$DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $RUTX, $VXX Friday, US financial markets suffered a trade-related happening on concern The Trump Administration may move to limit US investment in China, a move sure to raise tensions. The S&P 500 turned lower after it was reported that officials are discussing ways to restrict portfolio flows into the world’s 2nd-largest economy. […]
Friday, just hours after China announced retaliatory tariffs on US goods on President Trump ordered US companies to “start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA..” The stakes are high US companies invested a total of $256-B in China between Y’s 1990 and 2017, […]
$SPY The S&P 500 has seen the best June performance since Y 1955, and now into the 2nd week of July investors are anxious to see whether earnings can justify further gains as the largest US companies open their books in the coming weeks, as Q-2 earnings season is on us. The profit picture for […]
$DIS, $QCOM, $AAPL, $INTC, $KMI, $NWL, $XAU We have been see over the past weeks stocks moving back to their all-time highs marked in September 2018. And are seeing the drive further North from here. A few blue chips have been surging in the past week, and are far higher than they were back in […]
$DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $RUTX, $VXX, $AAPL The S&P 500 fell 2.5% Thursday, as a revenue warning from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and weak manufacturing data fueled concerns about a slowdown in global economic growth, undermining the broad market. The DJIA lost 2.8%, the NAS Comp lost 3.0%, the Russell 2000 lost 1.8%. On the day, 9 of the 11 […]
S&P 500 Falls 54.79 pts, Breaking 200-Day Moving Average on Tech Selloff $SPY, $DIA, $QQQ, $RUTX, $VXX A broad sell-off in technology companies drove US stocks sharply lower Monday, as Apple, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and other big names fell. Banks and consumer-focused companies and media and communications stocks also took heavy losses. Bond trading was […]
Chinese Investors Sentiment is Very Weak, Conditions Abroad Have Little Influence $ALMMF, $CHL, $PTR Market sentiment is very weak. President Xi’s government is struggling to dispel such gloom and talk stock prices back up with promises of tax cuts, more bank lending and a media campaign. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index sank 30% from January […]
S&P 500 Companies’ Profit Growth Highest Since 2010 $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $RUTX, $VXX Still, investors are somewhat cautious with US Congressional midterm elections Tuesday. US earnings growth for S&P 500 companies in Q-3 is on track to be the highest since Y 2010, eclipsing the strong results from earlier this year, according to the data. […]
Stocks are Cheap and the Biggest Buyers are Jumping Back In $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $RUTX, $VXX Companies are the biggest purchasers of their own shares, and they were absent from the market for the last several weeks, just as stock prices were tumbling on worries about global trade and rising interest rates. Businesses were holding […]
The Newly Minted Shareholder’s Gold Council Vs the Destruction of the Gold Sector $GLD, $SLV, $USD After about a year of behind-the-scenes work, billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson announced that he has formed a coalition with 15 other investors aimed at curbing years of what his fund has called value destruction in the gold sector. […]
Investors are Asking, What Do I Do Now? $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ Investors are constantly bombarded by the daily Noise about stocks and stock trading, so do not lose sight of what matters. Because as long as things are going well stay put, always take what the market gives. Do not panic over a big down […]
This Bull Market Was Born in the Depths of Financial Crisis $SPY This Wall Street Bull market was born at the depths of a financial crisis, and it has just became the longest ever recorded. Low valuations, little competition and EP/S growth that looked spectacular, but inline with historical trends, these were the forces that […]
Less Reporting Buy Public Companies Finally on the Table US President Donald Trump has decided to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to study allowing companies to file reports every 6 months instead of every 3 has delighted companies, and alarmed financial professionals who are used to getting detailed reports from companies every 90 […]
Morning Briefing: Special Report on Strong US Retail $WMT, $COST, $AMZN, $LOW, $URBN, $DG, $HD, $DLTR, $JWN On the world markets: World stocks rose Friday as news of plans for US-China trade talks stoked positive sentiment over their tariff dust up, DJIA finished comfortably above Key resistance at 25,500 expect a pause to refresh and the […]
US Sanctions 3 Shipping Firms Over NKorea Strategic Trade Wednesday, The Trump Administration imposed additional sanctions on 3 foreign companies the US Treasury Department sayd are helping NKorea with illicit shipments of goods to fund its nuclear program. The US Treasury Department said it was taking action against the companies, which are based in China, […]
