The 2014 Q4 earnings season takes center stage from next week onwards even though the reporting cycle has actually been underway for a couple of weeks. The reports thus far (17 S&P 500 companies have reported results) are from companies with fiscal quarters ending in November, which we count as part of the Q4 tally….
Shares of Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) soared as much as 10% in today’s trading session after the company had announced the collaboration deal with Janssen Biotech, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). According to the deal, both companies will co-develop RNA drugs targeting autoimmune diseases of the GI tract. Autoimmune diseases occurs when the patient’s…
I received an email a few weeks ago stating “Hussman has been so wrong I should stop quoting him.” Nonetheless here I go again, because I think Hussman has something important to say. Please consider a few admittedly lengthy snips from his post today Pills for Cognitive Dissonance in a Speculative Bubble. Several years of persistent…
It could be hard to see the action in gold and silver today as anything but a ‘flight to safety’ as people with leveraged stock positions were unwinding them and seeking safety in Treasuries and precious metals. There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday. Gold has moved to a key resistance point, and…
Written by Gary Oil stopped falling in the early part of the afternoon session and so did the equities. WTI oil has remained below 51 since it touched 50.02 earlier in the session and then went below 50 at 2:30 this afternoon. Current wisdom indicates we have NOT seen the last decline. By 4 pm the…
I must say, I didn’t understand the feelings of betrayal. But last week, when I completely by accident saw an image of Elon Musk from 15 years ago with most of his hair gone, I was confused and a little peeved. Authenticity is important to me. And here’s a guy who prances around the world…
In October, I wrote that mortgage REIT dividends had stabilized and that many were trading below book value. As we enter 2015 much the same way we entered 2014–with fears of rising rates and an overheated stock market–I wanted to revisit the table I prepared in my October comprehensive portfolio review. Mortgage REITs are not quite the…
Some really important charts to interpreting the macro… Sorry sports fans, but gold has still not established a daily up trend vs. the US stock market. Not yet. Gold vs. European stocks is bouncing as well, but not yet proven to be more than a bounce. Gold vs. Commodities is very constructive and is a…
As we enter into 2015, analyst calls for a continued “bull market” advance have never been louder. There have been a litany of articles written recently discussing how the stock market is set for a continued bull rally. The are some primary points that are common threads among each of these articles which are: 1) interest rates…
Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) shares jumped 4% after the company announced that the haemoglobin content (53.1g) of INTERCEPT content treated red blood cell components (RBCs) on day 35 of storage met the protocol defined criteria for equivalence based on the inferiority margin of 5g as compare to conventional red blood cell components (55.8g). According to Dr. Laurence…
