Welfare Versus GDP: What Makes People Better Off
from the International Monetary Fund — this post authored by Geoffrey Bannister and Alexandros Mourmouras For years, economists have worked to develop a way of measuring general well-being and comparing it across countries. The main metric has been differences in income or gross domestic product per person. But economists have long known that GDP is an imperfect measure […]
Weekly Unemployment Claims: Up 21K, Worse Than Forecast
Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor: In the week ending March 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 231,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 210,000. The 4-week moving average was 222,500, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s unrevised average of […]
My Leitner-Esque Moment
They’re back. I thought they had all given up, but like an old college buddy who’s going through a bad divorce and just needs a place to crash for a ‘few days,’ the corporate credit skeptics are a tough lot to shake. This crew is a left-over remnant of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. After […]
3 Biotech Stocks With Rising Earnings Estimates Post Q4
The Q4 earnings season for the pharma/biotech sector was scattered with a few small biotech companies yet to report. The releases so far provide us with a clear picture of the sector’s performance. Overall, the sector performed reasonably well. Among the biotech/pharma bigwigs, Gilead (GILD – Free Report) , Celgene (CELG – Free Report) and Vertex (VRTX – Free Report) beat […]
Stocks Fall After Revenue Beats Expectations
Beat Expectations, Stock Falls Anyway In the Q2 2017 earnings season, the market was acting weirdly. Stocks were falling when firms were beating sales expectation. My guess was that stocks priced in great results, so investors weren’t enamored after results were beat. In the Q1 2018 earnings season we’re seeing the same phenomena occur. As […]
Wall Street Stands To Lose Billions As Trump Hangs A “Not-For-Sale Sign” On US Tech
Broadcom executives should’ve seen this coming. For months now, Singapore-based Broadcom has pursued a merger with US-based Qualcomm, raising its bid for the largest US-based technology firm to $117 billion, which is developing chips that are expected to be integral to 5G network technology in the US. Then, national security issues reared their head. Earlier this month, the Committee […]
E Keep EUR/USD And GBP/USD Long
The USD fell against most major currencies on Tuesday after U.S. inflation data for February came in line with expectations, suggesting the Federal Reserve remained on track to raise interest rates at a gradual pace. The dollar also lost traction after U.S. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with […]
Weekly Gasoline Price Update: Regular And Premium Mostly Unchanged
It’s time again for our weekly gasoline update based on data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The price of Regular and Premium were unchanged and down one penny, respectively, from last week. According to GasBuddy.com, Hawaii has the highest average price for Regular at $3.43 and San Francisco, CA is the most expensive city, averaging […]
Under Armour Drops As Dick’s Says ‘Significant Weakness’ Hurt Q4 Apparel Sales
Shares of Under Armour (UA, UAA) dropped in morning trading following comments made by retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) on its quarterly earnings conference call. SIGNIFICANT WEAKNESS IN UNDER ARMOUR BRAND: On its Q4 earnings conference call, Dick’s Sporting Goods Chief Executive Officer Edward Stack commented that strong apparel sales growth in Q4 came from […]
GDX Ready To Break And Stocks That Are Bifurcating From The Market
David Erfle, Editor of The Junior Miner Junky joins me to share some initial comments on the GDX. With GDX again bouncing from the bottom of its range and volume remaining low we are all wondering which direction a break will go. We also look into some other aspects for metals stocks that we think […]