Some Companies that ‘Inverted’ to Return US for the Trump Tax Cuts Some of the US companies that moved offshore in a wave of inversion deals are now considering returning to the United States now that domestic tax rates are lower and tax policing is tougher abroad, attorneys and consultants said. Some clients have asked […]
The Race is On to Join the ‘Trillion Dollar Club’ $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $RUTX, $VXX Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet are in the race to become the 2nd publicly-listed US company to reach a $1-T stock market value after Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) became the 1st to race to the Big T milestone. Wall Street’s optimism about last […]
The Whats’ About Blockchain Value $BTC, $IBM Dominant players who can establish their blockchains as the market solutions are making big bets now With all the talk and chatter about blockchain, it is easy to miss the facts about this new technology. Simply put, Blockchain is a distributed ledger, or database, shared across a public […]
President Trump’s Tax Reform Shines Up Small and Mid-Cap’s Earnings $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $RUT, $VXX The Trump led corporate tax cut is helping turn the shares of smaller publicly-traded companies in the United States into an unexpected source of stability. The shares of small and mid-cap companies in the Russell 2000 (RUT) index are more […]
US To See Massive Corporate Spending in Wake of President Trump’s Tax Reform Corporate America strongly backs The Trump Administration’s tax reform, and is driving spending plans to multiyear highs. Wednesday, in a Quarterly survey released by Deloitte LLP, a record number of CEOs & CFOs said that now is a good time to take […]
Trade War Fears Off, Risk On $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX Global stock indexes rose Thursday as investors around the world grew more optimistic that a trade dispute between the US and China will resolve without much damage. In the US financials retailers posted some of the biggest gains. The rally started Wednesday as American and […]
Blockchain, “No One Can Own of Control It, Everyone Can Use It” $BTCUSD, $ETHUSD, $IBM, $GOOG, $JPM, $USB, $WMT, $SPOT Blockchain is a technology that no one can own or control but anyone can use, it is the platform for Cryptocurrency. Blockchain as applications for just about any enterprise involved in record-keeping, documentation, registrations and […]
“The US has Become a Nation of Day Traders” $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $BTCUSD Many stock-market participants are no longer investing for the long term, they are day trading for tic by tic profits. Though the majority are losers. That is the take on the current state of the stock market, which has seen average speculators […]
Stock Market Participants Who Bet on Volatility ‘Hammered’ $VXX For a very long time volatility in the stock market had remained at 30 year lows, as stocks rose to new all-time highs since the day after the 2016 Presidential election without a pullback (3-5%) or a correction (9-11%). That is the longest stretch in market […]
President Trump’s SEC to Ban Frivolous Shareholder Litigation In its determination to reverse a 20 year decline in US stock listings, the SEC may soon offer companies an extreme incentive to go public, and that is the ability to bar “aggrieved” shareholders from suing. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its long history has […]
Health Fraud Scams Pose Serious Health Risk There are at least 11 companies selling products to help people addicted to opioids that have no proof to support claims that their pills and treatments aid in overcoming an opioid addiction, 2 US government agencies said Wednesday. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food and Drug Administration […]
SEC Taking a Hard Look at ‘Overnight’ Digital Currency Companies $BTCUSD Monday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made it known that it is taking a hard look at public companies that change their name and/or business model in a bid to capitalize upon the investor frenzy, and hyperbole surrounding blockchain technology, SEC Chairman […]
The Numbers That Support The Trump Stock Rally $SPY, $AMZN, $FB, $GOOGL, $MSFT Pundits and talking heads are suggesting worries of a ‘Blow Off” Top to the record-high stock market because equities are overpriced. But a close look finds that the market’s current value is not extreme. After a series of record-breaking closes for US stocks […]
Market Outlook: Bullish, Americans are Underinvested $SPY Friday, BlackRock’s (NYSE:BLK) CEO Larry Fink said he is “quite bullish” on stocks because of robust economic global growth. The US economy and the global economies “are strong enough to continue the upward bias on equities,” he said in a TV interview. We are “quite bullish” “We believe […]
President Trump is ‘Crazy Like a Fox’, Investors Not Afraid $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX US stocks rose for a 5th day running, with technology shares bolstering major indexes, as investors continue to price in the impact of tax cuts before corporate earnings season begins later this week. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2% to a […]
Fueling the Fire of Bitcoin: Knowledge is Power $BTCUSD, $CME, $CBOE, $GS 1st Main Street, then LaSalle Street, and now Wall Street bring new interest to the Bitcoin market The futures markets have shown that investors want to gain exposure to Bitcoin in a regulated manner without having to store the underlying asset, aka price […]
