Tonight gunman opens fire on police in Paris days ahead of the French vote for president
A gunman opened fire on French police Thursday on Paris’s Champs-Elysee. One officer was killed and two others were wounded. The gunman was fatally shot by police. The attacker had clearly targeted the police. The Islamic State, ISIS, has claimed responsibility for...
Hope on repealing and replacing Obamacare–and moving quickly on to tax cuts–returns to Wall Street
U.S. stocks rallied today on “news” that Republicans had reached a deal to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index closed up 0.76% to 2355.92. I put “news” in quotes because the full story out of Washington...
Market’s faith in the growth story fading
In spite of a vote of confidence from the International Monetary Fund and solid first quarter GDP growth in China, the market’s faith in economic growth strong enough to move U.S. stocks up from current levels is fading. You can see that in negative comments...
Incyte dropped 10.5% yesterday on FDA drug “rejection”: Here’s what’s actually going on (and why you shouldn’t sell)
I know the headlines on Friday said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had “rejected” Olumiant (known more frequently until recently as baricitinib), a new drug for rheumatoid arthritis from Eli Lilly (LLY) and research lead Incyte Corp (INCY.) And...
China GDP ticks higher to 6.9% growth in the first quarter
Problems now or problems later. China’s leaders have opted for problems later. Wall Street and its economists are willing, today, to follow that lead. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that China’s GDP climbed by 6.9% in the first quarter from the...
Solid earnings beats from Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase barely push S&P 500 into the green
Two out of three of the big banks reporting first quarter earnings this morning beat Wall Street estimates. Citigroup (C) reported earnings of $1.35 a share, 11 cents a share above the Wall Street consensus. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) reported earnings of $1.65 a share, 12...
Samsung’s Galaxy S8 just got less dangerous for Apple
Back on April 3 I pointed to Apple 21 as the next big test for Apple (AAPL) shares. (Apple is a member of my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio.) That’s the date when Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 smartphone will go on sale. The S8 is critical to Samsung–the...
Optimism reigns as we head into first quarter earnings
As of April 7 Wall Street analysts are expecting year over year earnings growth of 9.2% for the stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 for the first quarter of 2017, according to Yardeni Research. FactSet’s estimates are just slightly lower at 8.9% year...
Vale gets a new CEO and gets rid of control by its old shareholders
Vale (VALE) has a new CEO–that’s an important and immediate change. It will take longer to end the control of Vale by a small group of banks and Brazilian state pension funds–until 2020–but that may actually be more important in the long run....
We’ve moved to a risk-off market–for how long?
It’s a classic risk off market today as of 4 p.m. New York time. All the safe havens are up. The yen is ahead 1.2% to 109.65 to the dollar, breaching the 110 level for the first time since November. Gold is 1.73% higher to $1275.60 an ounce. The 10-year U.S....
Remember that Trump/Xi meeting last week? The results were lost in the news over U.S. missile strikes against Syria but they are important
It was easy to overlook the results of the meeting at the Florida White House between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Jinping on Thursday and Friday of last week. A joint announcement of any results could easily have been lost in the thunder of those...
Facebook reports big gain in number of advertisers in run up to earnings
Facebook (FB) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told Reuters that the company now had 5 million active advertisers on its network each month. That’s up from 4 million advertisers in September and 3 million in March 2016. The number of businesses with...
The market didn’t react to the Syria raid today, but the real stress lies ahead
The U.S. launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase last night in retaliation for President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons on a rebel-held town in Idlib province. And financial markets barely budged on Friday, April 7. The Standard &...
Jobs report not too hot, not too cold
So how many lives does this Goldilocks market have, anyway? This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added just 98,000 jobs in March. That was the weakest gain since May 2015 and way under the 180,000 jobs expected by economists...
Will tomorrow’s jobs number be too strong for the markets?
Should be an interesting morning tomorrow. The U.S. government is set to release the jobs report for March at 8:30 a.m. New York time. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com are looking for the economy to add a net 180,000 jobs. That projection could be low, however,...
