Blog

Social Media

Social media and “tech” companies who rely on advertising dollars to be profitable have been under considerable pressure lately—to put it mildly.  SNAP was the first major advertising-dependent social media...

Made in America

Following World War 2, the United States was a global industrial behemoth with more than 40% of all private sector jobs in manufacturing.  Today, that number is less than 10%.  However, the latest jobs report shows...

Commercial Real Estate Drop in Demand

REITs, or Real Estate Investment Trusts, are considered by many to be an essential holding in a well-diversified portfolio.  However, many REITs, especially those specializing in commercial real estate such as office buildings,...

Non-Fungible Tokens

NFT’s, which stands for “non-fungible tokens”, are cryptographic digital assets that exist on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish each from all others.  Unlike...

Central Bankers Nightmare

As bad as inflation seems in the U.S., it is much worse in the Eurozone where inflation jumped 9.1% in August - a new record for Eurozone data that goes back to 1997.  Estonia led the way with a huge 25.2% rise, while Germany hit...

Zoom

Once a company has reached such prominence that its very name becomes the verb for its service, it generally has staying power (feel free to “Google it”).  Not so much with video-conferencing platform Zoom.  This...

Saudi Aramco

If you’ve been wondering where all the extra money you’ve been spending to fill up your gas tank has been going, there’s a good bet at least some of it made it to Saudi Arabia’s energy behemoth Saudi Aramco...

Rent Hikes Increase

Over the past year nearly every essential good or service has escalated in price, but for those renting, costs have often skyrocketed.  News site “The Hustle” conducted a survey attempting to gain more insight into how...

If It Walks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck Its a Duck

The popular definition of an economic recession has traditionally been “two consecutive quarters of negative real gross domestic product (GDP) growth”, but economists at Bank of America’s Global Research team...

Cost to attend a baseball game

In the dog days of summer a common American pastime has traditionally been attending a Major League Baseball game.  However, many middle-class families are finding that spending a few hours cheering on the home team is...

Expectations of the Economy

If there’s one thing that’s able to doom the future of an incumbent President - even more than scandal - it is Inflation.  President Joe Biden’s overall and economic approval numbers have reached the lowest...

Inflation Hedge

If it made up the majority of the Labor Department’s “CPI basket”, the rate of inflation would currently be…zero.  We’re talking about the ever-reliable $1.50 Costco hot dog combo, priced at $1.50...

Worst First Half Since 1788

With the worst first half for the stock market in 60 years now in the books, many want to know - just how unusual was it?  In the graphic below, private bank and investment house Edmond de Rothschild showed not only equities had a...

Price of new vehicles

It’s not just housing—the average transaction price of new vehicles sold in June hit a new stratospheric record high of $45,844, up 14% from a year ago.  As automakers continue to struggle with shortages of key parts...

Pharmaceutical Spending

It turns out that Americans spend more on pharmaceuticals than any other country in the world—and not just more—a lot more.  The OECD reported the average American spends $1376 per year on medications, while Sweden...

Google Chrome

After 27 years, Microsoft’s support for its once dominant internet browser ‘Internet Explorer’ (IE) has come to an end.  At one point, IE’s market share was estimated to be as high as 90%, primarily due to...

Too Much Stuff

If you’re in the market for patio furniture, appliances, large electronics, or other expensive household items you might be in luck.  Big retail’s loss might become your gain.  America’s biggest retailers,...

Mixed Signals in Policy Discussions

The Biden administration is at once demanding that U.S. oil producers pump more in order to lower prices at the pump, while at the same time the administration is blasting U.S. refiners and producers for “gouging” and...

US Government Debt

The U.S. gross national debt has now reached $30.4 trillion, following a massive $7.0 trillion spike since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in March 2020.  Every one of these debt securities had to be purchased and held by an...

Things Could Be Worse

Usually it’s a newsworthy event when the price of a well-known tech company falls by more than 10% in a week’s time.  However, in the last few weeks almost every single day has seen multiple major technology...

NASDAQ

 On Thursday the NASDAQ Composite Index fell 5%, its biggest one-day decline since 2020.  However, looking beneath the surface reveals problems in the tech-heavy index that have existed for quite some time.  E-commerce...

Port of Shanghai

The largest city in China, Shanghai, remains in full lockdown as authorities try to contain yet another wave of COVID-19.  Those lockdowns have led to a major backlog of cargo and container ships around the Port of...

US Electricity Generation

On a single day earlier this month – and for the first time ever - wind power was the second-largest source of electric generation in the country, behind only natural gas.  The Energy Information Administration reported on...

Puppies for sale

The COVID pandemic and its subsequent mandatory lockdowns led to greater isolation, greater stress, and less time outside.  What better way is there to brighten such a dark time – and occupy bored kids - than to get a...

Kastle Barometer

As the pandemic winds down, life in many respects is almost back to normal—except for one area—office space.  According to building security provider Kastle, which monitors the use of security and ID cards in office...

Russian Exports

It wasn’t widely known to the general public before recent days, but Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of many of the commodities necessary for modern society.  Inflation was already on the rise, but since...

Help Wanted

‘Help Wanted’ signs are a common sight in towns and cities across the country.  According to conventional wisdom, the shortage of workers (aka “missing workers”) is due to older workers, after enjoying...

US Stocks YTD

The S&P 500 is down about -12% for the young year.  About a quarter of the stocks in the S&P 500 are up so far, and three-quarters are down.  Energy is the only sector enjoying a good start to 2022, up about 40%.  Every...

Global Oil Production

 It is well known that Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of energy, both natural gas and oil.  So as gas prices continue to hit new highs across the country, just how much of the world’s oil does...

Americas Top Cheapest Electric Cars

So just how far can America’s top 10 cheapest electric cars go on a single charge?  Financial website HowMuch.net found the average distance most electric cars can travel per charge is around 220 miles, but with a wide...

Flocking to Florida

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI), rents rose 3.8% across the country last year.  But one state in particular scored six of the top ten cities with the highest average rent increase...

SpaceX Delivery

In December, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a cargo capsule to deliver supplies and Christmas gifts to astronauts in the International Space Station.  Like several SpaceX rockets before it, this rocket’s first stage...

California Orange Juice

Along with gasoline and rent we get to add orange juice to the ever-expanding list of prices expected to skyrocket throughout the year.  The January forecast for the U.S. citrus harvest is looking especially bleak for Florida...

Super Bowl 56

Cass Freight Index

Stunningly higher shipping costs are yet another element of the nation’s supply chain problems. Shipping costs have skyrocketed as shortages of trucks, truck drivers, warehouse workers and others constrict the shipping pipeline...

Purchasing Power of $100

The value of a dollar has plummeted lately with the recent ravages of inflation, but the loss of value is just a more severe and considerably steeper continuation of the long-term decline in the value of a dollar.  As measured by...

Blackberry

On January 4th, classic mobile phone manufacturer BlackBerry announced it will no longer support any of its phones, the last of which were manufactured in 2016.  At one time, a BlackBerry was the very peak of mobile phone...

Click & Collect

Ever heard of “Click & Collect”? Visit your local Walmart on any given day and you’ll likely see a row of minivans and sedans with trunks open lining the side of the store and workers loading bins into them.

Shein

Margin Debt Balloon

Starbucks Unionization

Twitter is still growing

Amazon Workforce

At the end of September, Amazon employed almost 1.5 million people around the world, with nearly a million in the U.S. alone. That translates to roughly 1 in every 150 American workers getting a paycheck from Jeff Bezos and company....

Rivian does not make a profit

To paraphrase the famous line from the Humphrey Bogart movie “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, recent IPOs seem to be saying “Profits? We don’t need no stinkin’ profits!” Rivian Automotive, a maker...

