Emerging markets “emerging” as focus of worry over trade, strong dollar, credit crunch
If you can't tell from the cascade of negative commentary, you certainly should be able to tell from trend in share prices: emerging markets have become the focus of current worries about global trade, the effects of a strong dollar, and the potential for a credit...
Here we go again on the euro: The bad news is that Italy’s financial crisis is political
The good news is that the European Central Bank, thanks to the global financial crisis and the Greek debt crisis, has mechanisms in place to support Italian bonds, Italian banks, and the Italian financial system. The bad news is that an Italian government has to ask for that help after swearing to be fiscally responsible. At the moment there is, once again, no Italian government. A bid by the populist parties that came in ahead of the field in the latest election was rejected by Italy’s president. And these parties aren’t likely to meet the European Central Bank’s requirements for help.
Notes You Need for May 18: Restaurant traffic woes, Amazon grocery discounts, rig count, dollar climbs again, continued pressure on Amazon postal rates
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. This item from today is a representative sample: “3:40 p.m.: The U.S. Dollar Index recorded its fourth weekly gain in the past five weeks, rising nearly 4.5% during that period. It’s interesting to speculate what the price of oil would be now without that dollar advance. Since oil trades in dollars, the price of a barrel of oil falls when the value of a dollar rises against other currencies.”
How to manage risk in this market when the traditional risk safe havens aren’t working
If you spend a significant part of your day staring at your computer to watch the markets, you know that, perplexingly, the traditional safe havens for mitigating portfolio risk haven’t been working very well. Now Goldman Sachs has put its computers and data crunchers to work and has reached the same conclusion as the anecdotal evidence suggested. Goldman has tagged this a period of “diversification desperation.”
Notes You Need for March 9: Samsung S9, rig count, U.S. dollar, Albermarle, copper, lithium
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. A representative sample is this entry from today: “10: 20 a.m.: Recode is out with the compilation of reviews on Samsung’s new flagship phones, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ due in stores on Friday, March 16. Consensus: It’s not an “If you’ve seen last year’s Galaxy S8, you’ve seen the $719.99 S9. The Bixby voice assistant is still a dud.” Samsung added a number of gimmicky features, Recode concludes, such as face-scanning, aperture-switching, Super Slow Motion and AR Emoji to show on TV commercials. The company did make a number of unseen changed to improve the user experience. My take is that this illustrates the big current problem with top end smart phones: Where’s the whiz-bang to get people to ditch their old phone and spend $700 to $1,000 on a new model?”
Caterpillar beats on earnings and guidance but stock falls 1.4% today
Investors and traders were determined to sell Caterpillar (CAT) shares after the stock gained 70% in 2017. That determination overshadowed yesterday's good news on fourth quarter earnings and positive guidance for 2018. The shares, which I added to my Jubak Picks...
Full reverse: Dollar recovers as President Trump talks up advantages of strong currency
Today somebody in the Trump administration decided that the idea of the world’s biggest debtor nation talking down the value of its currency–as Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin did yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos–might be a bad idea. Overseas investors worried about a decline in the value of their dollar-denominated Treasuries would be certain to demand higher yields just as the Treasury was scheduled to sell $1 trillion in new Treasuries in 2018. So this afternoon President Donald Trump told CNBC that he favored a strong U.S. currency.
Dollar slump continues this morning as ECB president Draghi shrugs off euro strength
The dollar continued its fall today after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi voiced minimal concern over the rise in the euro. That currency topped $1.25 for the first time since 2014. The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index jumped 0.9%, its biggest leap in more than a year.
Notes You Need for December 28: Opioid deaths, natural gas, oil inventories, initial claims, dollar
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. A typical post looks much like this entry from today: “10:20 a.m.: Cook County, the county that includes Chicago, has announced a lawsuit against makers of prescription opioid painkillers such as OxyContin and Percocet. The lawsuit cites the companies’ “coordinated, sophisticated, and highly deceptive marketing.” Cook County has seen a 70% increase in opioid-related deaths between 2015 and 2016.”
Notes You Need for December 13: INTC, local Chinese government fraud, bitcoin, Viagra goes generic, dollar’s rough 2017, CPI, CAT
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. A typical item is much like this from today: “10:20 a.m.: Intel (INTC) will cut payments under its “Intel Inside” program by 40% to 60%, according to CRN.com. Intel Inside darts to 1991 and paid OEMs and channel partners to mention Intel’s brand on products from PCs to workstations. CRN.com says that Intel will use some of the funds from this cut to invest in its data center business.”
Notes You Need for November 3: Japan rally, utilities, rig count, tax cut deficit, QCOM buyout rumor, NXPI, dollar, gold, oil prices
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. Items in this mini-blog include mentions like this one: “10:20 a.m.: Japan’s stock market was closed today but the Nikkei 225 index gained 2.4% for the week continuing its post-election run higher.”
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