People say that, “Everybody loves a winner.” If that is true, then investors must have really been loving their utility company shares in 2014. Total return on the normally stodgy group had been beating the major indices even before Christmas week. In the three and a half-day holiday-shortened week they added an amazing 3.56%, more…
Source: Wikipedia Dear Diary, And so it came to pass that investors saw a bright star in the East… directly over the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building, at the corner of 20th Street and Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. “What comes after me goes before me,” said Janet Yellen, so confusing investors that they…
Sir John Templeton, who knew something about money, once said: “The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.’” I recalled the quote when I last regarded the daily inflation chart which reveals a precipitous fall in inflationary expectations over the past year. Inflationary momentum can be gauged by watching the ever-changing…
The US Daily Cash Deficit for Wednesday 12/24/2014 was $5.2B bringing the December 2014 Surplus through 24 days to $2B with 4 business days remaining. Click on picture to enlarge Revenues continue to impress and while they are distorted a bit by the timing of the holiday…as of 12/24 sit at +20% vs 2013 with…
Lost in the bull market euphoria is the reality that economists have been dead wrong about the direction of asset prices, particularly bond prices. Last December, when 55 of the most prestigious economists across a wide range of institutions had been polled by Bloomberg about where the 10-year yield (3.0%) would end the year, each…
<< Read Part 2: M&As To Make Or Break Companies << Read Part 1: Collaborations Rule The Day This past year has been a solid one for initial public offerings and the total amount raised topped 2013 levels by 49%. Of the $204.8 billion raised in 2014, U.S. markets accounted for 39% with the Alibaba…
The bear market resulting from the Greek election lasted about 37 seconds early this morning, but we’re now back to new-highs-everywhere mode. One notable exception continues to be emerging markets, which I think are setting themselves up for a start-of-2015 tumble.
Who could have possibly anticipated that the one state that contributed the most high-paying jobs during the “recovery” on the back of the shale miracle, is facing recession (as JPM predicted)? Certainly not economists, who have correctly predicted exactly zero of the last 20 economic recessions, and whose lowest estimate for today’s Dallas Fed manufacturing outlook survey was…
Russia is not some Zimbabwe-to-be. It’s sitting on a surplus of foreign assets and very healthy foreign exchange reserves of around $375 billion. Moreover, it has a strong debt-to-GDP ratio of just 13% and a large (and steadily growing) stockpile of gold. This is why Russia will arrest the ruble’s slide and keep pumping oil….
by Jody Chudley, Daily Reckoning One of my very favorite investors is Bruce Berkowitz, who manages the Fairholme Fund (FAIRX). I love the way the man invests. His portfolio is concentrated on his very best ideas, most of which are highly contrarian. At one point after the global financial crisis, he had an incredible 40% of…
