The Wall Street Journal – Dividends Aren’t the Answer. They’re the Problem The humble dividend is reclaiming its rightful place as the arbiter of stock-market value. In three of the four biggest developed markets, shares offer a higher yield than the longest-dated government bond, and in the fourth—the U.S.—the dividend yield beats even a 20-year… Continue reading Dividend-Paying Stocks
The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship to ever call at a North American port, docked at the Port of Los Angeles. The shipping line recently nixed plans to deploy giant ships along its trans-Pacific route. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images <Click on picture for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Record-Breaking Container… Continue reading A Shipping Slowdown?
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg.com – The World’s Most Extreme Speculative Mania Unravels in China Bloomberg News Turnover on Chinese commodity exchanges surged by $183 billion Traders start to withdraw as government deters speculation From the Dutch tulip craze of 1637 to America’s dot-com bubble at the turn of the century, history is… Continue reading Chinese Commodity Speculators
<Click on graphic for larger image> Bloomberg Business – Dollar Jump Catches Traders Short in One More Currency Calamity Parker index of currency-fund returns little changed in 2016 Just when investors thought they’d finally made a good call in the currency market, the dollar’s advance messed it up. The U.S. currency on Friday capped its… Continue reading The Dollar Trade
Bloomberg Business – Soros Chart Signals BOJ Bond Buying Already Enough to Weaken Yen Japan monetary base rises to 96% that of U.S. in dollar terms Japan’s money supply is close to overtaking that of the U.S. economy and some investors say that signals a weaker yen. The Bank of Japan’s bond buying has nearly… Continue reading More Struggles In Japan
The Onion (satire) – Teary-Eyed Student Loan Officers Proudly Watch As $200,000 Asset Graduates From College Unable to contain their emotion when they heard the account name called aloud by the college provost, a group of teary-eyed Sallie Mae student loan officers proudly looked on Monday as their $200,000 balance sheet asset graduated from Emory… Continue reading All Good Comedy Has An Element Of Truth In It
Bloomberg Business – Alberta Fires Worse for Canada Economy Than Katrina for U.S. Insured losses could reach C$9 billion, analysts say Intact Financial Corp. may post insured losses of as much as C$1.1 billion ($850 million) from the wildfires in Alberta, which could dent the Canadian economy harder than Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Intact,… Continue reading Alberta’s Fires, Canada’s Katrina
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Factset – Earnings Insight for May 6, 2016 Earnings Scorecard: With 87% of companies in the S&P 500 reporting earnings to date for Q1 2016, 71% have reported earnings above the mean estimate and 53% h ave reported sales above the mean estimate. Earnings Growth: For Q1 2016, the blended earnings decline is -7.1% .… Continue reading Earnings
<Click on chart for larger image> Financial Sense – Bianco: Gold a ‘High Yield’ Asset in a Negative Rate World Jim Bianco, president and founder of Bianco Research, says the traditional argument against holding gold—it has no yield—doesn’t hold water when $8 trillion of government debt around the globe is yielding negative. He also explains… Continue reading Gold – Too Much Speculation?
<Click on chart for larger image> Bloomberg.com – Godot Arriving for Bulls Waiting to See Corporate Profits Upward guidance hits four-year high against lower forecasts Confidence in contrast to rampant skepticism among investors Companies from DuPont Co. to St. Jude Medical Inc. that say profits will exceed analysts’ estimates just outnumbered those warning earnings will… Continue reading Corporate Guidance
Reuters – China stocks plunge again as hopes for economic recovery fade China stocks fell sharply again on Monday, reaching eight-month lows, as investors saw hopes for a strong economic recovery fade and worried about fresh regulatory curbs on speculation. Following the market’s nearly 3 percent slump on Friday, China’s blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 fell… Continue reading China’s Problems