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Margin Debt And The Markets

Margin Debt And The Markets

Note: The NYSE has suspended their NYSE Member Firm margin data as of December 2017. We have replaced our Margin Debt data with FINRA data, which includes data for all firms, not just NYSE member firms.  The New York Stock Exchange previously published end-of-month data for margin debt on the NYX data website, including historical data going […]
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                        Market Briefing For Wednesday, Oct. 24

E Market Briefing For Wednesday, Oct. 24

Teak railings known as ‘bright-work’ on large yachts and cruise ships, at periodic points lose their sheen; so require a new coat of lacquer. Applying that varnish is a tedious process of sanding and preparation. So it is for the stock market this year. And first it has to take a ‘shellacking’ before the final […]
Value Is Coming; Who Will Be Ready?

Value Is Coming; Who Will Be Ready?

As markets plunge around the world this week, we should not lose big picture perspective on how relatively little they have mean reverted to date. And also on how much further stocks are likely to fall before they complete their third, and potentially final, bear cycle of this secular bear that began in 2000. This […]
The Natural Gas Whipsaw Continues

The Natural Gas Whipsaw Continues

It’s been a wild few days in the natural gas market, with prices selling off then reversing higher Friday, only to then set new lows yesterday on warmer long-range weather models before strong physical prices and more mixed long-range weather forecasts helped prices cancel out almost all of yesterday’s losses today.  A significant winter premium […]
Netflix Prices $2BN Junk Bond Offering, Forced To Offer Higher Yield As Some Investors Get Cold Feet

Netflix Prices $2BN Junk Bond Offering, Forced To Offer Higher Yield As Some Investors Get Cold Feet

When we reported yesterday that Netflix is looking to prefund two more quarters of cash burn – which hit $860BN in Q3 – by issuing another $2 billion in junk bonds, just six months after the company issued an upsized $1.9 billion in 5.875% bonds in April, we expected that the bond market may demand a pound […]
Stocks And Precious Metals Charts – PPT Puts On The Afterburners

Stocks And Precious Metals Charts – PPT Puts On The Afterburners

Stocks were weak overnight, dropping on both the Asian and the European openings. But they were reeling on the open of the US futures markets, led even lower by the results from real economy stocks like CAT, who are not doing all that well, and are symptomatic of global slowing. Gold got a strong safe […]
Housing Consensus Dead Wrong

Housing Consensus Dead Wrong

Before jumping right into housing affordability, it is necessary to consider the affordability of common stocks, investor interest and initial public offerings in the early 1980s through today. Back in 1982, stocks were the most affordable of my lifetime. I can remember pitching Coca-Cola (KO) to investors in 1981-1982 at six-times earnings with a 5% […]
Mutual Funds Vs. ETFs: Which Is Better For Alpha?

Mutual Funds Vs. ETFs: Which Is Better For Alpha?

Alpha’s not easy to come by. Nor should it be. Once the exclusive purview of mutual funds, alpha is nowadays sought by exchange traded funds as well. Not too many, mind you. Of more than 2,200 ETFs, only 273 are deemed actively managed. That ought to make short work searching for alpha. And, indeed, the […]
S&P500 Seasonality – Year End Rally Time?

S&P500 Seasonality – Year End Rally Time?

As the seasons change so to do the habits and actions of all things from the smallest critter all the way up to the Wall Street trader.  We see seasonal tendencies in price movement across a number of different assets, but perhaps the most talked about – or what perhaps should be the most talked about […]