Category Archive: Finance
Luxury Bull Market
The wall of worry continues to propel stocks higher as this long plodding economic expansion is assumed to be in the later innings. With low interest rates and slow growth, many are still waiting for the the full throated recovery to manifest. However, for the luxury and leisure world the good times just keep rolling. […]
Stock Market Tsunami Siren Sounds A False Alarm?
Wolf Richter sounds the alarm about the S&P 500’s current price earnings ratio: Before we go any further, let’s acknowledge that Wolf would be absolutely right if earnings were the fundamental driver of stock prices. Unfortunately, they’re not. Instead, dividends serve that function (here’s the math and several years of forecasting results to back that claim up). From that perspective, the seeming inexplicable levitation of stock […]
Dealing With A Dividend Cut In Your CEF Portfolio
If you dabble in the closed-end fund market long enough, you are probably going to own a fund that sees its dividend cut. This seemingly innocuous event can have numerous ripple effects for shareholders that should be carefully evaluated before you respond with any knee-jerk reactions. Closed-end funds generally operate their dividend schedules in two […]
UK’s Unemployment Rate Falls To A 42-Year Low
The monthly jobs report from the UK was a mixed bag with the unemployment rate falling to a 42-year low at 4.5%, down from 4.6% previously. Despite the solid headline, wages continued to disappoint. The unemployment rate fell to 4.5% and marked the lowest unemployment rate in the UK since 1975. Official data from the […]
Gold Rises On Yellen Testimony
Gold prices ended Wednesday’s session up $3.80 an ounce, extending their gains to a third-straight session, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signaled a cautious approach to further monetary tightening. Yellen said the Federal Reserve will need to keep gradually raising interest rates in the coming years, but not to levels seen in previous rate […]
Brexit Briefing: EU Negotiator Ramps Up The Rhetoric
Ahead of next Monday’s meeting, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was in no mood to offer his UK counterpart David Davis an olive branch as he once again highlighted the obligations that the UK must adhere to before trade talks could commence. Barnier said that there still remained ‘numerous differences’ on the rights of EU […]
Fed In Wait-And-See Mode; Next Hike Likely In September – SEB
What did we learn from Fed Chair Janet Yellen? Her prepared statement contained some worries about inflation, but she later balanced things out. Here is the view from SEB: Here is their view, courtesy of eFXnews: SEB Research comments on Fed Yellen’s testimony before the Congress. “Today’s testimony reinforces our view that the Fed is currently in […]
Gold Market Update
In the last update we had thought that gold might escape its usual seasonal malaise this year, but it didn’t and went into a rather sharp downtrend and dropped again quite sharply on Friday. The good news though is that this drop has not impacted the big picture at all, which remains strongly bullish, and […]
Bank Stock Earnings Preview
There are several banks reporting earnings on Friday before the market opens. The financials have seen a solid run over the last few weeks after their balance sheets all passed the stress tests. A great number of banks also increased dividends and raised their buybacks at that time, so does that mean we are going […]
