Temp Staffing Reaches All Time High
As the data predicted a few weeks ago the Temp Staffing Index has continued on to all time high levels hitting 107 for the week ending 11/23. This bodes very, very well for continued NFP gains through Q1 and into Q2 2015. Also, auto sales remain strong….another indicator of increasing employment:
SP 500 And NDX Futures Daily Charts – Well Meaning And Clueless, Or Reckless And Self-Absorbed?
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” – Edmund Burke In general, I try to apply the maxim that one ought never to attribute to bad intent what can more easily be attributed to well-intentioned stupidity. I bring this up […]
Russia Is Buying A Lot Of Gold
The relationship between Russia and the West is not getting any better. Recently Putin returned early from the G20 summit where he was criticized multiple times and it quickly became clear that the president of Russia was not going to sit around and take it. It feels like the arguments are not getting resolved at […]
Another Synthetic Biology Company – Histogenics On Deck
Histogenics (HSGX) may finally deliver an engineered cartilage that can make damaged knees good again. There are a range of new alternatives being developed but the positioning of Histogenics and their “NeoCart” is encouraging. They are enrolling patients for a Phase 3 trial for knee defects. [See the HSGX IPO roadshow slides for the full story.] At […]
S&P 500 And Monetary Base, Not Reassuring
Call me a perma-bear with these charts. Call me what ever you want. But I do not invent the data, I just look at it and post it when I think it is relevant. There is a post at the GaveKal blog (now linked to the left) about liquidity issues in the markets, so I decided to […]
No, It’s Not Time To Buy Energy Stocks Yet
Yesterday, I discussed the recent slide in oil prices wherein I stated: “For investors long ‘energy’ at the current time, oil prices are indeed extremely oversold and are due for a bounce. That ‘bounce’ should likely be used to substantially reduce energy positions in the short term as an increasing amount of data suggests oil prices could go lower.” […]
The Trouble With Tesla
I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Tesla (TSLA), having lost over a fifth of its market cap from its high, is vulnerable in two important ways: one, it can’t seem to get its act together with the Model X (which was initially shown years ago, and to this day still isn’t an officially-launched […]
The Middle Class Spending Crash Explained
With Black Friday sales plunging and Cyber Monday growth slowing, it appears the chickens of stagnant wages and debt-saturation are coming home to roost for a massacred middle-class America. However, as WSJ reports “we are buying less stuff,” because the basic costs of necessities such as healthcare, food eaten at home, rent, education, and cellphones […]
When Will The Fed Raise Rates? Voluntarily…Never.
The world’s central bankers started QE (Quantitative Easing) programs and government debt buying back in late 2008 as a “temporary” measure to provide liquidity to struggling economies. Ever since 2008 people have been debating when U.S. interest rates will be heading back up. Answering that question requires insight into politics more than it does economics. […]
Princes Of The Yen: Central Banks And The Transformation Of An Economy
While I cringed at some of the early parts of the film and the mid-century American attitudes towards the Japanese, I think this documentary provides some valuable insights into the evolution of the modern economy that is Japan. I try not to judge other periods with temporal prejudice, and I think such liberality might serve […]
