McDonald’s jumps on earnings beat

McDonald’s jumps on earnings beat

McDonald's reported a solid earnings beat of 12 cents a share ($1.79 vs expectations for $1.67) before the market opened today, April 30. Revenue fell 9.5% year over year to $5.14 billion but that was still ahead of the $4.97 billion Wall Street consensus for the...
Israel’s Prime Minister announces major statement Monday night on Iranian nuclear program

Israel’s Prime Minister announces major statement Monday night on Iranian nuclear program

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he will make a statement at 8 p.m. Tel Aviv time tonight on a “significant development” regarding the Iranian nuclear pact. (8 p.m. in Tel Aviv is 1 p.m. in New York.) Israeli news sources are saying that the government has obtained documents that government sources say prove Iran has misled the world about its nuclear program.

Inflation continues its march toward Fed’s 2% target

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures index (Which excludes fed and energy prices) rose to an annual rate of 1.9% in March the Commerce Department announced this morning. That was inline with economist forecasts and market expectations. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.94%. It stood at 2.96% on Friday.

Trick or trend: Even if the Federal Reserve doesn’t do anything on Wednesday, it could well say something that moves the financial markets

Trick or trend: Even if the Federal Reserve doesn’t do anything on Wednesday, it could well say something that moves the financial markets

Nobody expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its May 2 meeting. Or to be precise almost nobody expects the Fed to move. The odds of an interest rate increase by the Fed are just 6.2%, according to the CME Fed Watch Tool, which calculates the odds of a Fed move by looking at prices in the Fed Funds Futures market. In addition there’s no press conference scheduled nor will the Fed produce one of its updates of its projections on the likely performance of the economy. But this doesn’t mean the Wednesday meeting can’t swing the market.

Saturday Night Quarterback says (Apple), For the week ahead (Apple) expect…

Saturday Night Quarterback says (Apple), For the week ahead (Apple) expect…

Apple (AAPL) will set the tone for the market in the early part of the week. But then with Apple earning and revenue worries out of the way, will stocks, especially technology stocks, be “freer” to respond to their own reports?
Apple is scheduled to report fiscal second quarter (March quarter) earnings after the market close on Tuesday, May 1. Wall Street is expecting earnings of $2.68 a share and revenue of $61.02 billion for the quarter–and bracing for disappointment. 

Positive catalysts are intact for Nektar Therapeutics

Adding Merck to my Dividend Portfolio

News out of the imuno-oncology sector of the biotech world has hit stocks in my portfolios such as Incyte (INCY) and Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) hard. But, I'd argue that it has left Keytruda and its owner Merck (MRK) in a measurably stronger position in the market for...
Time to add China Southern Airlines to my 50 Stocks Portfolio

Time to add China Southern Airlines to my 50 Stocks Portfolio

You might know that China Southern is the largest airline in China. But I bet you didn’t know that it has the largest fleet (702 planes) of any Asian airline. I’ve been looking to add shares of China Southern Airlines (ZNH) to my long-term 50 Stocks ever since I saw the newest list of the world’s 20 busiest airports from the Airports Council International on April 6.

GDP growth ticks lower but wage gains pick up speed: Market takes possibility of four interest increases from Fed in 2018 more seriously

GDP growth ticks lower but wage gains pick up speed: Market takes possibility of four interest increases from Fed in 2018 more seriously

U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.3% in the first quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced this morning. Economists had expected growth of 2.1%. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the U.S. economy had grown at an annualized rate of 2.9%. But the rate of growth for the U.S. economy was overshadowed by other data in this morning’s report showing a significant increase in wages and inflation.

GDP growth ticks lower but wage gains pick up speed: Market takes possibility of four interest increases from Fed in 2018 more seriously

Will GDP data take over market sentiment Friday?

The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the first take on economic growth in the first quarter of 2018 tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. New York time. So by the time the financial markets open in New York, investors and traders will have had a chance to absorb the report and decide how they feel about it.Economists surveyed by Briefing.com are looking for the growth rate to drop to 2.1% for the quarter. That would be down from 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and from 2.3% for all of 2017.

Did Intel and Amazon finally break the sell on earnings beat pattern today?

Did Intel and Amazon finally break the sell on earnings beat pattern today?

Okay, this obviously isn’t a Morning Briefing. I wanted to wait and catch the earnings announcements from Amazon, Intel, and Microsoft. All three beat earnings estimates–but this market hasn’t been very generous in rewarding earnings surprises (after Netflix) that is.  The key tests here are to see what the shares did in after-hours trading, after investors and traders saw the earnings news, and to see how the market treats these beats tomorrow.