The National Association of Realtors (NAR) seasonally adjusted pending home sales index improved and remains in expansion for the third month in a row after a year in contraction. Our analysis of pending home sales however is darker – and we are projecting a bad month for December existing home sales. Pending home sales…
by Dr. Marc Faber, Daily Reckoning We know that “money printing” distorts the level of relative prices in an economy because, at certain times, some prices may increase faster than other prices. At other times, during another phase of monetary inflation, the prices of different goods, services and assets may increase while formerly rising prices might…
Back in the fall, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan stirred things up by making some public statements about the importance of gold, calling it “the premier currency, where no fiat currency, including the dollar, can match it…” Greenspan also indicated that he believes the Fed’s balance sheet will eventually catch fire and ignite some serious inflation. A good…
What do all of the tinted areas below have in common? Those are the zones where folks figured crude oil had “bottomed” and was, at long last, rallying. To my way of thinking, there is nothing to prevent oil going into the 40s…or the 30s…or the 20s. A few minutes of stability does not a…
This is a striking view of the increased oil production in the US since the 2008 financial crisis. Source: Trading Economics This is a view of Texas employment in Oil and Gas extraction payrolls over the same period. Source: St. Louis Fed And for effect, the prices of WTI and NatGas, each virtually cut in half in…
The dollar has been rising against the Swiss thanks to its peg to the Euro. Of course the Swiss would love to have a lower currency for that will help their exports. The Swiss is currently trading at 9934 and a merely year-end closing above 9785 will signal that indeed the 2011 low for the…
It has been an eventful year for Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD – Analyst Report), a big name in the biotech sector. Gilead, which soared 100.11% in 2013, is up only around 30% year-to-date (YTD). Throughout 2014, the company was in the news mainly due to its hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, Sovaldi, which was approved by the…
The Year in Bond Funds by Morningstar Investment Research “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” –- Niels Bohr. Coming into 2014, prognosticators had the fixed-income markets all figured out. Many posited that it would be a rough year for U.S. Treasuries and other rate-sensitive bonds as the Fed unwound its bond-buying program. Meanwhile,…
Since 2010, the best scoring names in our weekly mid cap report have outpaced the S&P 400 by a median 371 bps in the following year. The best performers from our list from 1 year ago are TQNT up 236%, SWKS up 174%, and ILMN up 71%. The top mid cap sector is utilities. The…
In a few brief minutes, Professor Bob Shiller calmly and eloquently crushed the hopes and dreams of CNBC’s cheerleading muppetry as they desperately tried to spin today’s house price data as great news. Exuberant at gains in San Francisco and Miami, the anchor is stunned (briefly) when Shiller dares to say “things are getting too bubbly,” and…