Apple is a Money Machine

Apple is a money-making machine of astounding proportions. In the time it took you to read that sentence, Apple brought in $20k. And by the end of the day, Apple will have made a billion dollars in revenue – just today! Thehustle...

Tesla

Shares of Tesla surged over 22% this week, pushing the company’s market capitalization to over $1.01 trillion. Tesla now has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of over 330 in an industry where P/E ratios of 10 to 30 are typical....

Swedens Inflation

With inflation in the United States now more than double the Federal Reserve’s stated target of 2% inflation, economists have been at odds on whether this is ‘transitory’ or just the beginning of a new monetary trend....

Pfizer's Annual Revenue

Pfizer, the world’s third largest pharmaceutical company based on prescription drug sales, is receiving a massive injection of revenue from its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer projects that revenue will almost double in 2021 compared to...

Tik Tok

Initially released just five years ago, video-sharing app TikTok announced this week that the company has hit one billion active users. The billion-user club is very small, with the likes of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. However, no...

Inventory-to-Sales Ratio

Most people haven’t even begun to think about doing their Christmas shopping; after all it isn’t even Halloween. But maybe you should. Retailers attempting to stock up for the holiday selling season are facing all kinds of...

Learn to Code

In December of 2019 then-candidate Joe Biden famously told a crowd in a hard-hit coal mining town to “learn to code” in order to transition to “the jobs of the future”. While there has probably never been a...

Leverage

Your retirement will cost you on average 6 times more than your house. Most people use financing to live in a better house, so why aren't you using financing to help you fund a better retirement? See How KAI-ZEN uses leverage in a unique

Unicorns

A “unicorn” in business is a startup with a valuation of a billion dollars or more – so-called because they used to be “as rare as a unicorn”. Not any longer! Floods of startups and even bigger floods of...

Unemployment

With this month’s big miss in the jobs number, the debate continues on whether the scarcity of American workers is due to fears of the coronavirus keeping people at home or perhaps due to the effect of generous government...

Bad is Good

The University of Michigan reported a recent plunge in its Consumer Sentiment Index. Contrary to what you might logically expect, this is actually a positive for the stock market. Analyst Mark Hulbert notes that the American consumer...

OnlyFans

A popular “creator” internet platform called ‘OnlyFans’, which has rocketed in popularity worldwide among millions of fans of creator-produced porn, made a shocking announcement this week. Starting October 1,...

Emotional Investing

Jimmy Dugan, the manager of the Rockford Peaches (played by Tom Hanks), famously told his crew of women ballplayers in “A League of Their Own” that “There’s no crying in baseball!” It seems, however,...

Tesla

Most investors in Tesla are probably not expecting to see big profits anytime soon. Instead, they’re focused on the electric vehicle revolution and Tesla’s likely large share the industry profits that will go with its...

Stock Market Performance

If you went back in time to the start of 2020 and predicted the stock market would be up almost 35% over the year-and-a-half, most people would have probably believed you. After all, other than a few minor bumps the market had been on...

Remote Work

With the worst of the coronavirus epidemic in the rear view mirror, many employers have begun pushing employees to return to the office. Surprising to perhaps no one, it turns out many workers would rather continue working from home....

Amazon Web Services Revenue

After 27 years at the helm of Amazon, founder Jeff Bezos officially stepped down as CEO. Taking his place is Andy Jassy. The reaction of most Americans was “Who?” Jassy ran Amazon’s cloud computing division, Amazon...

Retired Population

What if a large factor in the current worker shortage is...unexpectedly high retirements? Oxford Economics and Capital Economics analysts have highlighted the huge jump in recent baby-boomer retirements, each one of which is another...

China

During the recent London G7 meetings, the United States’ top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, rejected questions claiming the U.S. is entering a “cold war” with China. The questions are not out of line...

Used Cars

Record prices for used cars and trucks were the biggest contributor to inflation last month, according to the government’s Consumer Price Index report. Prices for used vehicles surged 7.3% just last month, following an even...

Vaccinations

As COVID-19 vaccination efforts continue here in North America, how exactly are we doing relative to the rest of the world? It turns out, actually pretty well. North America has now reached approximately 60% of its population...

Inflation

Despite the Fed’s insistence that the present jump in inflation readings is “transient” and “temporary”, indications of widespread inflation are becoming so numerous as to be overwhelming. Deutsche Bank...

Total Return

Single-family homes had their biggest price increase on record in the first quarter of this year. With many analysts noting the real estate market is “white hot”, it might be helpful to look at a relative comparison of real...

Cryptocurrency vs U.S. Currency

An interesting event occurred this past week. The total market value of the 300 largest cryptocurrency assets surpassed the value of all physical U.S. dollars in circulation. Statistician Willy Woo analyzed recent trading data and...

Dogecoin

The cryptocurrency ‘Dogecoin’ (which started out as a joke by IBM software engineer Billy Markus and Adobe software engineer Jackson Palmer) has passed a market cap of over $75 billion—more valuable than the iconic...

Food Price Inflation

With upward price pressures already impacting the economy in areas like construction and building supplies, it was only a matter of time before food price inflation arrived at a supermarket near you. The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot...

Institute for Supply Management Index

Strategists at investment bank behemoth Goldman Sachs recently noted that their economists expect U.S. GDP growth to remain above trend through the next few quarters; however, they caution that this will not necessarily translate to...

Achieving a Trillion Dollar Market Capitalization

What took Microsoft 44 years, Apple 42 years, Amazon 24 years and Google 21? The answer: achieving a trillion dollar market capitalization. However, it took the Bitcoin cryptocurrency just 12 – the fastest ever. At the beginning...

Job Openings Hard to Fill

“Signs, signs, everywhere a sign” sang the 70’s Canadian rock group Five Man Electrical Band. The sign that is everywhere now is “Help Wanted”! The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows...

Baby Bust

With everyone locked up in their homes around this time last year, many scientists who study population demographics predicted a subsequent “baby boom”. This, however, does not seem to have been the case. The latest data...

Lumber Prices

If you are in the market for a new home, you may want to close the deal sooner rather than later. Construction costs are soaring and appear only to be going higher. Lumber prices hit $1000 per thousand board feet, an all-time high in...

Domestic US air travel

Air travel plummeted during the dark days of the Spring of 2020, dealing the air travel industry the worst blow since World War II. At the worst, domestic US air travel was down -86%, while international air travel was down -98%. Since...

The New Bull Market

It has been a little over a year since the coronavirus pandemic blindsided the U.S. economy and crashed the stock market into a short-lived bear market. The new bull market that began at the end of March / start of April is thus now...

The Average 401k by Age

For most young people, retirement is pretty much the last thing on their minds as they enter the workforce. Still, almost everyone knows that the sooner saving for retirement is begun, the better off they’ll eventually be. Last...

Small Caps

For the past several months, small-caps have greatly outperformed large-caps. Many observers have derided it as a “blow off” of excess that will soon reverse, but researchers at the Leuthold Group disagree. Instead, they...

Amazon Web Services

Jeff Bezos announced he is stepping down as CEO of Amazon, and that his replacement will be Andy Jassy, currently CEO of Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) division. Although all consumers know Amazon is THE behemoth in global...

Passion for Options

Individual investors are entering the market in droves and their newfound passion for options is making some market veterans nervous. Garrett DeSimone, head of quantitative research at OptionMetrics stated, “What we have seen is...

Apple Posts Biggest Quarter Ever and No One Noticed

Amidst all the drama and non-stop news coverage this week surrounding the war between the Reddit WallStreetBets crowd and several hedge funds over GameStop and a handful of other heavily-shorted stocks, Apple posted its biggest quarter...

