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Market Wrap-Up for Feb.23 (HPQ, MRO, DEP, CVX, COP, EPD, more)

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:08:15 +0000

Sky-high oil prices are continuing to impact the markets more than some pundits have previously predicted. Too many in the media were painting too easy a picture of the Middle East situation, and you can see how quickly things can escalate, especially when it comes to the spike in oil costs. We removed a few more names from our “Best Dividend Stocks” list today so please be sure to check out the link below if you did not read the e-mail alert we sent out earlier. Elsewhere, earnings reactions to Hewlett Packard ( HPQ ) did not go well, with shares closing down nearly 10%. Other earnings-related selling occurred in names like Fluor Corp ( FLR ), Washington Post ( WPO ), and Eaton Vance ( EV ). Not surprising that energy names were pushing higher once again, on the back of higher oil prices. We saw big gains for Marathon Oil ( MRO ), ConocoPhillips ( COP ) and Chevron ( CVX ). It was also a good day for Duncan Energy Partners ( DEP ) on the news Enterprise Products Partners ( EPD ) was making a bid for the company. There was a great piece on CBS Moneywatch yesterday that highlighted individuals making $100K or more, as broken down by an American Savings Education Council survey. The focus was on savings and retirement. Here were some of the main points: * 81 percent have a savings plan with specific goals. * 39 percent have no consumer debt. * 43 percent are able to save more than 10 percent of their income. * 59 percent have automated savings set up outside of their workplace retirement plan. * 68 percent save – rather than spend – at least part of a windfall such as a bonus or tax refund. * 74 percent are saving enough for retirement. Everyone knows I am a big fan of automating. Automating your saving and investing is one of the best ways you can get yourself and others you are hoping to teach about money in the right direction from day one. What you don’t …

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Market Wrap-Up for Feb.23 (HPQ, MRO, DEP, CVX, COP, EPD, more)

Market Week Wrap-up

admin — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:29:10 +0000

– Leading global equity indices continued floating upwards this week while the inflation drumbeat just kept getting louder. In the US, the January y/y CPI figure hit +1.6%, its highest level since last spring, and some analysts were alarmed by higher food prices creeping into CPI data sooner than expected. China’s January CPI report was lower than expected at +4.9% y/y, but markets panned the figures as heavily massaged by basket revisions. In the UK, the BoE said CPI would likely continue growing at a 4-5% clip over the short term. The World Bank released a report indicating that food prices were up 15% since October 2010 and are now only 3% away from record highs hit in 2008. Commodities moves complicated the story somewhat. While silver has pushed out to 30-year highs, there were signs that inflated soft commodity prices were beginning to unwind, with cotton and grain prices both below recent highs. Crude and gold prices have been impacted by reports that Iran is sending warships through the Suez Canal and bloody protests in Bahrain (next door to Saudi Arabia), although WTI futures were well below recent highs seen in early February. The Obama Administration unveiled its $3.73T budget proposal for 2012, including an all-time high deficit of $1.65T, reflecting the tax-cut agreement reached with Republicans in December. For 2012, the administration sees the imbalance declining to $1.1T, giving the country a record four straight years of one trillion-plus deficits. Bond prices held steady after the details were released, and Congress sharpened its knives for a budget fight. The Feb Empire Manufacturing survey hit its highest level since last June, indicating that the US manufacturing expansion seen over the last several months is continuing. On Friday there was plenty of commentary out of the G20 conference, where leaders tried mightily to achieve some concrete steps in reforming the global monetary system. Fed Chairman Bernanke took a swipe at the Chinese in his policy address to the G20, warning that nations which keep currency values low create imbalances, while the PBoC’s Zhou continued to push for a higher profile for the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). For the week, the DJIA rose 1.0%, the Nasdaq gained 0.9% and the S&P500 was up 1.0%. – John Deere crushed earnings and revenue targets in its Q1 report and nearly doubled its guidance for FY11 equipment sales. The firm hiked its sales guidance for its key agriculture and construction units as well, and said its Q2 revenue would blow out consensus estimates. Later in the week Caterpillar released very favorable dealer metrics for the month of January, with North America machinery sales up a whopping 58% y/y in the month. – Iron ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources reported very strong Q4 profits on a big y/y gain in iron ore pricing. The company expects global steel production to continue to grow in 2011, although it warned that spot iron ore prices are unsustainably high. Reliance Steel also blew out earnings estimates, and said pricing would remain strong at least through the first quarter of 2011. – In tech, Dell’s profit was way ahead of the consensus in its Q4 report, thanks to a big improvement in margins. The company said it believes the corporate IT…

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Market Week Wrap-up

Do I See Lipstick On A Pig? Or Is The Stock Market and Gold Still Going Up?

