Bank Stock Roundup: M&A Dominates; Bank Of The Ozarks, BB&T In Focus
The positivity of the much-anticipated rate hike by the Federal Reserve was overshadowed over the last five trading days as reflected in banking stocks’ price movement. Challenging operating environment once again weighed upon investor sentiment, which led the stocks to move down. Inorganic expansion was prominent for the last five days. With organic growth mostly […]
The Economics Of Higher Education: Why Does It Cost So Much?
We hear a lot about how expensive higher education has become. The common wisdom is that higher faculty salaries and a growing cadré of administrators are the reasons why. The common wisdom is wrong. In this, the first article in a series on college/university finance, the real reasons for higher costs are presented. Summary Tuition […]
The Best (and Safest) Way To Invest In Turkey
On November 1, Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan, scored a resounding victory in the country’s general election when his ruling AKP party won 317 of the 550 seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. In doing so, his government earned the right to form a government on its own. Good news for investors, right? After all, a […]
Questions, Questions – Will The Fed Raise Its Funds Rate?
I see that pundits and even Fed FOMC members are believing the labor market “improvement” will allow the FOMC to raise the zero bound federal funds rate when the Fed meets on December 15 later this year. Improvement?? The October BLS Jobs Report was well over expectations – which seems to me is the proximate cause […]
Narrow Markets Breadth And Companies With Negative Earnings Are Leading
Although this past week took the S&P 500 Index return for the year into negative territory (down 3.2%) any positive stock returns have been led by only a handful of stocks. For the week, the S&P 500 Index declined 3.7% and was the first weekly decline after six weekly gains. From The Blog of HORAN […]
The Class War Has Already Started
Pundits and apologists are quick to chastise anyone who even speaks of class war, as if the words alone might spark what the pundits and apologists fear. The pundits and apologists dread the words because they know the Class War has already started. The mainstream media’s hope is that denial will somehow suppress the broader recognition […]
Gold: Here’s What To Look For After This Historic Run
Gold prices fell for a fourth consecutive week with the precious metal down nearly 0.3% to trade at 1081 ahead of the New York close on Friday. The decline comes alongside a sharp sell-off in equity markets with the major indices off by more than 3.5% on the week. Despite declines in the greenback, bullion has […]
When China Sneezes, The Copper Market Catches A Cold
Whatever China seems to be trying to do, it doesn’t look like it’s working. When the country released some data on the amount of new credit, the results surprised everybody. Not only did aggregate financing fall to just $75B, which was lower than the number projected by all analysts, it was also just 45% of the median […]
Dollar Bull Move Remains Intact
The US dollar turned in a mixed performance in the week after the strong jobs data boosted expectations that the Fed’s liftoff would take place next month. The Fed funds futures imply a 20.5 bp effective rate in December.At the end of October, it was 19.5 bp. In contrast, the 2-year note yield eased 3 bp over […]
Peter Merrigan: Boston will recover from the real estate boom
Boston didn’t go nuts adding commercial space during the U. S. real estate boom, so it’s doing better now than other cities, Peter Merrigan and Frank Wuest, two top local builders say. Peter Merrigan, CEO of Boston-based real estate fund Taurus Investment Holdings, said the Hub’s strong university base, educated work force and good infrastructure […]
