Archive for the ‘Stocks’ Category

John Hussman: The Market’s ‘Dancing on the Edge of a Cliff’

Posted 14 May 2012 — by Covestor
Category Investing, Market News, Stocks, Technical Analysis, Trading

By Mick Weinstein

John Hussman

John Hussman

In his recent weekly commentaries, mutual fund manager John Hussman has warned that current market internals – vis-a-vis its return/risk profile – are among the worst recorded on the historical record. In this week’s commentary, Hussman finds that over the past 7 days things have become even worse, and offers a chart to illustrate (emphasis added):

The green bands in the chart below depict all of the points since 1980 in the neighborhood of present conditions – having a nearly similar prospective return/risk profile, coupled with a particularly hostile “exhaustion syndrome” that has been a hallmark of the worst market outcomes in recent decades. The blue line shows the S&P 500 Index. As I noted in Goat Rodeo, “what this combination picks up is an already fragile set of market internals that has enjoyed an ‘exhaustion rally’ that both exceeds earnings growth and is met with overbullish sentiment.” Read More

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Doug Kass Buys JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) as an Investment

Posted 14 May 2012 — by Covestor
Category Financial, Investing, JPM, Market News, Money Center Banks, Stocks, Trading

By Michael Tarsala

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JBM)Doug Kass over at TheStreet.com says he’s buying a small amount of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JBM) here as an investment.

Among his arguments:

  • JPM and the big banks already trade at low PE multiples (JPM is at less than a 7x forward P/E, more than a 40% discount to the S&P 500).
  • The cost of the $2 billion trade is fairly low to JPM, in the grand scheme of things. Read More

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Why We Changed the Lineup on Our ETF Models

By Charles Sizemore

Charles Sizemore

Charles Sizemore

Sizemore Capital is making a strategic allocation shift for all ETF portfolios with U.S. large cap exposure. This affects the Tactical ETF Portfolio and the Strategic Growth Allocation. To be consistent with Sizemore Capital’s focus on dividend growth, we are eliminating our long-term positions in the iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV) and replacing them with the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEARCA:VIG).

The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) tracks the performance of the Dividend Achievers Select Index, which consists of U.S. stocks that have long history of raising their dividends. Every stock in the portfolio must have raised its dividend for a minimum of 10 consecutive years.

Much of our research and investment in recent years has focused on income and income growth, and for good reason. Capital gains can be ephemeral, and the only way that investors can realize their returns is by selling shares. Rather than enjoying the milk in the form of dividends, you end up slaughtering the cow. And continuing this analogy, once the cow is gone investors are left with nothing to eat. Read More

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TomTom (AMS:TOM2) Now Offering Free Roadside Assistance

By Lynn Shannon

TomTom NV (AMS:TOM2)TomTom NV (AMS:TOM2) announced it will offer free roadside assistance along with its “Start” portable navigation devices (PNDs), and it will extend the offer to its VIA and GO LIVE products in the coming months.

The service provides a basic level of roadside support, including the “quick and reliable dispatches of responsible and professional service providers with a simple phone call from anywhere in the U.S,” said the company. Read More

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Super Moon Brings Down The Financial Sector

Financial Sector - Super Moon - May 6th, 2012

Super Moon on May 6th, 2012

By Karen Starich

Full Moon May 6th, 2012

The distance of the full Moon on May 6th is 356,954 km from earth, which is the minimum range. If you have an opportunity to see the Moon at night you will notice the size is larger than normal. The Moon’s gravity on the earth becomes much more intense and these lunar events are called “Super Moons”, because of the increased tidal occurrences and severe weather they can produce. I should point out that the last “Super Moon” was March 19th, 2011 at a distance of 356,580 km. Read More

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How to Play the Indian Growth Story: INFY, HDB, RDY

By John Linnemeier

India - stocksAll three of my holdings in my model are Indian ADRs. I’m in for the long haul. One of the truest things I know about the stock market is the axiom, “In the short term the market is a voting machine, and in the long term it’s a weighing machine.” I can’t say for sure how these three stocks will do in the short term, but I strongly believe that India, and most of Asia, has a bright future in the long term.