Margin Debt Spiked

Video game retailer GameStop (a recent stock of interest for internet day traders) surged 51% on Friday and over 83% last week on no news that would remotely justify such a move. That kind of trading action is reminiscent of the height...

Union Membership

In America’s manufacturing heyday of the 1950’s, more than one-third of all American workers belonged to a union. It was down to 20% in the 1980’s, and last year that number had fallen to just 10% - with the...

Strong Year-End Rally

Is a strong year-end rally a portent for returns in the new year that follows? Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at LPL Financial, says the results of his study of the question could have “bulls smiling” in 2021....

Bitcoin power consumption

Have the lights in your neighborhood been dimming from time to time recently? Maybe you’ve got a bitcoin “miner” next door! A bitcoin miner is one who produces a new bitcoin by applying immense computing power –...

A potential rhyme with 1999

Mark Twain is reputed to have said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. A situation is now emerging in the market that is a potential rhyme with 1999: highly overvalued growth stocks vs shunned, overlooked and...

Debt

As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take his place in the White House, calls for cancelling all or at least a portion of U.S. student loans have risen to a fever pitch. With data from the U.S. Department of Education, analysts at...

Stock indexes have hit all-time highs

Almost all major U.S. stock indexes have hit all-time highs recently, prompting the question “how much longer can this go on?” Analysts at LPL Financial addressed this question in its latest 2021 market outlook and it is...

Numbers That Agree To Take Vaccine

If a vaccine for COVID-19 were available right now, would you get it? If you aren’t quite sure, you’re not alone—more than a third of Americans stated the same thing. Analytics firm Ipsos looked at survey data from...

ESG Investors

In the past, performance of their investments was generally all that mattered to most investors. However, a new breed of investors has now put consideration of ‘ESG’ (“Environmental, Social, and Governance’)...

Robinhooders

Do you know any Robinhooders? They are the (mostly) young stock investors who use the extremely popular Robinhood app to buy and sell stocks. Robinhood started the craze with a very easy to use app and commission-free trades. Soon,...

Covid-19 Season

We all know that the flu comes and goes with the seasons. We even call the flu “seasonal” and expect it to rear its ugly head about this time annually. What if the COVID-19 virus is similar? What if it, too, rises and falls...

The Gold-Oil Ratio

For most of the past 160 years, the ratio of price between two of the most widely followed commodities - Gold and Oil - has been fixed in a relatively tight range…until this year. Analysts at the site ‘Visual...

U.S. Crash Confidence Index

Given the market turmoil of this past week, investors might find solace in this item. Nobel prize-winning Yale University Finance Professor Dr. Robert Shiller reports that most investors now expect the U.S. stock market to crash like...

Total Coronavirus cases

An unfortunate new milestone occurred this week as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world topped 40 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The recent political rhetoric in the United States might...

The Biggest House You Can Possibly Afford

If your dream is to own the biggest house you can possibly afford, moving to West Virginia or Mississippi might make sense for you. Data analytics site HowMuch.net measured the average cost per square foot of homes in each state across...

Teen Spending

In perhaps one of the most unexpected consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, spending among America’s teens has plummeted to a record low, according to analysts at Piper Sandler. In its latest semi-annual survey of U.S. teens...

Tech Stocks Struggle

As September came to a close analysts described the NASDAQ’s performance as a “perfect storm” and “a ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ month”. The NASDAQ, which gets about 40% of its value from just a...

History often repeats

Mark Twain reportedly said “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”. If that holds true, the NASDAQ Composite index may be in for some pain. Michael Kramer at Mott Capital compared the recent performance...

The Super-Rich strategy

When thinking of the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, many would assume that most of the 400 are titans of Wall Street who make money hand over fist through astute investing. But research shows that’s not the case. Mark...

What Drives Markets

What would have been labeled as a “conspiracy theory” just a few short years ago is now a generally accepted fact, a recent study by UBS shows. A survey by the firm showed that when it comes to belief in what drives...

Tumblr

Onetime social media star Tumblr, which reached a peak valuation of over $1.1 billion, was sold to its long-time competitor WordPress for a paltry $3 million in 2019. The site was launched in 2007 by (then) 20-year old David Karp, with...

Global Gold Demand

With market volatility picking up and what’s sure to be an extremely divisive election season around the corner, “safe haven” investments such as precious metals are seeing more investor interest. Prior to this week,...

Disney Plus

When it comes to streaming television choices, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime probably quickly come to mind. However, Disney Plus, which had its debut less than a year ago, is quickly gaining ground on those leaders. This week, Disney...

Concentration Risk

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook have led the charge higher in the stock market since the late March lows. The average return for these five stocks so far this year has been a gain of more than 30%, while the broader S&P...

The Big Mac Index

When measuring the “value” of a currency, most think of a traditional yardstick such as gold. However, economists sometimes also look at more readily and widely available commodities for their studies. The Economist just...

Early Retirement Claims

Complications from COVID-19 are known to be more severe in older populations and observers have speculated whether COVID-19 will force or at least encourage older workers to retire as early as they can. Analysts believe the answer is...

Americans are dependent on Amazon

As America celebrates its Independence Day, more and more Americans are dependent on Amazon. The e‑commerce behemoth’s stock sits at all-time highs, and its president Jeff Bezos is (by far) the richest man in the world. Everyone...

Can this be true?

Can this be true? If so, the US economy may be in deeper trouble than most think. Review website ‘Yelp’ reported that of all business closures since March 1, 41% are permanent closures. The Restaurants category is the...

Fear carried over to stock market

As the coronavirus spread across the nation, fear of its deadly effects hit unprecedented levels. That fear naturally carried over to the stock market where nearly a third of all investors 65 years old and older sold their entire...

Fuel Deliveries

If it seems like there are a lot more cars on the road now than there were just a few weeks ago, you’re not mistaken. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported weekly fuel deliveries to retail gas stations have...

May Jobs Report

Among market-moving economic reports the monthly payrolls report is among the most influential—and this week’s report was no disappointment. Almost all analysts were caught flatfooted at its release, with the consensus...

Sweden's path on pandemic

Sweden pursued its own distinct path in confronting the coronavirus pandemic. By choosing to keep its economy open, rather than instituting a policy of lockdown, it is the only major nation expected to report a positive gross domestic...

Consumer Spending

As the economy begins to reopen from the coronavirus lockdown economists have predicted just about every scenario possible, from a 1930’s-style long-running economic depression to an immediate recovery and a quick bounce back to...

Retail Sales and the 1st Trillionaire

April retail sales showed a decline in every category, topping out at a -78.8% decline in the “Clothing and Accessories” category. Every category but one, that is. The lone retail category to gain ground in April was...

S&P 500 Index

Even as the S&P surged back in April from its March lows, market technician Tom McClellan noted that investors have been fleeing one of the most popular ETFs on Wall Street. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, symbol ‘SPY’, gives...

Market Stress subsiding

Analysts at Deutsche Bank have ingeniously charted a relationship between the global spread of covid-19 and the stock market’s major fear gauge, called the VIX index. They found a very close relationship between the number of...

Cost of a gallon

With the price of oil in the spotlight once again, it may surprise you that overall the price of gas, even when it was much higher than the current relatively low value, is still relatively cheap per gallon compared to several other...

Sell in May and Go Away

The stock market's most favorable six-month period is coming to an end, and unfortunately, there's not much to show for it. The six-month pattern, known by both the "Halloween Indicator" and the market mantra to "Sell in May and Go...

