Finance
Global Deflationary Pressures Are Mounting
Consumers often gripe that government price data understate the true nature of inflation. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that the cost of goods and services has been rising at a steadily slower rate in most countries. In fact, according to GaveKal Capital, global inflation just hit a 59-month low. And the recent, steep decline in the price of…
US Private Payrolls Rise A Hefty 314k In November
As good news for the labor market goes these days, today’s numbers from Washington for November payrolls rank as one of the better reports in recent memory. Private-sector employment increased by a strong 314,000 last month, way above the +225,000 consensus forecast. “Job gains were widespread, led by growth in professional and business services, retail trade, health…
Dividend Aristocrats In Focus Part 54 Of 54: Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart (WMT) is the largest discount retailer in the world. Wal-Mart is the 8th largest publicly traded US corporation. Wal-Mart is 4.3 times the size of Costco (COST) and 5.8 times the size of Target (TGT) based on market cap. Wal-Mart has generated 5.67 times the amount of revenue Amazon (AMZN) has over the past 12 months. Wal-Mart is the dominant force in discount…
Japan… Time To Party Like Its 2007 Again
Click on picture to enlarge 2007 was a unique year in Japan as their stock market peaked and Yen was about to embark on a strong rally…for a while. The above chart reflects that the Nikkei and Yen have had a wild ride the past 7 years. The Nikkei peaked in 2007, fell hard for…
Yield Curve For December 5, 2014
As surmised in the subscriber update posted just after the ‘Jobs’ report, jitters about interest rate hikes are bubbling to the surface in the T bond market. This may also be a Straw Man to get people thinking risk ‘OFF’ when it remains ‘ON’, at least by the structure of the yield curve. All maturities…
BLS Jobs Situation Was Strong In November 2014 For The Establishm
The BLS jobs report headlines from the establishment survey were strong and above expectations. The unadjusted data shows good job growth but slightly less than last year. The household survey shows almost NO job growth. Will the real job situation please stand up? Putting this month’s headline numbers into perspective – the monthly private sector growth is…
Juniper Collaborates With VMware; Expands In Asia Pacific
Networking solutions provider, Juniper Networks (JNPR – Analyst Report) and VMware, Inc. (VMW – Snapshot Report) recently collaborated to provide private cloud-based solutions across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. VMware is an industry-leading virtualization software company. Through this collaboration, Juniper will combine its MetaFabric architecture with VMware’s NSX network virtualization platform that provides private cloud-based services. This would make the cloud-computing…
“Good News Is Bad News” Payrolls Reaction: Stocks Stu
After an initial “good news is bad news” kneejerk lower in stocks, USD strength (and thus JPY weakness) is providing the ammo to ‘prove’ this is good news, but problematically the bounce is fading (of course, there’s a long way and a lot more VIX to sell to manage this narrative green). Oil is up modestly (growth?). Treasury…
Thoughts On Nuclear Energy: Smoke And Mirrors
It’s interesting to note that the Russians have several new nuclear plants under construction, including a fast breeder, despite their enormous fossil fuel resources. What do they know that we don’t know? – Jack Ellis Probably nothing at all Jack, although admittedly it is useful to consider the difference between knowing…