Two-year Treasury yield back to 2%, rate not seen since global financial crisis
Some mornings I have to dig for a lead new story. Other days I’ve got candidates crawling out of the woodwork like roaches in a dirty kitchen when the lights are off. Today I’ve got lots and lots of choices. I’m gong to begin with the bond market...
Inventories drop, oil prices kiss $70 a barrel
U.S. crude oil inventories fell by a surprising large 4.95 million barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced this morning. This took international benchmark Brent crude up as high as $70 a barrel during trading on Thursday before closing...
The challenges to rebalancing a portfolio in 2018–and some suggestions
2017 left investors with a huge challenge as we all move into 2018. After a 21.6% return on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stocks in 2017, do we let the money ride for 2018 or move it into other assets? Some stocks had almost unbelievable years in 2017. Amazon...
China officials said to recommend slowing or halting purchases of U.S. Treasuries
Just what an already jittery bond market needs: reports that senior Chinese officials reviewing the country’s purchases or U.S. Treasuries have recommended slowing of halting that buying. It’s not clear from these reports whether the recommendation is...
Nektar soars today on J.P. Morgan healthcare conference
Anybody still think that conferences, especially biotech conferences, don’t move stock prices? Shares of Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) are up 7.65% today to $61.79 as of noon New York time on the company’s appearance at this week’s J.P. Morgan biotech...
Are bond yields finally climbing (and bond prices falling) in a belated response to a global shift in central bank policies?
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury climbed 7 basis points today to 2.55%. That’s the highest yield since March. That prompted bond guru Bill Gross to declare that we have entered a confirmed bear market in bonds with the upward trend lines for bond prices of...
My long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio returned 28.10% in 2017, beating the S&P 500
Yep, it’s January. Time for reporting the performance of all my portfolios ranging from the oldest, the Jubak Picks (12-18 month holding period), to the Dividend Portfolio and the 50 Stocks (5 year holding period) to my one-year Volatility Portfolio and my...
December jobs report delivers mild disappointment
The U.S. economy added 148,000 net new jobs in December. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected growth of 190,000 jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised the November job growth to 252,000 from an initial 228,000. The official unemployment rate...
Federal Reserve minutes from December released today were last squawk from the inflation doves
If you try to interpret the minutes released today from the Federal Reserve’s December 12-13 meeting without factoring in the departure of key players at the central bank, I think you’ll get the meaning of that meeting exactly wrong. On the surface, the...
Global manufacturing continues its strong run
The global economy just keeps on running in high gear. For the United States, today the ISM Manufacturing Index (Institute for Supply Management) climbed to 59.7 for December, well above the 58.2 in November. (Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a reading of...
Oil holds above $60 on Iran protests but market discounts “regime change”
As of 12 noon New York time U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate was off 0.28% but still holding above $60.25 a barrel. International benchmark Brent was off 0.72% but was still holding above $65 at $66.39 a barrel. Prices above $60 are a reflection of market...
On the fifth day of Christmas my stock pick is Applied Materials–and five golden rings
All the work by Nvidia, Intel, Applied Micro Devices, and Alphabet that I described in my fourth day of Christmas stock pick post means lots of orders for the companies that make the machines that make the chips for new markets in artificial intelligence, data mining,...
Time to clear away the brush in my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio–selling four stocks out of this portfolio ahead of January rebalancing
In the first week of January I’m going to rebalance, per the strategy I pursue with this portfolio, my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio. That means I’ll be taking profits in the big winners of 2017 and adding to positions in the laggards for the year ahead....
On the fourth day of Christmas my stock pick is Nvidia–and four colly birds
And what’s a colly bird and isn’t it “calling birds”? “Colly” derives from the Old English word for coal. So the song’s lyrics here call for four blackbirds. All the evidence I’ve seen argues that the use of “colly...
The mess that is the tax bill just keeps getting messier
One expected and one surprising development as everybody digs deeper into the recently passed tax bill. The expected: Congress gave the IRS no time at all between passing the bill and the deadlines for putting its provisions to work. So it’s not at all...