Lower Low Later

With stocks surging this week and now more than 20% higher from their mid-March lows, many wonder whether the great coronavirus bear market of 2020 is now history or whether the stock market will hit a new low later this year. Mark...

Social Distancing during 1918 Spanish Flu

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, officials are studying the quickest and most effective way to contain its spread. With experts saying a vaccine is least 18 months away and no definitive cures or preventatives,...

Shell shocked

The speed of the stock market plunge over the last six weeks has left both the general public and even market experts in a state of shellshock. February and March 2020 will go down in history as containing the fastest descent into bear...

Countries best prepared to deal with a pandemic

Critics of the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic have described the preparedness of the U.S. as “pathetic” and “completely inadequate”. But one might ask, “Compared to...

Classification of Bear Markets

Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Oppenheimer analyzed bear markets going all the way back to 1835 and classified them as either “structural”, “cyclical” or “event-driven”. Through his research,...

"Buffet Yardstick"

The benchmark S&P 500 index recently plunged from record highs into correction territory (down more than 10%) faster than at any other time in history—just six days. So, are there now bargains to be found? Not yet, according to...

What a difference a week makes!

If you blinked twice, you likely missed this week’s market plunge. In fact, as researchers at Deutsche Bank illustrate in the chart below, it’s been the fastest correction for the benchmark S&P 500 index on record. The time...

A new black swan has landed

Nassim Taleb, in his 2001 book ‘Fooled by Randomness’, described ‘Black Swan Events’ as high-profile, hard-to-predict and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance...

Coronavirus infections

By now almost everyone is aware of the coronavirus outbreak first detected in China and now known as “COVID-19”. The latest data (2/23/20) from Johns Hopkins University, which has been monitoring the situation closely,...

2020 Democrat Fundraising and Spending

When billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer threw their names in the hat for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, most probably expected they would spend some of their own money in the pursuit of the...

9 out of 10 Americans are satisfied with life

Although you wouldn’t know it from the unhappy picture of life in the United States painted in recent debates by Democratic presidential hopefuls, a recent Gallup poll found that nine out of ten Americans are satisfied with the...

Millennials are investing in the future

Millennials are now becoming investors in greater and greater numbers. The trade-clearing firm Apex recently released a study identifying the stocks most favored by millennials. The top 10 most-widely-held stocks are perhaps not a big...

Union Membership of Working U.S. Americans

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual Union Membership report this week. It showed a continuation of the steep decline in union membership since 1983, the first year of the report. In 1983, there were 17.7...

Eyebrow Raising Stat ...

As multiple major market indexes have now recorded solid weekly gains for almost two months, more and more analysts are beginning to sound the alarm bells of bubble warnings. Brad Lamensdorf, of lmtr.com, pointed to a chart originally...

Iran's Economy

Following America’s killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike, Iran responded with a missile barrage on U.S. interests in Iraq. Some feared war was inevitable, and Google searches for “World War...

Hedge Funds

While most investors are likely celebrating gains in the stock market last year, those generally considered to be the top market professionals had less than lackluster returns. According to data from research firm Eurekahedge, hedge...

Chinese Clothing Export

Did you get any articles of clothing for Christmas? It’s likely you did, along with many millions of other gift recipients. Unless it was very high-end (think Italian or French), it was almost certainly made in Asia…and...

S&P 500 Bull Market

The stock market is in one of its longest bull market periods in history. Most investors have experienced good returns, but which stocks have actually performed the absolute best over the past decade? Analytical website Visual...

Green Rush

In 1978 comedians Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong starred in a so-called “stoner” comedy film titled “Up in Smoke”. The 2019 version of the movie could very well refer to money lost in the parabolic rise and...

The great wealth transfer

It seems that the “baby boomer” generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) has fared far better financially than the subsequent generations throughout every stage of life. When baby boomers hit a median age of 35 in 1990...

Hedge Funds an entirely different class

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren want to take wealth away from rich corporate tycoons. But wait! Top entertainers and other celebrities make even more than corporate tycoons. Taylor Swift makes much more than even the most...

Bogleheads

Once a lowly underdog in the mutual fund space, investment company Vanguard has become a behemoth with over 30 million investors led by an army of “bogleheads” (investing enthusiasts and disciples of Vanguard founder and...

Total consumption of coal in the U.S.

Despite President Donald Trump’s campaign assurances that he would put West Virginia coal miners “back to work”, the president of the United Mine Workers of America recently rather bluntly that “Coal’s not...

Chinese Equity Market

Since its initial Open Door Policy in 1978, China’ economy has experienced rapid growth to become the world’s second largest economy in GDP terms. In the coming year, China is expected to move into the next phase of opening...

Nothing is guaranteed, but the odds are attractive!

If a 70-year tendency holds true this year, the balances of Americans’ 401k’s and other investment accounts should be fatter around the New Year. The Dow Jones Data Group analyzed market returns going back to 1950 and found...

I'll just Venmo you the money

When in the company of millennials, a phrase such as “I’ll just Venmo you the money” is frequently heard. For the unfamiliar (i.e., most of the rest of us), Venmo is the social payments app run by PayPal—and its...

A little-known recession indicator is now flashing a warning sign

A little-known recession indicator is now flashing a warning sign, and its record over the last 40 years suggests we should pay attention to it. The indicator focuses on divergences between the University of Michigan’s Consumer...

Tariffs will drive up the prices if everything!

“The tariffs are a tax on American consumers!” “The tariffs will drive up the prices of everything!” Those were the cries of the critics of President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods. But it seems, as...

Worst Market Crashes in History

The month of October has experienced some of the worst market crashes in history. The Bank Panic of 1907, Black Tuesday, Black Thursday, Black Monday that occurred in 1929, and Black Monday in 1987 - the great crash of 1987 that saw...

Boeing versus Airbus

Gazing at the tarmac of any U.S. airport, a casual observer can be forgiven if he or she concludes that Boeing is hugely dominant in the commercial airliner business. But that would be wrong. Airbus has achieved parity with Boeing in...

"No guts, No sense, No vision!"

Following this week’s interest rate cut, U.S. President Donald Trump blasted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his fellow Federal Reserve officials as having “No guts, no sense, no vision!” and further that...

Bond bubble ready to burst

The 1927 Yankees batting order was famously dubbed “murderers row” due to their lineup stacked with Hall of Famers like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Earl Combs. According to Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett,...

Home Price Index

Nobel laureate economist Robert Shiller stated in an interview on Bloomberg this week that he “wouldn’t be at all surprised” if U.S. home prices started to fall. Shiller warned that fears of a recession driven by...

BAML- Bull and Bear indicator

Investment “contrarians” are those who look for extremes in sentiment as signals that it is time to “go the other way”. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) said in a research note that a contrarian...

China's tariff targets

Financial markets were hit with heavy selling Friday as China announced new tariffs on U.S. goods. China said it would impose new tariffs of $75 billion on U.S. imports, including a 25% levy on U.S. autos. CNBC created an infographic...

"The Rich Boy"

“The Great Gatsby” author F. Scott Fitzgerald opened his story “The Rich Boy” with “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” One way they are “different from...

How big is the Chinese market for US Ag exports?

Market turmoil this week was caused in large part by President Trump’s additional tariff announcement, followed quickly by China’s announcement that it was officially terminating all purchases of US agricultural products....

CCI highest level in almost two decades

One non-obvious but historically accurate predictor of the stock market just hit its most bearish level since the internet bubble, says Marketwatch analyst Mark Hulbert. It turns out July’s big increase in consumer confidence was...

Out of this World return

With the 50th anniversary of the US landing on the moon, all kinds of remembrances of that momentous day in 1969 have flooded the media. Here’s one of the more unique lookbacks: Craig Johnson, Chief Market Technician at Piper...