Infosys Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:INFY) is the preeminent software exporting company in India. They are continually crawling up the value ladder with increasingly sophisticated software products. Wages for software engineers in India have increased substantially, but not enough to cut deeply into this marvelous company’s profits. Read More

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JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) Shows Why Volcker Rule Has No Teeth

By Michael Tarsala

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)A $2 billion loss at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is arguably small; the bank earned more than $18 billion last year.

What’s the big deal then?

It’s a question of whether banks are still making outsized speculative market bets and now calling them hedges to satisfy the Volcker Rule. And whether we can expect even bigger “hedging” losses at other banks — and even more market volatility — in the future. Read More

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Weekly Stock Watch: SIRI, FB, JPM, C, BAC, M, JWN, JCP, SKS, TGT, PBTH, KERX, HGSI, CELH, IMSC, TROV, ARNA, VVUC, NEPH, MNKD, ACTC, CVM, AGEN, DIS, SGYP, TTNP

By VFC’s Stock House

stock market - stocks - Wall StreetHuge trading losses at JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) that sent company shares spiraling by 10% on Friday accentuated an already lackluster trading week in the broad markets and left the door wide open for another volatile week ahead. Combine that sentiment with growing uncertainty in Europe, where recent Greek and French elections have the potential to reshape the look of austerity and other measures undertaken by European governments in an attempt to maintain control over the Euro Zone’s teetering economy, and investors may see even more of a reason to sell out and hold on the sidelines until some normalcy returns to the sinking global sentiment — a sentiment that has some predicting will bring parity between the euro and the dollar.

There could, however, be a savior in the works. Read More

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Market Watch: The Best Reason for Optimism is Pessimism

Posted 13 May 2012 — by Covestor
Category Economy, Investing, Market News, Stocks, Trading

By Michael Tarsala

market sentiment - stock marketThere’s a whole lot of pessimism about the stock market right now.

I hear it in hallway conversations and read about it in the media. There are people out there looking for the next big short strategy, trying to pretend they are the next John Paulson.

It goes beyond my anedcotes, though. Here are some data points:

Bullish sentiment is at an 8-month low, at about 25%, according to AAII. You would expect far more than 50% bullishness at an extreme. Read More

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In Search of the Pinnacle Cancer Therapy: Redefining the World of Oncology

Posted 10 May 2012 — by The Swiss Trader
Category AGEN, Biotechnology and Drugs, DNDN, Healthcare, IMUC, Investing, Market News, Sectors, Stocks, Trading

By The Swiss Trader

biotechnology - stocksIn the world of biotech, there is the quest for the cancer cure and companies will do whatever it takes to reach that goal. Just like the Fellowship had a long journey to Mordor, the journey to reaching a cancer cure is long and requires persistence and steadfast motivation. One major motivator, which exists with companies in the industry is not only developing their own products, but also acquiring other companies in order to combine their respective powers, so to speak, for this quest. Companies will spend in the billons to acquire promising new property even though there is always risk with mergers and acquisitions. The mega-biotech corporation, Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), allegedly paid a combined $2.6 billion for BioVex and Micromet in 2011 for their very promising cancer treatments.

BioVex has a vaccine for the treatment of melanoma, head, and neck cancer, called OncoVex; Micromet has a drug to combat leukemia, lung, and gastrointestinal cancers, called blinatumomab (Bmab). Both are currently in Phase II testing and both treatments are immune-based cancer therapies. Read More

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The Grumpy Old Accountants

Posted 10 May 2012 — by Covestor
Category CHK, GRPN, Investing, Market News, Stocks, Trading

By Michael Tarsala

accounting - stocks- marketIf you don’t know them already, allow me to introduce you to the Grumpy Old Accountants.

Two accounting professors — Anthony Catanach Jr. at Villanova, and J. Edward Ketz at Penn State — have been running a blog by that name for about a year now.

Keep it on your reading list.

These old dudes will teach you a thing or three about financial reporting. They’ll make you a smarter investor. And they’ll point out red flags as they see them, no holds barred.

In just the past year, Catanach and Ketz have filed two whistleblower complaints to the SEC. They were early critics of Groupon’s (NASDAQ:GRPN) books, ahead of its IPO. They’ve raised concerns about Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), and more than a dozen other companies.

Plus, they are taking on the Big 4 when it comes to the quality of company audits. Read More