Category Archive: Finance
Obamacare Caused The Gas Tax Cut To Go Up In Flames
Wall Street analysts unanimously cheered last fall when the price of oil fell from nearly $100 a barrel in June of 2014, to almost $45 a barrel by the end of January 2015. The theory was that the average American family, paying less at the pump, would plow this savings into other goods and services, […]
Macy’s, Inc. Stock Slips After Earnings Disappoint
Macy’s (M) released the earnings results from its first fiscal quarter before opening bell this morning, posting earnings of 56 cents per share on sales of $6.23 billion, a 0.7% year over year decline. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 62 cents per share and revenue of $6.32 billion. In the same quarter last […]
April Retail Sales: The Spring Rebound Goes Missing
The Advance Retail Sales Report released this morning shows that sales in April came in flat month-over-month, a situation that was enabled by an upward March revision from 0.9% to 1.1%. Core Retail Sales (ex Autos) came in at a disappointing 0.1%, with the March number tweaked upward from 0.4% to 0.7%. Today’s numbers came in below […]
Negative Duration Bond ETFs – Right Time To Bet?
With increasing energy prices, growing inflationary expectations and an improving job market, the Treasury yields have been on the rise yet again in recent weeks. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes (TNX) saw a sudden and sharp jump from $1.890 on April 16 to near $2.35 as of today – the highest level in more than […]
Yearning For Yen
Feel like a really contrarian play? How about going long the Japanese Yen? Yes, the idea of buying the rapidly-expanding currency of a country already one quadrillion yen in debt seems lunatic, but relative to the US dollar, I think the Yen might be in for a surprising rally. The FXY is one way I know of owning the currency. Looking at the […]
Return Of Bond Market Stability Pushes Equity Futures Higher
Following yesterday’s turbulent bond trading session, where the volatility after the worst Bid to Cover in a Japanese bond auction since 2009 spread to Europe and sent Bund yields soaring again, in the process “turmoiling” equities, today’s session has been a peaceful slumber barely interrupted by a “better than expected” Italian and German Bund auction, […]
Morning Call For May 13, 2015
OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS June E-mini S&Ps (ESM15 +0.25%) this morning are up +0.27% and European stocks are up +0.85% after global bond markets rallied and after Eurozone Q1 GDP expanded as expected. The British pound fell back from a 4-3/4 month high against the dollar after the BOE cut its 2015 UK GDP forecast […]
Wednesday Pre-Market Insights: GEVO, WPZ, HDP, PTIE
Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO) shares are up more than 21% in pre-market trading to $5.68 after the renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company reported 1Q15 results. Gevo posted quarterly revenue of $5.9 million, a significant increase from $0.9 million in the same quarter of last year. The report also highlighted a recent renewable jet fuel agreement […]
Inside New Leveraged REIT ETN Issued By UBS
ETRACS, the fund brand of UBS, has already made a name for itself in rolling out high yield leveraged products. To carry on its success story, the issuer recently launched a new leveraged ETF targeting the U.S. REIT sector. The fund trades in the name of ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged MSCI US REIT Index ETN (LRET – ETF report). […]
First-Quarter REIT Underdog Update
In January I wrote an article on CorEnergy (NYSE:CORR) and I described the company as my “2015 REIT Underdog”. Earlier this week the company announced its first-quarter results, so I decided that I would provide an update on the Energy Infrastructure REIT. Before beginning, I will remind you that CORR generates revenue by leasing infrastructure assets, or offering loans […]