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:20:55 +0000

As most sophisticated investors and traders are aware, the U.S. Federal government has run up significant deficits and the long term debt burden is becoming a drain on Gross Domestic Product. That being said, most economists are discussing the possibility of a major decline in the value of the U.S. Dollar going forward as inflationary

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Do I See Lipstick On A Pig? Or Is The Stock Market and Gold Still Going Up?

States look to bankruptcy to escape debt, pension obligations

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:10:01 +0000

NY Times | States are barred from seeking bankruptcy protection, but policy makers are looking for an exception to deal with crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.

2012 Housing Recovery

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:28:33 +0000

The National Association of Homebuilders Chief Economist David Crowe just forecast 575,000 housing starts for 2011 — a 21% jump over the 475,000 starts of 2010. (Those numbers are based on this delirious idea that the U.S. jobless rate won’t get worse than 9.4% and on job growth of 200,000 jobs a month.) The National Association of Realtors’ chief economist, Lawrence Yun, just forecast 716,000 housing starts this year on sustainable job growth, the increasing population, and continued low interest rates driving construction.� That’s great news if the existing supply burned down. Bulldoze the supply, rebuild the homes, and those numbers look great. Fannie Mae believes “home prices probably will start to gain in 2011’s third quarter and rise 0.6 percent for the year, the first annual advance since 2006.” They also expect housing starts to increase 17.3% this year, hitting 710,000. I’ll be sure to heed the well-researched “guess” of Fannie Mae, that respected bastion of real estate know-how. Was there some sort of gas leak? These predictions are the stuff of delirious daydreams. And no one’s buying it�— especially not the homebuilders: The NAHB said early Tuesday its confidence index, which measures builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months, came in flat at a reading of 16 in January, matching expectations according to consensus estimates listed on Briefing.com. Any reading below 50 indicates poor sentiment. The index has not been above 50 since April 2006. The index’s components include current sales conditions, sales expectations and traffic of prospective buyers. The first two components were unchanged in January at readings of 16 and 25, respectively, while traffic of prospective buyers edged up a single point to 12. Lennar Corporation and KB Home don’t see improvement in housing, either — not with the reality of higher unemployment and mounting foreclosures that’ll discourage buyers for months to come. Truth is, w ith a glut of properties still on the market and more Americans heading to the poor house on imbecilic inflationary actions of the Fed, adding more glut to the market and/or assuming that housing prices will appreciate is delusional, plain and simple. I’m also assuming the large backlog of foreclosures along with the backlog of non-distressed properties — held back for an improving market — will only glut the market much longer than any one realizes. Prices only stabilized a bit in 2010 because of the tax incentives and lower interests rates. Demand was simply pulled forward. The decline in housing prices that should have happened in 2010 were pushed to 2011, 2012, and beyond. To sustain home prices, you have to wait until demand meets supply. And builders know this. It’s why they’re not rushing out to build a million and a half homes this week. …

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2012 Housing Recovery

Managing multi-speed markets, according to Mohamed El-Erian

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:30:12 +0000

A 2011 market outlook, with Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO of Pimco.

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Managing multi-speed markets, according to Mohamed El-Erian

CME Refinances Debt, Prepays $421M – Analyst Blog

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:34:01 +0000

In the latest of its debt restructuring initiatives, yesterday CME Group Inc. (CME) announced a loan prepayment of $420.5 million under the three-year credit and term loan agreement that was due in August 2011. This revolving facility has further been replaced with a $1 billion multi-currency three-year revolving credit agreement that will expire in January 2014.

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CME Refinances Debt, Prepays $421M – Analyst Blog

Chesapeake Energy’s Price Target Boosted at Barclays Capital (CHK)

admin — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:45:03 +0000

Natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corporation ( CHK ) on Wednesday saw its price target raised by analysts at Barclays Capital. The firm said it now expects CHK shares to hit $40, up from a prior target of $33. The new target implies a massive 46% upside to the stock’s Tuesday closing price of $27.34. Barclays also maintained its “Overweight” rating on the stock, noting the company has announced a solid plan to reduce its debt by 25% in the next two years. Chesapeake Energy shares rose 25 cents, or +0.9%, in premarket trading Wednesday. The Bottom Line Shares of Chesapeake Energy ( CHK ) have a 1.10% dividend yield, based on last night’s closing stock price of $27.34. The stock has technical support in the $24 price area. If the shares can firm up, we see overhead resistance around the $30 price level. Chesapeake Energy Corporation ( CHK ) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars. Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .

