came courtesy of a report that Rod Rosenstein has informed Trump that he’s not the target of any part of the Mueller probe. You can read more about that here, but suffice to say it’s either really good news for the President or else some kind of…
At their December 2017 policy meeting, the FOMC majority voted to increase the monetary policy targets (RRP & IOER) by an additional 25 bps. It was the fifth such move dating back to December 2015. It was not, however, a unanimous decision. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari both opposed…
CNBC’s Seema Mody reports that even though Skechers posted an earnings beat, weak Q2 guidance is hitting the stock after hours.
