Category Archive: Finance
Euro Rips On Dovish Draghi; Yen Slips After BoJ
Yesterday we looked at the high probability of the European Central Bank taking a dovish outlook to markets at today’s rate decision and press conference. This very much fit the pattern of how the bank has communicated with markets throughout this year, as the ECB rate decisions in April and again in June saw a […]
Pfizer Downgraded To Neutral From Outperform At Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse analyst Vamil Divan downgraded Pfizer (PFE) to Neutral and lowered his price target for the shares to $36 from $38. The shares closed yesterday up 26c to $33.62. The analyst, who notes he’s long been a supporter of Pfizer and continues to see opportunities for upside over the long-term, believes the stock’s […]
GBP/USD: Extends Weakness, Remains Vulnerable
GBP/USD: The pair continues to retain its nearer downtrend weakening further on Thursday. Support lies at the 1.2900 level where a break will turn attention to the 1.2850 level. Further down, support lies at the 1.2800 level. Below here will set the stage for more weakness towards the 1.2750 level. Its daily RSI is bearish […]
July 2017 Initial Unemployment Claims Rolling Average Marginally Improves
The market expectations for weekly initial unemployment claims (from Bloomberg/Econoday) were 240 K to 250 K (consensus 245,000), and the Department of Labor reported 233,000 new claims. The more important (because of the volatility in the weekly reported claims and seasonality errors in adjusting the data) 4 week moving average moved from 246,000 (reported last […]
Philip Morris (PM) Misses Q2 Earnings And Sales; Stock Down
Philip Morris International Inc. (PM – Free Report) is the world’s leading tobacco company. However, the company has been witnessing declining demand for cigarettes due to the ongoing anti-tobacco campaigns and government restrictions. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also made it mandatory for tobacco companies to use precautionary labels on cigarette packets to […]
So You Want To Fix The Trade Deficit?
Well, I don’t think a few tariffs and quotas, plus “tweaking” Nafta, are going to do it. And blowing a hole in the Federal deficit ain’t likely to help. First take a look at the trade deficit as defined in the national income accounting sense (i.e., “net exports”), expressed as a share of GDP: Figure […]
E What’s Driving Growth In Online Video Advertising?
A few years ago, mobile advertising seemed to be one of the biggest challenges to advertisers with many struggling to monetize the huge traffic they received from their target audience. The likes of Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google and Facebook (FB) were good examples as they failed to match their massive user-bases with monetization levels achieved […]
Innovate Or Die
Back in January 2007, Netflix announced a bold plan to bring internet video to television sets. At the time, few believed they would be successful, but such skepticism was nothing new. The “death” of Netflix was predicted first in late 2002, not long after its IPO. Wal-Mart was entering the DVD-by-mail business, and who could […]
Euro Surges As Draghi Reiterates Sintra Message, Tips ‘Autumn’
Clearly, the euro and in particular bunds didn’t get what they were expecting in the ECB decision (out as usual at 7:45 EST). It seems readily apparent that some folks were looking for a tweak in the language around the QE assessment. When they didn’t get it, the reaction in the single currency was perceptible, but the […]
Weekly Unemployment Claims: Down Another 15K
Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor: In the week ending July 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 233,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 247,000 to 248,000. The 4-week moving average was 243,750, […]
