First Quarter 2017 Earnings Preview: Double Digits?
By LPL Financial Key Takeaways The S&P 500 appears likely to produce double-digit year-over-year earnings growth for the first quarter, powered by energy’s rebound. Last year’s first quarter marked the trough of the earnings recession as S&P 500 earnings fell 5%, setting up an easy comparison. We have several reasons to be optimistic, including good macro […]
Dividend Gems Are Still To Be Found Among These 13 French Stocks Trading As ADRs
U.S. dividend investors should think outside the box in finding undervalued dividend stocks…Foreign stocks now provide higher dividend yields than their U.S. counterparts, especially in Europe. Although many of these ADRs (American Depository Receipts) have infrequent trading and also tax implications, it is well worth casting your net across the world to find dividend gems. This […]
Treasury Semi-Annual Report To Congress On Foreign Exchange Policies Released
The report, released yesterday, is here. From page 15: Treasury estimates that China intervened heavily in the foreign exchange market to prevent a more rapid RMB depreciation. Treasury estimates that from August 2015 through February 2017, China sold around $800 billion in foreign currency assets to prevent rapid RMB depreciation. The pace of net foreign exchange […]
Study Says By 2030 1/4th Of Miles Driven Will Be Driverless
A convergence of three trends – Ride Sharing, Autonomous Driving, and Vehicle Electrification—will offer big-city dwellers cheap, convenient transportation, transforming the automotive industry, says a report by the Boston Consulting group. The report concludes By 2030, 25% of Miles Driven in US Could Be in Shared Self-Driving Electric Cars. BCG’s key insight is that the convergence […]
Week In Review: Dalian Wanda Plans $10 Billion Chengdu Healthcare Park
Deals and Financings Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest commercial property owner, unveiled plans to invest $10 billion in a Chengdu healthcare park (see story). Plans call for the park to include two tier-one general hospitals, eight smaller specialized hospitals and 30 healthcare-related firms. Last year, Wanda made its first foray into healthcare, investing $2.3 billion to […]
Oil Inventories Remain High Despite OPEC Cut, Extension Expected
Fundamental Forecast for USOIL: Neutral Nationwide US Oil Output moved to its highest level since January 2016 per the EIA report on Wednesday despite U.S. Crude stockpiles falling by 2.2m barrels. The fundamental tug-of-war remains in play, but it’s possible the Oil Bulls could win out as the IEA report appears supportive for the fundamental outlook. In short, […]
V.F. Corporation: A New Five-Year Plan
Long-time shareholders of the V.F. Corporation (VFC) are familiar with the company’s 17×17 plan, which was unveiled in 2013 and aimed at generating $17 billion in revenues by fiscal 17. Other components of the plan included margin expansion and $18.00 in earnings-per-share (which was before a 4-for-1 stock split announced later in 2013). Unfortunately, V.F. failed to deliver on […]
Uber Reports It Lost $2.8 Billion In 2016 Including $991 Million In Q4
On Good Friday, when markets were closed and when the entire financial world was tuned out, and when certainly no one was supposed to pay attention, Uber, the most highly valued – at $62.5 billion – and the most scandal plagued tech startup in the world, took the until now unprecedented step of disclosing its […]
Speculators Were Adding To Foreign Currency Exposure Before Trump’s Talk
In the days before US President Trump expressed concern about the dollar’s exchange value, speculators in the futures market mostly added to the gross long foreign currency positions. There were two exceptions, the Canadian and Australian dollars, which supports our suspicions of a change in sentiment toward the dollar-bloc currencies. The bulls liquidated 13.5k long […]
EC Investing In A World Of Black Swans
In the world of modern finance, there has always been the search for the Holy Grail. Ever since the advent of computers, practitioners have looked to harness the power of computing and direct it towards the goal of producing endless profits. Today the buzz words being used across industries include, “AI – Artificial Intelligence,” “Machine […]