The Cloud- Where is it? Who owns it?

To all except the most hard-core techies, “the cloud” is some mysterious place that stores all of your data, photos, music, and applications - all online and often for free. For businesses, “the cloud” has...

IPO's

The dream of instant riches has enticed millions of investors to take a flyer on Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Everyone knows that early investors in Apple, Google, Microsoft and others have been richly rewarded. But, unfortunately,...

Can you say "bubble"?

Remember Bitcoin? It was in the headlines frequently as it ripped from $200 to nearly $20,000, peaking in December of 2017. It then collapsed back to the $3,000 range over the next year. Bitcoin is making headlines again as the...

U.S. Trade Deficit with China

Since 2010 the United States and China have had the world’s largest economies by GDP. The U.S. is the world’s largest importer, while China is the world’s biggest exporter. Although most Americans know that the U.S....

Inversion- What's the big deal

So what’s the big deal about “inverted interest rates”? Much has been made recently about the “inversion” – when a shorter-term interest rate (typically the 3-month T-Bill yield) exceeds a...

Dangerous Dependence

Pick up just about any consumer electronics product at one of the big box retailers and you’ll quickly realize why the growing trade tensions between the U.S. and China are so significant—it seems just about every product...

Saving Enough for Retirement?

If you’re not sure if you are saving enough for retirement – well, you’re not alone. One might think this is a fairly simple question, but it quickly becomes quite complex - and difficult to get a concrete answer....

Stock Ownership by Wealth Bracket

If the percentage of your wealth tied up in individual stocks isn’t particularly significant, you’re not alone. In fact, researchers at the Visual Capitalist noted that there is a wide disparity between where those in the...

What is at stake-U.S.A. and China Trade Standoff

With the trade conflict between the U.S. and China dominating recent financial news headlines, many are wondering what exactly it is that the U.S. imports from – and exports to - its biggest trading partner. The U.S. imports many...

Bull Market Major Top?

Is the bull market in stocks, now in its tenth year, reaching the frothy, speculative stage that is typical of a major top? Not according to an indicator created by top minds at the Harvard School of Business and NYU. Harvard professor...

Private-sector Slowdown

After the release of last week’s impressive GDP headline of 3.2%, some analysts noted that a deeper look beyond the headline number revealed that not all the innards were was as rosy as the headline. Harvard Professor Jason...

Voting with their feet

Florida is generally considered the nation’s top destination for retirees. But in a survey by United Van Lines late last year it was revealed that, according to its data, New Mexico was actually the nation’s top retirement...

How is this possible?

Filed under “How is this possible?” analysts are at a loss to explain how the stock market continues to rally amid an exodus of investors in U.S. equity funds. U.S. stocks posted their best quarter in nearly a decade at the...

Anti-Vaxxers- vaccination refusal rates

A common mainstream-media portrayal of “anti-vaxxers”, or parents who opt out of getting their children vaccinated, is that they are backward anti-government conspiracy theorists who reside predominantly in rural enclaves...

Super Savers vs the Rest of Us

It seems that almost all financial planning websites have essentially the same advice for saving money—cut out the $5 lattes, eating out, spending on entertainment, and a myriad of other non-essential activities that almost...

Shifting Yield Curve

While the U.S. stock market, valued at roughly $30 trillion, may get more press, analysts know the biggest and most well-informed investors are found in the U.S. bond market where the total amount of debt owed through bonds is more...

What Happens in an Internet Minute

Everyone has heard of a “New York Minute.” Johnny Carson said it was that brief instant of time between a Manhattan stoplight turning green and the taxi behind you honking! How about an “Internet Minute”? An...

Bear Markets since 2009

Is the current bull market one of the longest on record or a brand-new newborn? Well, as Mark Hulbert noted in a column on MarketWatch.com, that depends on what benchmark index(es) you look at. If you believe the widely-accepted...

Stock Market Rebound

According to some on Wall Street, the stock market’s monster rally from its Christmas Eve low is hard to explain – or justify – from a fundamental standpoint. The market’s more than 18% comeback coincided with a...

Investment Grade Debt Maturing

One area of the fixed income space that hasn’t received much press is investment grade corporate debt. With historically low interest rates, a strong economy, and relaxed lending standards, the prevailing thought was that...

Funding the Wall

U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border during remarks about border security and announced that he will indeed build his border wall by Executive Order. Senior administration officials...

State of the Union address

According to a CBS Evening News instant poll, President Donald Trump’s recent State of the Union address was viewed favorably by almost three quarters of viewers. President Trump touted many of his accomplishments in his first 2...

January jobs

We’ve all heard and seen the advice given to young (and not so young) job-seekers: “Learn to code – that’s where the jobs are!” Coding (or, to use the more traditional term, “programming”) jobs...

Walmart Nation

Anyone who has driven on a cross-country road trip through Middle America has seen at one of these in each of the towns you pass. What are we talking about? Why Walmart Supercenters, of course! That means that Walmart employs a whole...

The Build-up of US SmallCap Debt is Significant

Companies with small market capitalization’s, so-called “small caps”, have traditionally acted as a “canary in the coal mine” for the larger market since they tend to be more domestically focused and more...

Middle Class- Definition

There’s no shortage of recent news stories covering the shrinking of the “middle class”. But what exactly is the “middle class”, and who is in it? According to a study by the Pew Research Center, it turns...

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide!

Back in 1965, Martha and the Vandellas sang “Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide”. That was true as well in 2018, at least in the world of investing. The graphic below, from visualcapitalist.com, shows just how tough the...

Worlds Largest Economy

It is generally known that the United States economy is the world’s largest, with China a distant (but growing) second. But other than that, most people are unaware of how just how big the U.S. economy is relative to the rest of...

Biggest Bears

Especially after suffering their worst week since 2008, pretty much everyone knows that stocks are struggling of late. But with each of the major indexes falling into bear market territory, many are probably unaware of just how swiftly...

Satisfied Workers by Country

The French “gilets jaunes” (yellow vest) protestors who burned Paris last week evidently are unhappy about more than just gas prices. Office furniture maker Steelcase published a survey noting that France has the lowest...

The Kiss of Death

As the major market indexes have fallen of late, one after another has experienced what’s known as a “Death Cross”, a technical market pattern that occurs when an index’s 50-day moving average crosses below its...

Under Pressure

As November came to a close, many investors who were diversified across numerous asset classes have seen a rather noticeable decline in the value of their investment accounts. While the first inclination may be to blame themselves or...

Hero to Zero

As an example of how quickly assets in the financial markets can go from “hero to zero”, the website visualcapitalist.com created a graphic to show the true carnage that has occurred among recent tech market leaders. The...

Would-be Homebuyers

As essentially all things related to home buying seem to be increasing in cost, it’s no surprise that the number of potential home buyers is falling. What is a surprise, however, is the rate of the plunge. The National...

Infographic- US States renamed for Countries with Similar GDP

It is well-known that the United States economy is the largest in the world, but by how much? Mark Perry at the American Enterprise Institute created a very interesting infographic that shows each of the individual states in the U.S.,...

Markets Still Tend to Perform Well, Regardless of Outcome

As Americans prepare to go to the polls in what is likely to be one of the heaviest turnouts ever for a midterm election, mutual fund company Oppenheimer released a research note regarding midterm elections and their effects on the...

Fear and Greed Index

Needless to say, investor anxiety is running high. CNN’s Fear & Greed Index has swung from a reading of 70 indicating “Greed” down to just 7 indicating “Extreme Fear” in the span of just one month. Market...

