February 28, 2019 | Daily JAM |
The Trump administration isn't making it any easier to handicap the results of the U.S.-China trade talks. Yesterday U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer tried to walk back expectations for the talks. There's not even an agreement on a Memorandum of...
February 28, 2019 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
The first (advanced) estimate of U.S. GDP for the fourth quarter showed the U.S. economy growing at a 2.6% annual rate. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast 2.3% growth. For all of 2018 the economy grew at a real rate (that is after inflation) of 2.9% in...
February 27, 2019 | Daily JAM, Stock Alerts, WMT |
Today February 27 I'm adding Wal-Mart (WMT) to my Jubak Picks Portfolio and making it the sixth pick in my Special Report: 10 stocks for an earning recession. Only 25% of Wal-Mart's revenue currently come from outside the United States--a plus in view of my projection...
February 27, 2019 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
As of today, February 27, the Shanghai Composite is up 13.53% in the last month. The beginning of a sustained turnaround or another speculative balloon ready to pop? It's too early to tell, unfortunately. The factors that could be inflating a speculative balloon are...
February 26, 2019 | Daily JAM |
The legislation that suspended the debt ceiling limit on borrowing  by the federal government expires on March 2. The likelihood that Congress will put aside its other conflicts and extend that suspension or pass a clean increase in the debt ceiling is just about nil....
February 26, 2019 | Daily JAM, Stock Alerts, T |
The U.S. Appeals Court in Washington ruled today that AT&T's (T) $85 billion takeover of Time Warner (now known as WarnerMedia) could go ahead. The court said in a 35-page opinion that the Justice Department had failed to establish that a lower-court judge had...
February 26, 2019 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, MRK, PFE |
The format was familiar: Seven CEOs sit in front of a Senate Committee probing their industry's business practices. But whereas a Congressional hearing a decade ago marked a key moment in what was a costly public reckoning for the tobacco industry, today's hearing...
February 25, 2019 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Citing substantial progress, President Donald Trump has extended the March 1 deadline for reaching agreement on a U.S.-China trade agreement and heading off a jump to 25% in U.S. tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese exports. “The U.S. has made substantial progress in...
February 25, 2019 | Daily JAM, DHR, Stock Alerts |
I had some doubts about adding Danaher (DHR) to my Special Report: 10 picks for an earnings recession. Did the stock have enough of a catalyst to carry it upward during the slowdown in earnings predicted for at least the first three quarters of 2019? Yes, the company...
February 25, 2019 | Daily JAM, Stock Alerts, VMC |
If politicians are to be believed Vulcan Materials (VMC) would be my perfect earnings recession stock. Revenue and earnings look on a steady uphill trend in 209, after carving out that track in 2018. The company's business is almost totally domestic. And there's even...
February 23, 2019 | Daily JAM, Short Term, You Might Have Missed |
Trade. Trade. Trade. Trade will dominate the headlines and set the direction for U.S. and Chinese stocks. Stocks rose last week on any rumor of movement in the U.S.-China trade talks. Friday's rally, for example, was build on optimism generated by news that U.S. and...
February 22, 2019 | Daily JAM, Friday Trick or Trend |
Our regular (or occasional or perhaps occasionally regular) Friday series (actually running on Friday this week) Trick or Trend looks at what might (or might not) be emerging investible trends. Exclusively on JAM. This post won't run anywhere else. Ever. Shares of...