Friday morning’s release of the publicly available data from ECRI puts its Weekly Leading Index (WLI) at 149.5, down 0.2 from the previous week. Year-over-year the four-week moving average of the indicator is now at 3.23%, up from 3.14% last week. The WLI Growth indicator is now at 5.5, down from the previous week. “Up…
Starting March 27, Twitter will no longer allow advertisements of cryptocurrencies on its platform. The social media network announced the ban on adverts for initial coin offerings (ICOs) or sale of cryptocurrency tokens on Monday, and immediately sent bitcoin’s value below $8,000. In a statement, the company said it was committed to making sure that its community…
I knew the letter from the IRS sitting in my mailbox was bad news just from the color of the paper. It was not light green, the color of a refund check from the United States Treasury. Instead, it was white, warning that it contained some sort of demand, audit notice, or threatened legal action….
Gold is near its highest level in five weeks, affected by the decline of the dollar index according to the inverse relationship between them, amid the negative pressure on the levels of the dollar in addition to the recovery of Asian stocks. Gold prices fell by 0.48% to reach $1350 per ounce, after hitting a…
The U.S. stock market took a hit last week as chances of a possible trade war between America and China were rife. However, on Mar 26, possible talks between the United States and China over tariffs and trade imbalances started making the rounds. This helped the Wall Street gain some lost ground. What Led to…
Stocks Have A Huge Reversal The stock market reversed sharply on Monday. The S&P 500 was up 2.72% as it bounced off the bottom of the recent range. As you can see from the chart below, it also bounced off the 200 day moving average which was hit on Friday. As I said last week, the…
Having shrugged off stock market volatility in February, with present situation confidence buoyed by tax reform hope, Conference Board Consumer Confidence slipped in March (and missed expectations). February’s headline data was an 18 year high, so this remains an extreme level of confidence… Both current and future expectations also slid lower in March: “Consumer confidence declined moderately…
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) generated an excellent return on equity of 37.1% over the past twelve months, while the Information Technology sector returned 3.8%. While Apple’s performance is highly impressive relative to its peers, it’s useful to understand what’s really driving the company’s strong ROE and how it’s trending. Understanding these components may change your views…
Headquartered in El Segundo, CA, Mattel (MAT – Free Report) is one of the world’s largest manufacturer of toys. Their portfolio includes Barbie, Hot Wheels, Monster High, American Girl, Thomas & Friends and Fisher-Price brands. They employ approximately 32,000 people in 40 countries and sell products in more than 150 countries. Weak Results Lead to Falling Estimates The company…