The Everything Bubble

As the stock market appears to be taking a break from setting new highs, an analyst who correctly predicted the 2008 financial crash warned of a bubble brewing in overall household wealth. Jesse Colombo, an analyst at Clarity Financial...

Is the Bull Market Over?

After the market volatility last week many are beginning to wonder if the bull market is over, or just taking a break. Nick Maggiulli, analytics manager at Ritzholtz Wealth Management, offered his prediction for the market based on the...

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its 15th record close of the year this week, but not all analysts were enthused. Jason Goepfert, president of Sundial Capital Research, noted that the overall market isn’t nearly as...

Emerging Markets YTD

Remember all those predictions that Emerging Markets (both stocks and bonds) would be the breakout winners of 2018? Ooops. U.S. investors are to be forgiven for thinking that 2018 so far is yet another good year in the current...

Jobless Claims Lowest Level Since 1969

The number of new jobless claims just reached its lowest level since November of 1969. That alone is impressive, but to truly get an understanding of the tightness of today’s labor market it has to be compared to the size of the...

Mid-term Elections Correction

With midterm elections less than two months away, a divisive political atmosphere and the aging bull market have investors particularly on edge. The vote to be held on November 6th comes at a time of unusually high political...

How Much Longer Can It Go On?

Nine years into the current bull market more and more are beginning to wonder “how much longer can it go on?” Tony Dwyer, equity strategist at Canaccord Genuity, reiterated his S&P 500 target of 3,200 for the end of this...

"Very Important" Beach Characteristics

As summer unofficially comes to an end this Labor Day weekend (summer doesn’t officially come to an end until September 22), most families have already wrapped up their summer beach vacations. But what exactly defines a good...

Sell Signal That's Happened Only Five Times Before!

As the bull market continues through its ninth year, a little-known stock market indicator with a “5 for 5” record since 1895 has just generated a sell signal. The indicator is the creation of Gray Cardiff, editor of the...

China is the Leading Source of Travel Spending in the U.S.

As everyone knows, we are in a trade war of sorts with China over imports, exports and tariffs. Simply put, we want to sell more stuff to China with fewer restrictions and tariffs. There is one area, usually overlooked in these...

Unemployment and Open Jobs

Touting the success of the Trump administration and Republican leadership, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa) said in a recent campaign stop that “there are now more job openings than there are unemployed people in the United States...

US Total Market Capitalization as % of GDP

Legendary investor Warren Buffett’s favorite metric of stock valuations is currently suggesting that a stock market setback could be coming. While anything from Buffett brings up memories of the television commercials from the...

Dot Com

Investors often hear talk of the dominance of large cap technology stocks in the market—Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google, but even the biggest tech fans would admit to being surprised by the following chart. Michael...

Barriers to home ownership

The home ownership rate among millennial's ages 25-34 is around 8% lower than when both Generation X and the baby boomers were when in the same age range. A new report by the policy research group Urban Institute, looked to explain why...

Three- Month Churn

Analysts are beginning to take note of a concerning development in the market— extremes in market turnover. Trading is through the roof in many major market indexes and across asset classes. In the S&P 500 index alone, investors...

Flattening Yield Curve

One measure of the health of the U.S. economy just logged its worst losing streak ever. The most popular banking sector exchange-traded fund, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (symbol XLF) , marked its 13th consecutive...

No Defense

As the bull market in equities enters its ninth year, investment strategist Jim Paulsen at the Leuthold Group recently released a research note in which he pointed out that the % of market cap represented by the “defensive”...

U.S. Trade Balance with G7 Countries

In a rather interesting exchange of tweets before the G7 summit in Canada, U.S. President Donald Trump clashed with both French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over trade policies. President Trump...

"Buy Gold" Google search statistics

Interest in buying gold is often viewed as a barometer of fear and financial stress in the markets and world economies. Historically, analysts have used surveys, buying vs selling patterns, and interviews to gauge such interest. In...

African-American Unemployment at Record Low

The latest government Non-Farms Payroll jobs report showed that the unemployment rate among African-Americans has dropped to a record low of just 5.9% in May. As the following graphic shows, the jobless rate for African-Americans has...

How Little We Use Our Big Homes For Things Other Than Clutter

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that from 1978 through 2015 the median size of a single-family home in America increased every year until it peaked at 2,467 square feet in 2016. But does the average family really need such a big house?...

Borrow Short and Lend Long

Observant stock market investors are taking note of a development in the bond market, and its implications could be cause for concern. In a warning sign for the stock market, the spread between 2-year and 10-year bond yields is down to...

Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results

Stock market bulls got something to cheer about last week. Heritage Capital President Paul Schatz noted that New York Stock Exchange’s advance/decline line set a new all-time high this week. The indicator counts the number of...

Busted by California!

In the dustbowl days of the depression, signs taped to westbound Model T’s frequently said “California Or Bust”. But now, eastbound cars might as well have signs taped to them saying “Busted by...

Story of the Century for Investors

Following the financial crisis in 2008, central banks around the world responded by cutting interest rates to 0% or even lower. That resulted in the cry of “TINA, TINA, TINA!” by stock brokers everywhere –...

Current P/E ratio for the S&P 500 index

Is the U.S. stock market undervalued or overvalued based on its historical Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio? It turns out, the answer could be both! Market analyst Mark Hulbert wrote in a recent column for marketwatch.com that it all depends...

Dow Theory Sell Signal is Flashing

A “Dow Theory” sell signal has been triggered after the Dow Jones Transportation Average closed below its February lows, following the Dow Jones Industrial Average in doing so. In short, the theory states that poor...

Salary You Need to Afford the Average Home

How much income do you need to afford the average home in your state? The answer, which may surprise you, comes from finance website howmuch.net. Most of the nation’s housing markets have now almost completely recovered back to...

How much money leaves the U.S.A.

President Trump’s most oft-repeated pledge is his promise to “Build that wall!” He has also promised that Mexico would pay for it, despite Mexican government officials scoffing at the notion. Some observers have...

Dow Theory

Financial analyst and journalist Mark Hulbert at MarketWatch.com penned a column this week stating that “it would take only a small stock market drop next week to trigger something big”. The market, it seems, is just barely...

What's the main reason you don't save more money?

Do you have at least $10,000 saved for retirement? If so, congratulations, you’ve managed to put away more than 40% of all working-age Americans. A recent survey from Bankrate.com found that despite the brisk jobs market and...

Change in jobs by Industry in February

As the number of jobs created by the U.S. economy blew away Wall Street expectations, one of the most notable aspects of the report was the strong rebound in the construction industry. Last month over 60,000 jobs were created and the...

Americans view of Companies distancing from NRA

Following the tragic high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, some prominent companies have severed their relationships with the National Rifle Association (NRA). Many viewed these actions as attempts to curry favor with the press,...

Stocks and Bonds Rarely Move Down Together

Analyst and long-time market commentator Mark Hulbert noted this week that despite this past month’s price action, bonds are still a hedge against stock market losses. Hulbert pointed out that this month’s steep market...

Fully Invested Bear

As of late, analysts have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the extreme valuation in the U.S. equity markets by looking at just about every traditional market valuation metric. Interestingly enough, a recent survey of institutional...

World Map of Diamond Imports

With Valentine’s Day coming up this week, more than a few diamonds will be given to sweethearts, lovers and spouses. The diamond trade is global, but the major diamond importers may surprise those not “in the...

Bull & Bear Indicator

Last week Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) released a research note that its “Bull & Bear” indicator was sending a sell signal “which has been accurate 11 straight times” since the firm started tracking it...

World Map of Drugs and Medicine Exports 2016

It’s no secret that pharmaceuticals and healthcare are big business in the global economy. Last year alone, drugs and medicine made up over $318 billion of world exports—but where do all those pills, serums, and creams come...

