Japan's yen intervention has failed–which means Japan will intervene again to weaken its currency against the dollar
Now that worked out just swell, didn’t it? Remember way back on September 15 when Japan intervened in the currency markets to drive down the soaring yen. The yen had just stormed through the 83 yen to the dollar level that a number of large Japanese exporters had...Whoops! USDA has to eat its optimistic projections from September 30 on corn crop and sets off commodity surge
It looks like the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been completely wrong-footed by the U.S. corn crop. And that has sent agriculture stocks soaring today, October 8. Just a few months ago the USDA was projecting a record crop. Just a couple of weeks ago on September...Call it "nutritionals," or nutriceuticals" or whatever–but here's how to invest in the hottest market in food
Nobody can accuse these companies of thinking short-term. Along with its third quarter earnings report on October 7 PepsiCo (PEP) announced that it was creating a new Global Nutrition Group “to deliver breakthrough innovation in the areas of fruits and vegetables,...September jobless numbers point to continued weak consumer spending
Disappointing job numbers on Friday, October 8. The government’s monthly payroll figures showed a decline of 95,000 jobs in September. That’s worse than the 57,000-job drop in August. According to Briefing.com, economists had expected the payroll number to be...Watch the dollar! While the medium and longer-term trend is still down, the U.S. currency is looking like it wants to bounce
When the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the U.S. dollar go head to head, the dollar wins. On October 6, in the second of its “World Economic Outlook” reports for 2010 the IMF was bullish on commodities, especially on base metals such as copper and tin....Watch out for 2011–that's when the global economy is projected to be weakest
Not exactly unexpected but still surprising. On October 6 the IMF (International Monetary Fund) released its forecast for global economic growth 2010 and 2011. Once again developing economies will lead global growth. Nothing unexpected there. But what is surprising is...There's a U.S. oil boom–in North Dakota–and here's how to invest in it
It looks like the biggest winner from the boon in natural gas production from shale formations in the United States will be the U.S. onshore oil industry. Thanks to new techniques pioneered in the late 1970s to extract natural gas from tight shale formations from...PepsiCo starts earnings season with a thud
Oh, no PepsiCo! This isn’t the way to start off third-quarter earnings season. Before the New York Stock Exchange opened this morning, October 7, PepsiCo (PEP) reported third quarter earnings of $1.22 a share, exactly matching the Wall Street analyst consensus....The odds go up for an earnings season stock-market dip
Disturbing background for the third quarter earnings season that starts this week raises the odds for a dip on earnings news over the next few weeks. Wall Street analysts cut their estimates for 2011 earnings for the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 in...Will China rebalance its economy? The Communist Party meeting that starts on October 15 will tell
More of the same growth at all costs plan or something different? That’s the big question that will be fought out when China’s leaders meet for the Communist Party’s annual get together from October 15 through 18. The meeting will set China’s next five-year economic...And now we've added Scottrade! Starting today you can invest in my mutual fund through your Scottrade account too
Add Scottrade to the list. A little more than a week ago we announced that you could now invest in The Jubak Global Equity Fund (JUBAX) directly through your brokerage account at Vanguard. And a week later we said you could invest through your Schwab account too Today...Copper glitters even more than gold
Copper, that other shiny golden metal, is just as hot as gold right now. And I think the fundamentals for copper are better. After an extraordinary run, Copper pulled back a bit yesterday. If I see a few days of profit taking, I’d look to buy copper stocks. Which...Stock markets get the election jitters–and not just in the U.S.
