Inflation continues to climb, CPI says
Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, Â rose in January by a larger than forecast 0.6%. Â That’s a pickup from the 0.3% rise in December and brings the 12-month inflation rate to 2.5%, the highest since March 2012. The core CPI, which excludes...
Buy Tencent Holdings in my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio
I’ve got a number of open slots in my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio and I’m going to fill one of those with a buy of Tencent Holdings (TCEHY). Tencent Holdings closed at $26.25 today, February 14. Tencent is the other big Chinese Internet stock. It’s...
Can the EuroZone kick its debt problem down the road again? To where?
Remember May 2010? That was month of the first Greek debt bailout by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank. $145 billion over three years. July 2011 saw another bailout. Then there was the October 2011 50% write down of...
My first picks for buying a piece of the Permian
I’ve been arguing recently–in posts on my paid JubakAM.com site like this one http://jubakam.com/2017/01/red-hot-permian-goes-to-white-hot-with-another-big-acquisition-and-freaks-out-global-oil-market/ and on this site with posts like “Permian power!...
More trouble ahead for the euro in Dutch and French elections
So far the euro is hanging tough and the French financial markets are doing better than I expected. But I think that’s likely to change in the next four to six weeks. In Dutch elections on March 15Â Geert Wilders and his far-right Freedom Party look likely to win...
Great news for Autoliv: Someone else is going to win Takata sweepstakes
Whew! And Yay! Whew, that it looks like someone else is going to win the bidding to acquire what’s left of airbag maker and Autoliv competitor Takata. Yay, that the likely acquirer is an airbag maker owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic. I’m...
China’s foreign exchange reserves fall below $3 trillion
It’s mostly symbolic, but in financial markets symbols count. In January China’s foreign exchange reserves dropped below the $3 trillion mark for the first time in almost six years, the People’s Bank of China announced today, February 7. The drop, the...
Greek default crisis again? IMF threatens to pull out of bailout package unless EU writes down debt
We’ve been here before. So many times. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) board meets today to discuss whether it will continue to participate in the Greek bailout program. This is the third bailout program for Greece in seven years. The issues are...Goldilocks returns with January jobs report
The January jobs report showing a net gain of 227,000 jobs (versus the consensus of 170,000 among economists surveyed by Briefing.com) would have been enough to send stock and Treasury bond prices down and the dollar up because the very strong job creation in January...
Day 2 for Apple earnings leads to some market concern
Apple (AAPL) shares soared on Wednesday after the company announced December quarter earnings. And there was sure a lot to cheer about as I noted in my post on Apple’s results yesterday. The shares closed up $5.15 to $129. Today, though, was a day for mulling...
National Security Advisor’s remarks on Iran upend oil market after today’s initial decline on U.S. inventory build
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported today that U.S. crude inventories climbed by 6.5 million barrels; energy analysts were looking for build of 3.289 million barrels. Gasoline inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels against projections for a build of...
Oil to stay above $50 but not crack $60 on OPEC compliance and increase in U.S. production
Sorry to break into the stream of never-ending Trump news, but there is other news driving the markets now. Yesterday, January 30, oil prices fell as another increase in the number of oil rigs at work in the U.S. met skepticism about OPEC’s ability/willingness...
Trump rally turns into Trump rout–for today at least
If you’ve been wondering–as I have–exactly how much erratic behavior and how many off-the-cuff executive orders it would take to unsettle the global financial markets, today provides, perhaps, an answer. About this much. Over the weekend the Trump...
U.S. GDP grows by a lower than expected 1.9% year over year in the fourth quarter
The U.S. economy slowed to grow at a 1.9% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department reported today. That’s down from the 3.5% growth rate for GDP in the third quarter. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 2.2% growth. For the full...
Mexico’s President Pena Nieto cancels next week’s meeting with President Trump
Let the negotiations begin! On one side U.S. President Donald Trump who wants to build a wall between Mexico and the United States (and have Mexico pay for it) and to renegotiate NAFTA (among other things.) On the other side the Mexican government of President Enrique...