Fear of Missing Out

As the market continues to hit new highs, investment giant Merrill Lynch (ML) released a note to clients that investors are piling into equities in a big way. Per ML’s chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett,...

Extremely Low Correlations Among Stocks

As has been noted by one and all, 2017 was a year of amazingly low volatility and completely absent of pullbacks of any significance. But why? Standard & Poors (S&P) has documented what could be the hidden answer: extremely low...

Just Plain Weird

Bloomberg columnist and market analyst Barry Ritholtz noted that last year’s technical state of the market was “just plain weird”. Although 2017 was very volatile news-wise, what with daily Trump tweets, North Korean...

Valuations of Major Markets

The year 2017 was a banner year in the financial markets. Major indexes in the U.S. hit a number of record highs, and there was not a single down month the entire year for the S&P 500 Total Return Index. The gains, however, have caused...

MSCI All-Country World Index

In a year of uncertainty that included a recalcitrant North Korea, Britain’s continued exit from the European Union, multiple terrorist attacks, and global populist uprisings, to say 2017 was a turbulent year is a bit of an...

Looking Pricey

In what may be a surprising twist at the end of a strong year in the market, Boston Consulting Group found that fully 46% of investors were pessimistic about equity markets for the next year. The reading is up from 32% a year ago, and...

November Jobs Report- Renaissance

The Lords of Silicon Valley are supposed to be the drivers of our economy, and they certainly are this era’s economic rock stars. But at least for now, according to this week’s Non-Farm Payrolls report, the lowly...

Look out below

As the cryptocurrency Bitcoin hit a high of over $11,000 at one point this past week, more and more market watchers are predicting a crash of some severity. Unlike most of those “gut calls”, one study in particular was...

Educated Workers Have Declining Wages

Shortly after the stock market rebounded from the depths of the financial crisis, Time magazine named Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as its 2009 Person of the Year for the aggressive interventions he took to presumably prevent a...

Buying/Selling of US Equities, % Market Cap

One of the criticisms of proposed tax breaks for businesses is that businesses probably won’t use the windfall for wage increases or hiring, but rather for continued stock buybacks – which only benefit shareholders...

Number of countries in the world in a recession

The last of the world’s major regional indices has finally gotten back to its 2007 highs. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index includes stock markets in 15 Pacific region countries, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia,...

Stock Ownership by Household Wealth

As the stock market continues to hit new highs it might be a shock to hear how few Americans actually own stock. According to a detailed study of stock ownership by New York University economist Edward Wolff, 84% of stocks available in...

Which of the following do you regret?

What is the number one financial regret of Americans? According to personal finance website Nerd Wallet, it turns out that roughly 71% of Americans express regret about their ability to manage their money. First on the list was not...

US Global Real Estate Bubble Index

According to Swiss global financial services company UBS, their proprietary UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index in select world cities has “increased significantly over the last five years”. Their research found that real...

Velocity of Money is Not Rising

An obscure but important record has been set in October: the velocity of money has set an all-time low. The velocity of money is defined as the number of times each dollar is spent to buy goods and services per unit of time. This is,...

Fear and Greed index

Warren Buffett famously said “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” Given that, the latest reading from CNN’s Fear & Greed Index may be cause for concern. The latest reading of the...

"Super Dow Theory" signal

An unusual event occurred in the market during September. For the first time in more than three years, each of the three major Dow stock market averages all hit all-time highs during the month. The central tenet of the venerable...

U.S Investor Optimism 1996-2017

As the stock market continues its seemingly relentless march higher, it’s reasonable to expect that the mood of investors would be positive. However, analysts are getting concerned that optimism is reaching levels seen before at...

Two Weeks in Bitcoin Hell

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin generated considerable interest in mainstream financial media as it neared $5000 per “coin” at the end of August. With a 500% increase over the past year, many naïve buyers have rushed in...

Gold/Dollar Ratio Weekly

After consolidating for much of the year, Gold has recently broken out of a trading range to the upside, back to levels not seen since the summer of 2016. Analyst Chris Kimble at Kimble Charting took it a step further and looked at the...

Jobs most likely to be taken over by robots

Using data from a comprehensive employment report from the University of Oxford, Henrik Lindberg, chief technology officer at Swedish financial technology company Zimpler developed a chart depicting which jobs were most likely to be...

Companies with "Infinite" P/E ratios

The price-to-earnings (“P/E”) ratio remains one of the most widely-accepted valuation metrics in the financial markets today. However, it is not without its flaws. For a price-to-earnings ratio to exist, a company must have...

General Electric Stock Price

Legendary stock market technician Tom McClellan released a note this week on the subject of the historical relationship between the stock price of General Electric and the U.S. equity markets as a whole, and the news wasn’t good....

Taxpayers once again get the bill...

Researchers at Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research analyzed the current status of State and Local government defined-benefit (i.e., “traditional”) pension plans across the nation. What they found was a bit...

When the soldiers leave the field of battle, the generals are soon to follow

An old Wall Street saying goes something like “When the soldiers leave the field of battle, the generals are soon to follow.” The meaning is that when the few stock market leaders are all alone, and most other stocks have...

Hooray for the 1%

“Hooray for the 1%” isn’t a cheer leaving most American’s lips, let alone anything they want to hear. But according to a recently released study by the Tax Foundation, most Americans would be surprised to learn...

Households with Amazon Prime 2017

July 11th, Tuesday of this past week, was the third annual “Amazon Prime Day”. This year’s Prime Day smashed last year’s Prime Day sales record by more than 60% and now stands as the biggest sales day in...

Fake News

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the cable news outfit CNN. Multiple accusations of airing “fake news” stories (with several editors, reporters and producers fired as a result), veiled threats to individual Reddit...

S&P 500 and Nasdaq Daily Trading Performance

While past week marked the end of the first half of the year, what can we expect as we enter the second half? Chris Verrone, technical analyst at Strategas Research Partners, released a note pointing out that stocks are "approaching...

Putting the World's Money into Perspective

As the price of Bitcoin soars higher and higher ($2,647.57 as of this writing), more and more people are beginning to take note. The surge in interest and demand for more information are driving the research departments at some of the...

Top 10 Money Wasters, by Generation

What do you waste your money on? It turns out your answer may depend in large part on your generation. Professional resources site Hloom surveyed 2000 Americans for its report The United States of Financial Waste. Across the board, all...

Dollar General

This week online retailer Amazon closed above $1000 a share for the first time in its history as Americans more and more become accustomed to the convenience of shopping at home and having a package show up at their door two days later...

TSX Venture Exchange

Have you ever heard of the “TSX Venture Exchange”? Most US investors have not, but it turns out to be the hottest investing venue in all of North America over the last 18 months. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta with...

Hagerty Market Index

In the midst of Wednesday’s market plunge numerous financial websites weighed in on whether it was time to “buy the dip” or “throw in the towel”. One writer, Wolf Richter (editor-in-chief of the Wolf...

Explosion of "Deep Subprime" auto loans

Late in the cycle of the housing boom in 2007, analysts and hedge fund managers at prescient firms such as Scion Capital and FrontPoint Partners became aware of a strange new phenomenon in home mortgages that were being...

Leading Economic Indicators index rising

RBC Global Asset Management released a research note with an interesting insight. They found that when the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) index was rising month-to-month and was already above zero...

GDPNow

Sunday marked President Trump’s 100th day in office. Markets are higher with many indexes hitting all-time highs, businesses seem happy to have a pro-business President, and everything is awesome--or is it? Real, so-called...

