Durable goods orders cratered last month. The Bloomberg analyst poll had predicted a drop of 4%, but the final report showed a shocking decline of 7.3% (chart below). The question is, will a drop in durable goods orders scare some of the bullish investors into pulling back from the markets, or will it spur them on in hopes of an extension to the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing? … [Read more...]
Aviators, Regulators and Speculators
After seven months of negotiating with the FTC, US Airways and AMR Corp (parent of American Airlines) have been told that the government will sue to block their merger. Remember now, American Airlines is in bankruptcy—right now. Now the merger will head to court, but it’s too late to undo the damage some shareholders have endured. Take a look at the drop in price for AMR shares over the last two days. That’s what can happen to speculators who jump into shares of dodgy companies. Shares are down 53% in two days. … [Read more...]
Hedge Fund Ad Blitz
Get ready for the hedge fund ad blitz because soon they'll be in your living room selling their wares. Don't believe the hype. You don't need to look too far to see the hot water some of them are in such as SAC. Former SAC employees have pleaded guilty and now regulators have accused its head Steven A. Cohen of ignoring "red flags" related to insider trading at his hedge-fund firm. Then you have the Raj Rajaratnam securities fraud and conspiracy. The SEC charges are part of a long-running probe of Cohen and his $15 billion hedge fund by regulators and federal investigators in which nine … [Read more...]
United States vs. the World
During the collapse of 2008 and through the rebound of 2009 U.S. markets and foreign markets closely tracked one another. But toward the end of 2009, and more so ever since, the U.S. has diverged from world markets. While the rest of the world has developed a very flat look, the S&P 500 has reached new highs. Whether or not this is the effect of the Federal Reserve debasing the world’s reserve currency, it leaves a big question mark as to what to expect from second quarter earnings at U.S. multinationals. In 2011 (latest data available), 46.1% of S&P 500 sales came from outside … [Read more...]
Beware Air Pockets!
If you’re going to chase bubbles, you had better watch out for air pockets! By May 22nd the Nikkei 225 was up more than 50% for 2013. Speculators and gamblers who believed in the hype have received an unfortunate reality check in the days since. In only ten days, the Nikkei is down a punishing 17%. [expand title="Click here to read more."] You can see on the chart below that volume (the bar chart) of trading in the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (the vehicle of choice for speculators) really began to pick up in April. Today, only two short months later most of the folk who … [Read more...]
Apple, Corporate Taxes and Congress
Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, invited Apple CEO Tim Cook up to Capitol Hill to testify on what the senator called Apple’s “Holy Grail of tax avoidance.” So what is Apple guilty of that required special testimony before a Senate subcommittee? Apparently the company used perfectly legal means to avoid paying the United States’ corporate tax rate—the highest among OECD members. [expand title="Click here to read more."] Rather than wasting taxpayer dollars on fishing expeditions targeting one of America’s most successful companies, … [Read more...]
Is this Rally all about the Fed?
The relentless rise in the U.S. stock market over recent months has emboldened the perma-bulls. The business news cable networks are parading out this crowd in all of their glory to gloat over the market’s rise.[expand title="Click here to read more."]Never mind that many of these pundits are the very same cheerleaders who led investors astray right before the last two stock market collapses. True to their colors, the perma-bulls are as exuberant as ever—yes even after a 140%+ rise off the 2009 low. Before the last crash we were hearing some of the same hollow arguments that we hear today. … [Read more...]
VIDEO: Expectations for Central Banks Concern Plosser
[expand title="Click here to read more."] May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser talks about global central bank policies, the U.S. economy and stocks. Plosser, speaking with Tom Keene and Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance," also discusses global central bank policies. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg) [/expand] … [Read more...]
Mini Flash Crash
Here’s a snapshot of last week’s mini flash crash initiated by a false tweet. Trading programs scour social media and then trade on the information. See the early afternoon crack in the market? It may have ruined the back nine for the poor guy with the executed stop loss that never got back in. It’s yet another reason why I don’t like program trading or stop losses. [expand title="Click here to read more."] [/expand] … [Read more...]
Stocks Hit New Highs: Bear Market on the Way?
Today stocks hit new all-time highs on the S&P 500. Happy days, right? Not so fast. Here’s what’s scary about the stock market’s recent climb to new highs and how it could all fall apart. [expand title="Click here to read more."] Take a look at the chart below. On it you’ll see the monthly growth rates for stock prices (the S&P 500 index) and margin debt (on the NYSE). Normally the two track one another pretty closely. But look what happened just before the last two recessions. Margin debt growth spiked, while price growth for stocks decelerated. Today we’re seeing a … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- …
- 61
- Next Page »