Category Archive: Finance
Ecolab: A High Quality Dividend Aristocrat Held By Bill Gates
Ecolab (ECL) is arguably one of the most reliable businesses that money can buy, which is perhaps why the company is a large holding in Bill Gates’ dividend portfolio here. Although Ecolab’s dividend yield is low (1.1%), the company’s long-term growth outlook is excellent and supported by its impressive moat (90% recurring revenue in the form […]
When You Stop Reading After The Second Sentence
On June 27, ECB President Mario Draghi opened that central bank’s international conference in Sintra, Portugal. Most media never made it past the first two sentences of his prepared remarks. For them, the verdict was already delivered in those few lines. They declared that Draghi declared monetary policy was working and the world was on its way […]
Six Flags Drops As CEO ‘Retires’ After Under Two Years In Role
Shares of Six Flags Entertainment (SIX) dropped in afternoon trading after the company announced the retirement of its chief executive officer after just 17 months in the role. Following the news, an analyst said the news that the company’s current chairman and former CEO is returning to the CEO role is “a positive.” CEO DEPARTURE: […]
June 2017 Import Sea Containers Suggest Improving Economy
The June month-over-month import and export container counts are suggesting a growing USA economy, but a slowing global economy – and a worsening trade balance. Analyst Opinion of Container Movements January was great. February was bad. March was good. April is ok. May and June were a mixed bag. Simply looking at this month versus […]
It’s Complicated
Things changed a lot in the past two weeks. The US Fed’s promises to keep tightening financial conditions look a lot shakier than they did at the start of the month, thanks to a series of weak economic readings in the US. I still think we need to be wary of central bankers but with […]
Subprime Redux: Problems Brewing In Auto Loans
It’s classic subprime: hasty loans, rapid defaults, and, at times, outright fraud. Only this isn’t the U.S. housing market circa 2007. It’s the U.S. auto industry circa 2017. A decade after the mortgage debacle, the financial industry has embraced another type of subprime debt: auto loans. And, like last time, the risks are spreading as […]
The BOJ Bond Buying Binge
As the Bank of Japan is set to meet this week to review monetary policy settings it’s worth checking in on a couple of particularly relevant charts. The first one shows the Bank of Japan has now accumulated an impressive 45% of all outstanding Japanese government debt. Strictly speaking this is not debt monetization but it’s not […]
AUD/JPY Rallies To Fresh Yearly Highs – Initial 2017 Targets In View
Technical Outlook: AUD/JPY closed above technical resistance at 87.55/64 last week, keeping the broader long-bias intact. Price is pushing through the yearly opening-range highs on this stretch with the rally now eyeing our initial yearly target at 90.64-91.23. This range is defined by the 1.618% extension of the 2016 advance and the 50% retracement of the […]
Homebuilder Seniment Falls To Eight Month Low As Lumber Prices Spike
Shares of U.S. homebuilders are all trading lower after a key metric for the group missed expectations. HOME BUILDER SENTIMENT: Builder confidence for newly-built single-family homes dropped to its lowest level since before the Trump election. The confidence metric slipped two points in July to 64. The HMI measure of current sales conditions has been […]
The ECB’s Balance Sheet Is Now The Size Of Japan’s GDP
Yesterday was a landmark day for the ECB. First, the central bank disclosed that its CSPP, or corporate bond, holdings rose above €100Bn for the first time. As DB’s Jim Reids notes this morning, to put things in perspective, a similar market cap company would be the 18th largest in the Stoxx 600 and 42nd […]