Sell Softbank: Not the Asia Internet startup exposure I wanted from this stock
Tomorrow April 6 I’m going to sell Softbank Group (SFTBY) out of my Jubak Picks portfolio. The shares are up 21.19% since I added them to this portfolio back on February 20, 2015. I originally bought these shares because I liked Softbank’s portfolio of...
Financial markets take-away from today’s Fed minutes: Shrinking the balance sheet on tap in 2017
Amidst all the talk about inflation and inflation targets, and the strength of the labor market, and the role of stock prices in monetary policy, what the financial markets fastened on in the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s March minutes, released this...
Sell Vulcan Materials–I don’t see an infrastructure package this year
With the Senate about to go nuclear as Republicans change the Senate rules so they can avoid a Democratic filibuster and send Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, any small chance that Democrats would work with Republicans to pass some version of President Trump’s...
Here’s what I’ve been writing about on my paid sites: Facebook options and new life in volatility
Here’s what I’ve been writing about lately on my two paid sites JugglingWithKnives.com and JubakAM.com. I’ve been watching the long LEAPS options on Facebook (FB) since back in January. On March 30 I finally added the January 18, 2018 calls with a...
Big declines in car sales argue for top in auto cycle
Even big sales incentives weren’t enough to prop up U.S. auto sales in March. Sales trailed estimates with sales at Ford Motor (F) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) showing big drops of 7.2% and 4.6%, respectively. General Motors (GM) saw a smaller than...
Next hurdle for Apple shares? April 21
Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $143.70 today, April 3, near the record high of $144.12 that the stock set on March 29. The stock, a member of my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio, since November 8, 20165, was up 24.07% for 2017 as of the April 3 close. (The shares are up...
No sign U.S. economic growth accelerating in today’s income report
Personal income in February rose by 0.4% month over month in February, the Commerce Department reported today. That matched economists’ expectations. But personal spending notched only a small gain of 0.1%, below expectations for a 0.2% increase. The Personal...
In latest CBO report federal debt held by the public rises to 150% of GDP within 30 years
The Congressional Budget Office has released its newest projections for government spending, revenue–and most importantly–debt over the next 30 years. This release, the first under the Trump administration, essentially follows the conclusions of the last...
Housing strength and Fed chatter push dollar higher–and economy continues to support stocks
Pending home sales for February climbed 5.5%, according to the National Association of Realtors. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were looking for a 2.4% gain. The jump is the largest since July 2010.Pending home sales had dropped 2.8% in January. Pending home...
Vacation days
Headed out this afternoon for a week in Cartagena. Today’s a travel day and that usually completely disrupts posting. After that–depends on the whether… You know, whether it’s sunny, whether lunch has been really good. I’m sure I’m...
Here’s what I’ve been writing about on my paid sites: Buy and then sell biotech NKTR for 38% gain in two weeks.
Back on March 6, I added shares of Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) to my new Volatility Portfolio on my paid JugglingWithKnives.com and JubakAM.com sites. Today I’m selling the shares out of that portfolio after a huge pop–Nektar is up 38.32% today as of 3 p.m....
Make America Happy Again
The new World Happiness report is out. And it’s enough to make you sad. If you live in the United States. According to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the United States slipped in 2016 to rank just 19th among the...
Market reacts to Fed meeting–and then over-reacts as it hears Fed say rates will stay really low for really longer
In the run up to Wednesday’s meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee bond markets over-reacted. The worry for those few days was that the Fed was going to very aggressively raise interest rates. Maybe as many as four interest rates were on...
Manufacturing wages in China triple in last decade (good news), but still $17 an hour below U.S. level (bad news); wages in other countries actually fell (really bad news)
In the last decade–2005 to 2016–wages for workers in China’s manufacturing sector have tripled. That’s the good news. It means Chinese workers have more money in their pockets to buy goods and services–some of which come from other global...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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