Weak Q1 Earnings Put Pressure on Valuation Hopes With 72% of the market's first quarter earnings results now in hand, we've got a pretty good feel for what corporate bottom lines were like during Q1. They could have been better. But, they could have been worse too. Overall, the S&P 500's (SPX) (SPY) per-share bottom line for the first quarter...
U.S. Bond Yields, Interest Rates Facing a Currency Headwind Most market-data junkies know that bonds have been on the rise this year while rates have forced on only fallen. What may not be fully appreciated, however, is just how close both are two game-changing levels. With just a little more improvement in bond prices and/or a little more weakness in yields,...
For Chevron (CVX), It's All Up to Oil Prices Now Not only were the numbers Chevron (CVX) posted for its first fiscal quarter of 2016 well short of its comparable numbers from Q1 of 2015, both the top line and the bottom line missed estimates. In the first quarter of 2016, oil giant Chevron lost $725 million, or 39 cents...
Amazon (AMZN) Investors See a Light at the End of the Tunnel Amazon (AMZN) shares were drifting lower heading into Thursday evening's earnings report, suggesting the market was fearing the worst. When investors got anything but the worst, that lull reversed course, in spades. Amazon shares are up nearly 10% following their earnings report, and have a good deal of room...
Fed Funds to Remain Reined Not only does the market not expect an increase in the Fed Funds rate this time around, traders still aren't looking for one until December… and even then the odds are relatively close to even it will remain at 0.5%. The rate picture is expected to remain quite accommodative through the beginning of the coming...
Microsoft (MSFT) is Failing as a Growth Stock (for now) The company can spin it any way they want to, but Microsoft (MSFT) can't get around the fact that growth has been tough to muster as it transitions from a software – an arena it dominated – to a cloud company, where the competition is much stiffer. Last quarter's results...
This Rally Effort is Healthy, Even if Not Huge At the beginning of April, we pointed out that the breakout effort at the time may have been stronger than many had presumed. The reason? More stocks were participating in the rally effort than we'd seen in months, and more stocks were exhibiting a level of technical strength than we'd seen...
Maritime Shipping Stocks May Have Just Turned a Corner The past couple of years have been tough ones for marine transportation names such as Scorpio Bulkers (SALT), Safe Bulkers (SB) and Teekay Tankers (TNK). Not only did oil prices (USO) suffer a price-implosion and corresponding demand for crude, dry commodities like grains (JJG) and iron ore pellets also hit a...
Big Banks Batting .500 So Far This Earnings Season Whether the earnings glass is half-empty or half-full for the country's biggest banks (KBE) (KRE) (XLF) has yet to be decided. If Bank of America (BAC) is your proxy, then it's half-empty. If Wells Fargo (WFC) is your measure, then the glass is half-full. The former failed to meet its quarterly revenue...
ISM Indices Offer Glimmer of Economic Hope One good month does not make a trend, but all trends do start out with that first good step. That's why March's upward steps for both ISM Indices offer investors some bullish hope, and give the economy something to build on going forward. Those who follow the ISM (Institute for Supply Management) Indices...