It’s election season. No, no. I don’t mean just in the United States. You don’t need me to point out that your neighbor’s lawn is festooned with Vote for … signs. Or that TV is plastered with Don’t vote for… messages. Or that your inbox is full of “Contribute to…...Movement without direction: That was the stock market story last week but it's about to change
The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index closed on Friday September 24 at 1149. The index closed on Friday October 1 at 1146. That’s a net move of 3 points in five trading sessions. For the past week stocks have been stuck in a rut. Spinning their wheels. As stagnant...Auto sales stagnate in September
Be careful what you compare things to. If you compare U.S. auto sales in September 2010 to the horrendous sales of September 2009, the industry looks like it’s roaring ahead. If you compare sales for September 2010 to those from a recovering August, the industry is...2% growth in retail sales doesn't sound like much–until you compare it to last Christmas
It’s getting to look a lot like an OK Christmas. The big shipping companies that should know are saying that this holiday shopping season will be decent. Now that may not be enthusiastic enough to set visions of sugar plums dancing in your head, but the retail group...Now it's Ireland's turn to rattle the euro
The Irish crisis keeps getting deeper—at least as judged by spreads on Irish government bonds. Yields on Irish government bonds hit records on Tuesday, September 28. The yield on the 10-year government bond climbed by 0.25 percentage points on the day to 6.72%....Getcha predictions here: My scorecard for the fourth quarter
It’s a new quarter. Do we know any more about the trend in the stock market and the economy than we did at the start of last quarter Well, actually a little bit. I don’t think we’re at “Bet the farm” certainty, but figuring out the trend isn’t quite as confounding as...Sure Petrobras raised $67 billion but here's why I think investors should see it as a failure
Cheers or brickbats for the Petrobras (PBR) share offering last Friday, September 24, in Sao Paulo? The Brazilian government is leading the cheers. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gushed on September 24 that Petrobras had successfully concluded the biggest sale...Yes, it's a currency war, and No, no one is doing anything about it
Do you think he reads this site? “We’re in the midst of an international currency war,” warned Brazil’s finance minister Guido Mantega on September 27. Governments around the world are competing to drive down their currencies to boost their exports. How dangerous...Now you can invest in my mutual fund through Schwab too
Add Charles Schwab to the list. A little more than a week ago we announced that you could now invest in The Jubak Global Equity Fund (JUBAX) directly through your brokerage account at Vanguard. Today we’re reporting that you can invest in Jubak Global Equity...Central banks hold the answer to "How high can gold go?"
Bet you didn’t know that Sunday, September 26, marked the end of the year. Well, it did for the world’s central banks that participate in the Central Bank Gold Agreement, which lays out quotas for how much gold central banks can sell in a year. The agreement was put...How to fix the U.S. economy? First, no more baby steps
I haven’t been able to sleep ever since I read that Larry Summers is leaving his post as President Barack Obama’s top economic advisor. Why doesn’t the phone ring? I’m eating with it at my elbow. I’ve changed the way I walk to work to avoid cell phone dead zones. I’m...While consumers sit on their wallets, businesses spend
The bifurcated U.S. economic recovery keeps on bifurcatin’. While the U.S. consumer still can’t seem to open his or her wallet (and with official unemployment stuck near 10%, who can blame consumers for being hesitant about spending), businesses keep on ordering...The only thing rarer than rare earths from anywhere other than China is a rare earth stock from anywhere other than China–which is why they're hot (again)
It was something more than a threat but less than an actual embargo. But China seems to be putting the clamps on exports of rare earth minerals to Japan. The New York Times reported on September 23 that China had put an embargo on all exports of rare earth minerals to...Foreclosures are killing home sales and housing prices
The September 22 report on housing prices from the Federal Housing Finance Agency has turned out to be not just depressing but depressingly accurate. According to the agency, prices in July fell 0.5% from June. That was worse than the 0.2% decline projected by...It's not just Japan: Brazil is trying to drive down the price of its currency too
Japan isn’t the only country to intervene in the markets in an attempt to drive down the price of its currency. Brazil’s central bank has moved to buy dollars and to sell the Brazilian real repeatedly in the last week. Until it fell on September 20 and 21, Brazil’s...One unexpected thing that could stop this rally
So what could stop this rally? Now that it has broken through resistance at 1127 and 1130 on the Standard & Poor’s 500–and even briefly traded at the May high of 1150—what could prevent this rally from running straight through September (historically the...So where is this rally headed now? And how long will it run?
Why have stocks rallied so strongly in September? I don’t think it has anything to do with currently observable improvement in the economy. I think what we have seen so far is investors—mostly hedge funds—who had bet that the economy was going to sour reversing that...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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