China to Open Up Financial Markets with Tougher Regulations China’s central bank (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, 69 anni, says that the country’s financial system is becoming significantly more vulnerable due to high leverage. Zhou who has made some stern warnings recently about debt levels in the world’s 2nd-largest, soon to be the world largest economy. […]
What’s Up With Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac $FMCC Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may stop paying billions of dollars in dividends to the US government, but if not now when? Friday, the US mortgage-finance (OTCMKT:FMCC) giants paid a combined $5.1-B to the US Treasury thus extending for another Quarter the government’s sweep of their profits. […]
Marijuana ‘Haze’ Covers Canada, TMX Debating US Policy Canada’s stock market has been focused on the Cannabis industry opening up, but the country’s largest stock exchange is grappling with how to deal with Cannabis related companies that have investments in the US, where marijuana is banned by federal law. There could be more certainty soon, there […]
No one should doubt Amazon.com’s power to disrupt new industries. While the onetime online bookstore has grown to dominate retail, it has also become a major player in businesses ranging from cloud computing to Hollywood — and even has experimented seriously with drones. It’s no wonder that fear strikes investors and executives when they learn — or even hear rumors — […]
Changes From the SEC: Confidentiality is Key In a recent effort to foster increased public offering activity, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on 29 June 2017 that it will permit all companies to submit voluntary draft registration statements relating to initial public offerings (IPOs), certain follow-on offerings and national securities exchange listings […]
US Small Business Borrowing at High Marks This Year $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX Borrowing by small US firms hit its highest level in nearly a year, data showed Thursday, suggesting businesses are ramping up investments to meet customer demand. The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index for May rose to 137, its highest since June […]
Global Stock Investors Seeing Record Market Highs $DIA, $SPY, $DAX, $DJSH, $N300, $NSEI Year to Date (YTD) investors in global stock markets are seeing record highs. Record marks for the widely-followed country indexes occurred in the context of notably low volatility, adding to investor comfort and a sense of accomplishment. All of this was accompanied […]
Oklahoma’s AG Filed Suit Against Opioid Drug Makers $JNJ, $TEVA, $AGN Friday, Oklahoma became the 4th state to accuse drug makers of misrepresenting the risks of opioid pain medications, saying they engaged in deceptive marketing that helped fuel an addiction epidemic. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter filed a lawsuit in Cleveland County District Court against […]
Abu Dhabi Officials Foil Attempt to Steal $173-M from UAE Bank Account Nearly 40 Asian and European individuals have been arrested in connection with the crime Abu Dhabi’s Public Funds Prosecution and Criminal Investigation Department have foiled an attempt to steal more than Dhs635-M ($172.8-M) from the account of a bank operating in the UAE. […]
Saudi Aramco to Sign Deals with US Firms During President Trump’s Visit $BHI, $HAL, $SLB, $GE Deals are expected to be signed with US companies such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Weatherford Saudi Aramco is due to sign deals with 12 US companies Saturday during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia. The […]
Doing Business in Asia Requires Expertise There is no reason to compromise high standards when it comes to production and/or personal interactions, Harmony is Key. This is an outline some of HeffX’s expertise in Asia business dealings. Whether you operate in the businesses of manufacturing, services, or in the for-profit education industry arenas, growth brings opportunity. […]
Economic Confidence Among Middle-Market Companies at Record Highs The Government’s War Against Business is Over Confidence in the US economy among middle-market companies has reached a new high in early Y 2017, the National Center for the Middle Market at Ohio State University said. With 9 of 10 middle-market leaders indicating a positive perception of the […]
Investing in Regenerative Medicine (RM) $GS, $BTX A recent report from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) includes a section titled “The Coming Age of Regenerative Medicine.” An article about the report in BI is titled “Money is pouring in to a hot new area of science that could change the way we think about aging.” According to […]
Investors See Tech Driven Trump Rally Extending $XLK, $AAPL, $FB Technology companies have been a driving force behind the US stock market’s Trump Rally to record highs, and despite mounting evidence of stretched valuations the sector is a paramount pick for investors expecting a wave of capital spending by US corporations. Corporate tax cuts and […]
