Looking for inflation? One place you can find it is in national rent averages. The Rent Cafe reports National Apartment Rents Hit a 14-Month Growth Plateau in March Amid Small City Boom. The national average rent was $1,371 in March 2018, 2.5 percent higher than this time last year, and up 0.3 percent ($4) month over…
Japanese industrial production dropped sharply in January 2018, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry reported last month. Seasonally-adjusted, the IP index fell 6.8% month-over-month from December 2017. Since the country has very little mining sector to speak of, and Japan’s IP doesn’t include utility output, this was entirely manufacturing in nature (99.79% of the…
Oilfield service providers are upping their prices, the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey has found, confirming what producers began to complain about last year when oil prices started recovering. The survey found the index of input costs for oilfield services jumped from 46.8 from 30.9 this quarter from last. The index for oilfield service prices…
The U.S. Government’s recent move of imposing 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum has spurred concerns among investors about certain U.S. sectors, particularly construction — which relies heavily on steel and aluminum for raw material. This has resulted in a widespread fear of retaliation from America’s trading partners around the world,…
Free-Photos/Pixabay Apple (AAPL) could be preparing to stop using Intel’s (INTC) chips in its Mac computers in as little as two years. The iPhone maker is reportedly working on a multi-step plan to work toward making all of its devices work together more seamlessly. Apple initiative code-named Kalamata Citing sources familiar with Apple’s plans, Bloomberg reports that Apple’s plan…
Natural gas prices sold off today as the market continued focusing on balance and saw slightly less impressive weekend weather trends we alerted clients about this morning. In the end the May contract declined a bit less than 2%, reversing off $2.75 resistance that had lingered from last week. Losses were worst at the front…
As value investor Charlie Munger often preaches, only a well-designed incentive system will produce desired corporate behavior. CarMax has taken heed, properly incentivizing sales consultants to align their interests with car buyers to create a differentiated car buying experience. Favorable trends look to boost top-line growth, though industry-leading margins may get pressured over the short-term….
Market Analysis The USDA provided some surprises when their US planting survey showed lower corn & soybean seedings than the trade average estimates. Interestingly, corn’s 88.03 million plantings were 1.3 million below the trade and 2.14 million below last year as producers in the Central and Northern Plains cut their seedings by 1.57 million (MN…
The US markets opened rather weakly, based in large part on continuing disappointments in the overvalued big cap tech stocks, and the mispricing of the risks in the international trade and geopolitical conflict scenarios. Trumpolini is keeping things lively on the international trade front with China and Mexico. The markets broke down to their lows…
Well that was some quarter! Call it the quarter from hell. For as long as most traders and investors can remember, they are losing money so far this year. And they promised us such a rose garden! The S&P 500 made a valiant, and so far successful effort to hold at the 200-day moving average…