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Chesapeake Energy’s Price Target Boosted at Barclays Capital (CHK)

Market Wrap-Up for Jan.10 (DUK, PGN, DD, SLE, STRA, more)

admin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:12:05 +0000

According to Standard & Poor’s (S&P), U.S. companies added $26.5 billion to dividend payments in 2010, with $8 billion of that increased amount coming in the fourth quarter. 1,729 companies increased dividend payouts, compared to 1,191 companies recording increases in 2009. Only 145 companies decreased dividend payments in 2010, versus the 804 that did so in 2009. Now that the markets are no longer worried about the expiration of the Bush-Era tax cuts, we can get back to the show at hand. Rising dividends and increased deal-making will likely keep a decent foundation under the price of stocks as we head further out into 2011. Remember, a sideways market isn’t a bad thing when it comes to dividend-paying stocks, since you get paid just for owning them! Everyone that reads our stuff knows that we think dividend-stock investing is a must for building long-term wealth, as well as creating new income streams. Personal Finance legend Suze Orman has a new book coming out this March titled “Money Class”, and she has been talking about dividend investing as part of her game plan as we head into 2011. She continues to see a bit of a shift away from bonds, and into quality dividend-paying stocks and dividend ETFs. I hope everyone had a great weekend (it was great for us Jets fans and some of the others who’s teams pulled out wins as well as the NFL playoffs kicked off). Sports aside, I hope everyone has given thought to what I wrote last week about sitting down with family members and bring everyone …

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Market Wrap-Up for Jan.10 (DUK, PGN, DD, SLE, STRA, more)

Commodity Roundup – Markets on your Radar

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:22:43 +0000

MB Wealth Corp. is not responsible and does not endorse anything outside of the content of this article authored by Matthew Bradbard President of MB Wealth. As most followers recognize, I break the commodity markets into seven sectors: financials which include the indices and debt markets, energies, currencies, livestock, metals, grains and finally the softs. So let’s examine sector by sector what should be on your radar as we conclude one trading year and a fresh year of opportunity is upon us. Financials While the first part of the year brought uncertainty and perhaps too much pessimism after a bottom formed in the summer indices have appreciated lifting the Dow and S&P approximately 25%. From here, we think prices have gotten ahead of themselves and expect a 5% depreciation from their current levels. Aggressive clients have started to purchase March ES bear put spreads . Reflecting back on the year, Treasuries have had an inverse relationship to the indices enjoying trade higher in the first half of the year reaching an interim top in the summer and falling off since. The greatest loss has been in Q4, as yields have increased and 30-yr bonds and 10-yr notes have lost considerably. We expect to see a bounce into the new year and have advised aggressive clients to buy dips in 30-yr bonds, 10-yr notes or to position themselves in NOB spreads with their directional bias in the direction of bonds. Energies There has been a powerful force lifting prices higher in crude oil and the distillates virtually all year and we see no reason for that to change. Continue to use price retracements as buying opportunities as we see $110/115 in Crude by mid 2011. Assuming we are correct with this assumption, both heating oil and RBOB would likely be 20-25% higher as well. Natural gas remains a dog unable to make any significant headway all year. There have been fits and starts but the range bound action for the last six months has been discouraging and lost my clients money on several attempts. From here we may opt to scale into long…

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Commodity Roundup – Markets on your Radar

Feds Investigate Alleged $1 Million Embezzlement by a Hawaii Bank of America Employee Who Has Vanished

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:43:14 +0000

Federal authorities are investigating a loan officer fired from the Bank of America’s Honolulu office last month for allegedly stealing at least $1 million of customer funds to repay personal gambling debts, HawaiiReporter has learned. Michael Ho Kim was discharged from the bank shortly before Christmas and his whereabouts are now unknown.

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Feds Investigate Alleged $1 Million Embezzlement by a Hawaii Bank of America Employee Who Has Vanished

It’s Time for Bernanke to Just Go Away

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:54:05 +0000

This was taken from Wealth Wire, which you can still sign up for here … It’s FREE! Enjoy. I have no confidence in Ben Bernanke…� I don’t care what degrees he holds, or what he studied about the Great Depression. He’s done nothing but take us to the abyss…� and lie to us, all to save the financial system. He doesn’t beleive inflation is a problem.� But it is. He said he’s not monetizing debt.� But he is. He’s willing to continue further easing as long until unemployment improves… but it’ll do nothing more than hurt us more. And now he wants us to believe a recovery is sustainable.� Too bad he’s wrong. Here’s more from Reuters: “The U.S. economy may be finally hitting its stride, even if growth remains too weak to put a real dent in the nation’s jobless rate, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday. Offering no real clues on the future direction of monetary policy, Bernanke sounded cautiously more upbeat than he had in his most recent public remarks, citing improvements in consumer spending and a drop in claims for jobless benefits as hopeful signs that a languid recovery was perking up. “We have seen increased evidence that a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold,” the central bank chief said in his first testimony to Congress since the Fed launched a controversial plan to buy an additional $600 billion in government bonds. His remarks were made public just an hour after the Labor Department reported the economy generated a disappointing 103,000 jobs in December. The jobless rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.8 percent, but the decline was partly due to a troubling rise in the number of people exiting the workforce. Just a month ago, in an interview on the CBS program “60 Minutes”, Bernanke had voiced a degree of trepidation about the economy’s

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It’s Time for Bernanke to Just Go Away