Apple gets a two-pronged roasting and the stock stumbles
Apple (AAPL) is getting hit from two directions in the closing days of 2017. On the negative news Apple fell 2.5% yesterday, December 26. The shares rebounded very slightly–0.02%–today. The first bad news came yesterday as analysts cut their estimates for...
Congress successfully punts on a government shut down–but creates an impossible January
Yesterday Congress did indeed find a way to pass a bill that extends government funding from today’s December 22 deadline until January 19. Congress achieved this goal by punting on just about everything. The legislation included a waiver so that the automatic...
Don’t forget to harvest your tax losses by the end of the year
U.S. stocks have had a great year in 2017. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index is ahead 18.66% for 2017 as of the close today, December 22. The NASDAQ Composite, heavy on tech stocks and financials, is ahead 28.2%. But there’s a good likelihood that...
House Republicans hope end of year exhaustion is enough to pass stop-gap bill to fund government through January 19
Can Congress pass a bill, any bill, to keep the government funded past December 22? Maybe. If members of the House and Senate are so exhausted by the endless wrangling over Obamacare and tax cuts that they’ll pass just about anything to get out of town without...
Lithium producer SQM soars after Chilean election
Quite a good two days for Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile or SQM for short. The Chilean producer of lithium climbed almost 8% yesterday and tacked on another 2.8% today. The shares (SQM) are now up 11.47% since I added them to my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio back...
On the third day of Christmas my stock pick for 2018 is Southern Copper–and three french hens
Way back on August 17 I finished off a bullish story on the copper sector with the promise of some stock picks. My apologies: I left that string dangling. But today I’m using the third of my 12 Stock Picks of Christmas to add Southern Copper (SCCO) to my...
On the second day of Christmas my stock pick for 2018 is Nektar Therapeutics–and two-turtle doves
No point in hoping that Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) will match this year’s gain of 364% as of the close on December 18. But I think the stock could easily climb another 30% or more in 2018 as the company de-risks its very promising drug candidates in the opioid...
On the first day of Christmas my first stock pick for 2018 is Amazon–and a partridge in a pear tree
I think 2018 will be the year that Amazon (AMZN) finally starts motoring on all cylinders. Not that the stock has done all that badly in 2017–up 56.5% year-to-date as of December 15–on its dominance of the e-commerce economy and it’s leading position...
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Macao–and for MGM Resorts
The first ten days of December have been strong for gaming revenue in Macao. That has led investment company Sanford Bernstein to project that gaming revenue in Macao will climb 21% to 23% for the month. That would be stronger than expected–and bodes well for...
The Federal Reserve raises interest rates as expected–but the dot plot has a surprise or two
No surprise: The Federal Reserve raised its short-term benchmark Fed Funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 1.25% to 1.50% at today’s meeting of the Open Market Committee. No surprise: The Fed and its outgoing chair Janet Yellen didn’t say anything...
Synaptics announces top 5 phone OEM will use its in-display fingerprint sensor
This is the kind of news that the very patient investors in Synaptics (SYNA) have been waiting for. The specialist in touch-screen display technologies have announced that a top OEM will put its in-display fingerprint sensors into mass production. The phone maker will...
One less competitor for Corning in optical fiber
Corning (GLW) will buy the Communication Markets Division of 3M (MMM) for $900 million. The 3M division has approximately $400 million in annual sales of high bandwidth and optical fiber products. Corning expects the acquisition to add 7 cents to 9 cents to its fiscal...
Autoliv to spin off its auto electronics safety business
No surprise really, which is why shares of Autoliv (ALV) climbed only 0.75% on the news today. Â But it’s still good to have a formal decision: After completing its review of the business, the company’s board has decided to spin off Autoliv’s auto...
Apple to buy Shazam: Now that’s one great move
Today Apple (AAPL) announced that it would buy Shazam for a price that Recode estimates is around $400 million. How do I like this deal? Let me count the ways. (Apple is a member of my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio.) First, in acquiring Shazam, Apple will get a huge...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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