Shiller says Dow 20,000 isn’t important and entire rally since 2000 is an illusion
Count on Robert Shiller, the author of Irrational Exuberance and the winner of the Nobel prize in economics in 2013, to rain on the Dow 20,000 parade. Hs latest piece–I read it on The Guardian...
Dow finally breaks 20,000 on renewal of Trumphoria
The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the long-awaited 20,000 level shortly after stocks opened for trading this morning. The Dow had pulled back in eight of the last 11 days. The 30-stock index is now up 11% since Donald Trump was elected president. Lots of...
On my paid sites: Long-term options trade on Facebook and Apple
It’s been quite a while since I shared with you what I’ve been thinking and writing about on my paid sites. Yes, that’s sites. Plural. Which explains why I haven’t filled you in since July. I’ve been busy building a second site,...
DR Horton earnings left home builders and entire market
DR Horton (DHI) led home building stocks higher, rising 5.43% as of 1 p.m. New York time, after showing a 31% jump in net income in earnings reported this morning before the market opened. The company also guided Wall Street to expect a strong selling season this...
OPEC agrees on monitoring system but Saudis say compliance is so strong that production cuts might not be needed past May
On Sunday January 22 OPEC and non-OPEC producers including Russia announced what looks like a credible mechanism for monitoring the production cuts that these nations agreed in December. And Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said that with better than expected...
With 6.8% GDP growth in fourth quarter, China hits 2016 target–exactly
You weren’t expecting anything else, were you? With China’s once every five years Communist Party leadership shift coming up this year, official figures released last night showed China’s GDP growing at a 6.8% rate in the fourth quarter. That puts the...
European Central Bank stands pat; Draghi urges Germany to have patience
If it sounds a little simplistic to you as monetary policy, that may be because it is. Confronted with German criticism of the asset buying stimulus program at the European Central Bank and German fears of resurgent inflation, bank president Mario Draghi advised...
Skyworks gains big on earnings beat: What does this mean for the rest of the Apple ecosystem?
After the close today, January 19, Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), a supplier of chips for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone announced that December quarter earnings had beaten analyst estimates by 3 cents a share. The results also beat on revenue. The company guided Wall Street...
Inflation creeps higher leaving Fed on track to raise interest rates in June
Granted the Consumer Price Index isn’t the inflation index that the Federal Reserve prefers but until the next release of that measure–the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index scheduled for January 30–the CPI is what we’ve got. In...
Trump talks down dollar–and U.S. stocks
The U.S. dollar fell today after President-elect Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the U.S. currency was too high–in part because China holds down the price of the yuan. On the comments the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was down 1.1% as of noon New...
There goes the neighborhood: In one interview President-elect Trump bashes both EU and NATO
In an interview with the London Times and Germany’s Bild President-elect Donald Trump managed to dismiss the European Union as a tool for expanding German exports and to label NATO as obsolete. Trump praised the Brexit vote saying that people “want their...
China’s export engine falters again
Calculated in yuan, China’s exports rose a tepid year-over-year 0.6% in December. Unfortunately, China’s export companies don’t pay for raw materials such as oil and copper or for subassemblies from Malaysia or Indonesia in yuan but in most cases in...
My Dividend Portfolio returned 26.79% in 2016
If you had bought the stocks in my Dividend Portfolio on December 31, 2015–or when I added them to this portfolio during 2016 in the cases of Coach (COH), Qualcomm (QCOM), VanEck Vectors Preferred Securities (excluding Financials) ETF (PFXF), and Kinder Morgan...
China’s inflation rate at the factory level surges to 5.5% annual pace in December
Sort of OK news and bad news on inflation out of China over night. The Consumer Price Index rose by just 2.1% year-over-year in December. Economists had been looking for inflation to increase by 2.2%. A slower than expected increase in the price of vegetables, a key...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
Every post from Jubak Picks straight to your mailbox. And they're free!