Consumer Staples Hint at a Breakout Move Think the recent marketwide pullback dragged every sector down with it? Guess again. While it's true that most sectors tanked in January (and arguably started that tumble in December), one group of stocks has not only resisted the bearish tide, but was quietly positioned for a potential breakout. That sector? Consumer staples stocks...
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Suffer a Double-Whammy Were it just higher wages making it tougher for Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), that might be defendable. Or, were it just a revenue headwind the world's biggest retailer was facing, the market might be willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt. But, when higher wages and lower revenue both work together to...
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Suffer a Double-Whammy Were it just higher wages making it tougher for Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), that might be defendable. Or, were it just a revenue headwind the world's biggest retailer was facing, the market might be willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt. But, when higher wages and lower revenue both work together to...
An Earnings Beat From Twitter (TWTR) Didn't Obscure User Losses For just a glimmer of a moment, it's possible Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey though the market would revel in last quarter's earnings and revenue "beat", and ignore the fact that the number of people who used Twitter didn't actually shrink during the company's fourth quarter. That pipedream didn't last...
The Walt Disney Company (DIS) Earnings: Is the Glass Half Full, or Half Empty? It came as no real surprise that Star Wars: The Force Awakens bolstered earnings for The Walt Disney Company (DIS) last quarter. What was surprising to investors this week was how little the iconic entertainment company could do to stop the bleeding of its sports channel ESPN. ...
Option Trading: What is Theta? Option trading need not be complicated. But, at the very least option traders seeking out top returns with minimal risk should familiarize themselves with the so-called "Greeks," which simply describe how an option's price may change with respect to the passage of time and the movement of the underlying stock or index. One of the...
The Rest of the Unemployment Rate, Job Growth Story As is usually the case on the first Friday of every month, today, the Department of Labor released last month's jobs report — namely, the official unemployment rate and the number of new jobs (net) created in the prior month. January's primary numbers were mostly good. The unemployment rate fell from...
Yahoo Earnings Report Fails to Offer Any Inspiration From a technical perspective, online media giant Yahoo (YHOO) and its management team are saying all the right words …words that investors should want to hear, citing optimistic plans for the future. After four years of turnaround effort that's not only failing to get traction but seemingly moving in the wrong direction...
Option Trading: What is Delta? Option trading is a nuanced art; option prices don't always move in a consistent, predictable manner. The so-called "Greeks" of option trading, however, explain how a put or a call option should change in price over time, and in relation to changes in the pricing of the underlying stock or index. And, perhaps one of...
Candlestick Trading: What is a Hammer Pattern? What is a Dragonfly Doji? Although no trader has a perfect crystal ball, there are certain chart shapes and cues that are reliable indications of what's apt to happen next. One of the more reliable, and more comment, patterns any trader should recognize is the so-called hammer pattern… and its cousin, the dragonfly...