"Put your money where your mouth is"

Everyone has heard the term “Put your money where your mouth is”, often times in bar room banter when coaxing someone to back up their statements or opinions by putting some cash on the line. Schwab Chief Investment...

Airlines re-accommodation numbers

By now, anyone remotely connected to the news or social media has almost assuredly seen the forcible removal of a doctor from a United Airlines flight. Despite seeming cold-blooded and horribly tone-deaf (“we had to...

April is for Green

Although an old market adage advises investors to “Sell in May and Go Away”, it turns out that – in contrast – April (the month before we’re supposed to go away) is historically quite a good month. As...

A tale of two countries

While the U.S. Civil War officially ended in 1865, a trio of researchers from the Washington D.C.-based think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) released a paper asserting that the United States still remains a nation...

Large-cap relative strength is a good thing

As the market experienced its worst week of the year, participants have begun to wonder if the so-called “Trump Trade” could be over. A number of analysts are particularly concerned because they’ve noted that small...

"Take This Job and Shove It Indicator"

This week the Federal Reserve hiked its key short-term interest rate a quarter of a percent – a move that was widely expected. In her statement, Chairwoman Janet Yellen referred directly to one of the lesser-known labor market...

AAII Bears

As the market takes a pause from its recent string of new highs, the question investors are pondering is whether it will it resume its march higher, or perhaps turn negative. According to the American Association of Individual...

Blackberry sales

Here’s a cautionary tale that should remind us that “nothing is forever”. Everyone knows that one of the original smartphone pioneers was Blackberry. In fact, for some time, it was the dominant smartphone. Back in...

Bull signal that bats a thousand

Market bulls will be emboldened by a bullish signal that’s about to flash—and has never been wrong. Sam Stovall, Chief Investment Strategist at CFRA, notes that one indicator he follows is about to get triggered. He notes...

U.S. innovation

We often hear talk about the U.S. falling behind in this or that area. But one measure of forward progress is innovation, which can be concretely measured by the number of patents filed per country. On that score, the U.S. is the...

Individual Stock Performance Less Correlated

A subtle change in the internals of the stock market bodes well for active portfolio strategies such as momentum, relative strength, trend-following and even individual stock picking. The change is a significant drop in correlations...

Mind Blowing Fact of the year!

Multi-billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently wrote on his GatesBlog, “This might be the most mind-blowing fact I learned this year”, followed by a graphic of Chinese cement usage over the last 3 years. In short,...

What the U.S. and Mexico trade

As disputes over the proposed border wall and lopsided trade between the U.S. and Mexico continued this week, an examination of the actual facts of the US-Mexico trade situation is timely. In President Trump’s apparently...

How Stocks perform in a new President's first 100 days

As this week marked the inauguration of Donald Trump to President of the United States, researchers at MarketWatch.com thought it useful to take a look at the stock market’s performance during the first 100 days of a new...

Wise Observations

Since now is the time the media scours the planet looking for pundits to give forecasts for this new year, it might be useful to inoculate ourselves against then by keeping in mind these wise observations: “We've long felt that...

Different Strokes

Every month on “Jobs Friday”, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a slew of data on the labor market. While the so-called “U-3” rate is the headline unemployment rate everyone talks about, other important...

More 30-year-olds haven't hit major adult milestones

A major part of American belief is that each generation should do a bit better than the preceding one. The Census Bureau released data this past week showing that on several measures, millennials are well behind the preceding...

Online Holiday Market Share

For more and more of us, online shopping has become the new normal. The primary beneficiary of this trend has been Amazon. Market research firm Slice Intelligence looked at 1.7 million online shopping receipts from early November to...

Dow closes in on the 20,000 milestone

As the Dow closes in on the 20,000 milestone, Mark DeCambre at MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com) penned an article that asks the question, is reaching 20,000 really that significant? After all, the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

In the Markets December 19, 2016

The major U.S. indexes ended mixed for the week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched closer to the 20,000 level. Large caps were roughly flat while smaller-cap indexes, which have outperformed large caps this year, fell back. The...

In the Markets, December 12, 2016

The post-election rally continued for a fifth straight week, bringing all the major indexes to a series of record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied over +500 points to 19,756, up +3.06%. Similarly, the tech-heavy NASDAQ...

In the Markets December 5, 2016

U.S. stocks broke a string of three consecutive weeks of gains with most indexes turning lower for the week. As has been the case most of the year, the losses were unevenly distributed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed the...

In the Markets November 28, 2016

This week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and Russell 2000 all hit all-time highs together for the first time since 1999. Major indexes were strong both at home and around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained...

In the Markets November 21, 2016

Stocks added to the strong post-election rally, pushing many of the major benchmarks to new all-time highs. The smaller-cap indexes, typically more volatile, performed the best. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose +20 points to 18...

In the Markets November 7, 2016

Markets were down around the world as heightened uncertainty surrounding the upcoming Presidential election appeared to weigh on sentiment. The S&P 500 recorded its ninth consecutive daily decline, a streak not seen since 1980, and...

In the Markets October 31, 2016

Most of the U.S. major indexes were down for the week as third quarter earnings reports continued to stream in. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had a second week of little movement, rising only +0.09% or +15 points to close at 18,161....

In the Markets August 1, 2016

The U.S. major indexes finished the week mixed. The large cap indexes were flat to modestly lower, while the NASDAQ and smaller-cap indexes notched a fifth consecutive week of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined ‑138...

In the Markets July 25, 2016

Stocks managed a fourth straight week of gains, allowing the S&P 500 LargeCap and the S&P 400 MidCap indexes to claim new record highs. The technology-heavy NASDAQ rallied over 70 points on strong earnings reports from Microsoft and...

In the Markets July 18, 2016

LargeCap stock benchmarks reached new highs this week, and got all the headlines, but it was the SmallCap Russell 2000 that saw the biggest gain among major U.S. indices. For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose +2.04%, or...

In the Markets July 11, 2016

U.S. stocks ended the holiday-shortened week on an up note, thanks to a very strong rally on Friday. Indices were negative for the week going into Friday, but ripped higher on the stronger-than-expected jobs report (more on that below)...

In the Markets July 5, 2016

U.S. stocks traded higher for a fourth consecutive day Friday, with the S&P 500 regaining almost all of the Brexit-related declines. All major U.S. indexes were up, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rallying +548 points to 17,949,...

In the Markets June 27, 2016

The event that was never supposed to happen, happened. In a surprise upset, the people of the United Kingdom voted in favor of leaving the European Union. This triggered an avalanche of selling across global markets, all of which had...

In the Markets June 20, 2016

The major U.S. benchmarks all recorded losses for the week, with the smaller cap indexes bearing the brunt of the selling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 190 points to close at 17,675, down -1.06%. The tech heavy NASDAQ...

In the Markets June 6, 2016

The major U.S. benchmarks were mixed for the holiday-shortened week. Repeating the pattern that dominated the entire month of May, the SmallCap and MidCap indexes and technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite outperformed the LargeCap S&P 500...

In the Markets May 30, 2016

U.S. stocks rose for a second consecutive week and had their best week since March on the heels of better economic data and higher oil prices. All major U.S. indexes were up, but SmallCaps and MidCaps outpaced their LargeCap...

In the Markets May 23, 2016

U.S. stocks were modestly higher for the week. The tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index outperformed its peers for the second week, and the SmallCap and MidCap indices outperformed LargeCaps. For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

In the Markets May 16, 2016

Major U.S. benchmarks fell a third consecutive week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -205 points to close at 17,535, down -1.2%. The NASDAQ declined -0.4% to 4,717, and the LargeCap S&P 500 fell -0.5%. Smaller indexes were also...