World’s Top 10 Gold Mining Companies $ABX, $GG, $NEM, $AU, $KGC, $SBGL The price of Gold broke a 3-year losing streak in Y 2016, but the focus of the world’s top Gold mining companies in terms of output continued to be on cost-cutting and divestment which led to a decline in production for most of the sector’s majors. […]
The Quest for Good ‘Large Cap’ Stocks in a Record High Bull Market $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $AAPL, $WMT, $FB Large cap refers to large market capitalization. “Large Cap” is a term used by the investment community. Cap size has changed over time, so it is important to take scaling into consideration. What was considered a […]
Computer App Lets You Invest Whenever President Trump Mentions a Company $TWTR Want to keep up with President Donald Trump’s Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) feed and how it will sway your investment decisions, but cannot? Hang on, now there’s an app for that. Programmer Max Braun’s app, called Trump2Cash, “watches Trump’s feed and does a sentiment analysis […]
Going Organic Just Got Easier For America’s Farmers Let’s say you’re a farmer in the Midwest, growing conventional Corn and Soybean. Times are tough right now. Prices are low. If only you were selling Organic Soybeans and Corn. They are worth almost twice as much, per bushel, as your conventional crops. So why not grow […]
Top 3 Ways New Businesses Can Succeed in Dubai Up to 80% of new companies fail in the 1st 18 months By Corrie Block Dubai is a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives. Here, an entrepreneur investing in an SME is meant to succeed. The government is on your team, and any resource you […]
I Still Do Not Like the US Stock Market $DIA, $GLD, $SLV Since the November election, the stock market has become an amazing thing. How amazing? The election was 26 trading days ago. The DJIA closed at new all-time highs on sixteen of them, with the last Tuesday of this week. The launching of the […]
Expect US IPO Market to “Heat up” in 2017 I expect the US IPO market to heat up in Y 2017 after a soft 2016, driven by a rosey economic outlook and more certainty following the Donald Trumps election to US President, both factors that encouraged the Fed to hike interest rates Wednesday The Fed […]
TOP 10 COMPANIES IN THE UAE UAE equity markets, both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, remained resilient to the fall in the Crude Oil price in 1-H of Y 2016. The Dubai General Index and Abu Dhabi General Index registered YTD returns of 6.5% and 1.9% respectively. The better performance of telecom, banking and real estate […]
Large Meat Producers Pressured to Reduce Water Pollution Forty-five large investors collectively managing $1.2-T in assets are pressing some of the nation’s largest meat producers to set policies for reducing water pollution in their feeding, slaughtering and processing operations. The investors, who are members of sustainability nonprofit advocate Ceres and the Interfaith Center on Corporate […]
The Trump Rally Extends, DJIA at Record Highs $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX The Big Q: Why did the market rally like it did? The Big A: the Bullish price action centered around the following Key factors: Short-covering activity Momentum as traders chased gains that few people expected Strong leadership from the financial and healthcare sectors, […]
Women it the Workplace 2016 More than 75% of CEO’s include gender equality in their top ten business priorities, but gender outcomes across the largest companies are not changing. Women are less likely to receive the 1st critical promotion to manager, so far fewer end up on the path to leadership, and they are less […]
No More “Debtor’s Prison” Under New UAE Bankruptcy Law The long-awaited new bankruptcy law was approved by the UAE’s Cabinet this week A new bankruptcy law in the UAE promises to reduce the risks of doing business in the country by allowing businessmen and executives to avoid time in jail if their companies fail to […]
US Fed “Mastering the Art of Market Manipulation” $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX Ace bond investor Bill Gross ramped up his criticism of the US Fed Wednesday, characterizing its Chairwoman Janet Yellen and her predecessors and contemporaries at other central banks of mastering “the Art of Market Manipulation.” Mr. Gross writes: “All have mastered the Art […]
Central Bankers Finding That “Old Tools” Not Working Central bankers are learning that their “old tools” no longer help the economy and might even make it worse. The Big Q: With the tool box empty, what is next? US Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, speaking last week at the bank’s conference in Jackson Hole, WY, said […]
What Venture Capital Looks for in Entrepreneurs The Big Q: What does venture capital look for when backing entrepreneurs? With billions of dollars flowing into start-ups around the world, that question is really important, as is the answer. It starts with the people, and then the sector. 1. The People: Convincing 2. The Sector: Disruptive, […]
Cautious US Companies ‘Hoarding’ Cash $DIA, $SPY, $QQQ, $VXX US companies have returned to hoarding cash due to mounting economic and geopolitical fears, a indication of a business-investment pullback. The UK’s Brexit vote, a sluggish US economy and a weak global economy combined to lead companies to delay investment decisions and just hoard their cash, […]
