The Fed’s Functions Since it was established in 1913 to be the Central Bank of the United States, the objectives of the Federal Reserve have changed. Originally, the main job of the Fed was to enhance economic and price stability to lessen severe economic swings. Since then, its mission has been amended over the years, […]
Will This Time Be Different? Precious metals have disappointed their fans and enthusiasts for YEARS. After peaking at about $1900 per ounce in 2011, Gold is still 1/3 lower 8 years later. The 2011 runup was the result of inflation fears from Quantitative Easing (QE) by the Federal Reserve. QE was the program of massive […]
Post-Christmas Rally Stalling The stock market has been on a tear since Christmas. In the last 19 trading days, the Dow Jones Industrials (Dow) have gained 2800 points or nearly 13%. Other key indexes have generated equally impressive gains: Nasdaq 100 (+13.5%), Russell 2000 (+15%) and S & P 500 (+12.5%). The belief that a […]
Restrictions Fall Everywhere The Cannabis Industry is grabbing the attention of investors, but it remains very misunderstood. For one thing, the legality of Cannabis use completely differs by location and is often contradictory. Federally, possession or sale of Cannabis is illegal. Each State and Territory has its own set of laws. California was the first […]
Subscriber and Revenue Growth Stay Strong Netflix(NFLX) is an excellent gauge for how much investors are willing to pay for growth. So far, NFLX has delivered. The two charts of subscriber growth show the exponential increase in customers. (https://ir.netflix.com/financials/quarterly-earnings/default.aspx). Several days ago, NFLX raised prices for streaming content by 13% to 18%, signaling […]
Volatility And Liquidity Since the Bull Market peak last fall, volatility has gone through the roof. “Volatility” is how market traders describe and measure the variation in prices or returns. Higher volatility is a direct reflection of greater investor uncertainty AND less liquidity. Volatility determines investor perception of risk. “Liquidity” is related to volatility, but […]
What is a Government Shutdown? The Constitution provides for Federal spending to be proposed by Congress AND agreed to by the President. When the parties fail to produce a funding bill, the Government may be forced to “partially” shut down. Failure to pass a budget has led to a shutdown about 20 times. Many of […]
Market Volatility Continues to Surge Over the 16 trading days ended yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrials (Dow) have had an average change EXCEEDING 400 points (1.75%) per day. This level of volatility is FOUR TIMES the average for August and September and nearly TWICE the elevated levels of October and November. Since bottoming at 21,700, […]
Reality At Odds With Tesla Hype Investors in Tesla (TSLA) have bought into the growth story and “vision” of founder Elon Musk. So have drivers. There is no shortage of glowing reviews of Tesla’s models: The luxury model S (https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/tesla/model-s/2018/road-test) and the SUV model X. (https://www.caranddriver.com/tesla/model-x). Both have starting prices near $80,000 which can […]
Long Term Interest Rates Plunge to 2.9% Despite the Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) policy of slowly raising rates to “Neutral”, the Bond Market won’t cooperate. On Thursday, yields fell to a level that, not long ago, seemed UNTHINKABLE. The Mini-Slideshow below illustrates the dramatic downward moves in 5 year, 10 year and 30 year maturities. […]
