Q4 Earnings Season Outlook It's here again… earnings season. Alcoa (AA) kicked things off on Monday evening, posting mixed results. That is, the per-share income of four cents it earned topped estimates of two cents per share, though last quarter's revenue of $5.25 billion fell roughly $40 million short of expectations. Regardless of Alcoa's numbers, the advent of earnings season...
Unemployment Rate May Have Bottomed, But Job Growth is Still in the Cards Last month's job growth wasn't enough to push the official unemployment rate any lower than the reading of 5.0% it's been hovering at since October, but the 292,000 new jobs added in December was the second best month all year (and second only to the 307,000 newly-created...
U.S. Service Industries Confidence, Job Growth Differs from U.S. Manufacturing Business Call it a tale of two cities. Service-related business in the United States are doing well, and the nation's businesses know it. Conversely, factories are struggling, and the nation knows that too. Both sides of that coin will need to do well if the economy — and the stock...
Equity Collars An equity collar is the simultaneous use of two simple and commonly-used equity option trades as means of defending against a loss on an existing stock position. It's called a collar because, though an equity collar trade using options can limit the potential downside of a stock holding, it also limits the potential upside of an existing stock...
Consumer Confidence Back on the Mend, But Not Yet Soaring Again It's still a bit soon to say the ongoing improvement in consumer confidence is back in place, but at least it can be said that the developing downtrend in consumer confidence has been quelled. That's the message delivered by December's consumer confidence score from the Conference Board anyway, which...
Technical Analysis: Head & Shoulders Pattern The head & shoulders pattern occasionally found on some stock and index charts can and often does suggest a trade-worthy move is underway. They can be bearish as well as bullish, and have a strong success rate compared to some other technical analysis tools. A head & shoulders signal is called such due to its...
Sales of New and Existing Homes Slide in November, But… A month ago, a strong surge in sales of new as well as existing homes suggested the real estate (IYR) market (which never really began back-pedaling, but was stalling) was on the upswing again. In light of November's numbers, though, questions are once again raised. On the other hand, though the...
Candlestick Chart Analysis: Island Reversals Island reversals are a pattern on technical analysis chart that frequently — due to their abrupt and decisive nature — successfully mark a turning point for that stock or index. Generally speaking, they are marked by a small cluster of bars that are completely isolated from the bars leading up to the first bar and...
Using Fibonacci Lines in Trading To new traders, an understanding of what Fibonacci lines are and how they can be part of a technical analysis strategy may raise a few eyebrows. They're a pattern of numbers that were first exhibited by nature; flower petals, seashells, and even hurricanes and human faces exhibit a Fibonacci pattern in one way or another....
Housing Starts, Building Permits Jump in November Not that the decision hasn't already been made, but if Janet Yellen and the rest of the Federal Reserve's governors needed any more evidence that the economy was strong enough to withstand the downside of an interest rate increase, last month's housing starts and building permits numbers would do the job nicely. For...
