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    The Fed Is Cutting: Time To Buy The Cheap Homebuilder Stocks

    Image Source: Unsplash Every week, Tracey Ryniec, the editor of Zacks Value Investor portfolio, shares some of her top value investing tips and stock picks.The Federal Reserve has finally started cutting interest rates. It announced a 50-basis point cut in Sep 2024.Fed rate cuts usually impact mortgage rates, although mortgage rates had already been falling heading into the latest FOMC meeting. 30-year fixed mortgage rates have fallen about a point to 6.14% from 7.24%.This means more buyers can afford a home. As long as the employment market remains stable, home sales should rise in 2025. Homebuilders Stocks Soar but are Still Cheap The hom...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    Americans Have Spent All Of Their Pandemic Savings And Then Some

    Talking heads and politicians laud the “resilience” of American consumers. They managed to keep spending despite rapidly rising prices thanks to post-pandemic price inflation.But these pundits and politicos rarely talk about how Americans have weathered the inflationary storm. When you look at the big picture, it’s not a story of resilience but one of desperation.In a nutshell, Americans blew through their savings and now they’re running up their credit cards.The personal savings rate plummeted in July, dropping to 2.9 percent. That was down from 3.1 percent the prior month. It was the lowest savings rate since the COVID crash.The cur...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    State Employment Report For August

    Unemployment rises in many states, but so does employment (NFP) growth (report).Here’s the diffusion index (mean at 25) for 3 month unemployment rate change.Source: WellsFargo, 20 Sept 2024. The dashed line is Wells Fargo’s assessment of the threshold for national recession based on this indicator.How’s nonfarm payroll employment doing? Here’s the m/m change, by state. Source: WellsFargo, 20 Sept 2024. Month-on-Month figures are noisy, so here are year-on-year (with battleground states outlined in blue):Source: BLS, 20 Sept 2024, as edited by author.For reference, y/y national NFP growth was 1.5%. Hence, five of seven battleground ...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    5 Sector ETFs Scaling New Highs On Fed Rate Cuts

    Image Source: Pixabay Wall Street rallied, buoyed by the first interest rate cut since 2020 to address slowing economic growth. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones hit new all-time highs and topped 5,700 and 42,000 milestones, respectively, for the first time on Thursday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones rose 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite Index outperformed, rising 2.5%. Sector ETFs, which are the major beneficiaries of a rate cut, rallied to new 52-week highs. Some of these include SPDR S&P Telecom ETF (XTL – Free Report) , iShares U.S. Insurance ETF (IAK – Free Report) , AdvisorShares Restaurant ETF...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    Bucking Gold Repatriation Trend, Argentina Sends More Gold To London

    Image Source: Pixabay In July, the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) shipped another 3 tonnes of gold to the U.K. to swap for foreign exchange. A month prior, BCRA also transported 3 tonnes to the U.K. BCRA is now estimated to have 37 tonnes (60% of Argentina’s gold reserves) on swap in the London Bullion Market. Argentina Is Leveraging Its Physical Gold Argentine newspaper   reported in 2017 that BCRA moved 11 tonnes of its monetary gold to London, according to their research, to be swapped out for Japanese yen. “We are already doing this with all the gold we have in London, because by placing it in that financial center, we can expan...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    Bank Deposits And Money-Market Funds See Sizable Outflows As Stocks Surge

    For the first time in seven weeks, money market funds saw net outflows last week (-$20BN) – the largest weekly outflow since June…Source: Bloomberg The outflow was dominated by a major institutional drawdown (-$25BN) as Retail funds saw inflows yet again…Source: Bloomberg US Bank Deposits (seasonally-adjusted) also saw outflows in the week ending 09/11 (-$9.3BN), the first weekly outflow in five weeks…Source: Bloomberg On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, US Bank Deposits also fell (-$15BN), backing off from April highs…Source: Bloomberg Excluding foreign deposits, domestic banks saw outflows (both SA -$34BN a...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    Q3 Earnings Loom: What Can Investors Expect?

    Image Source: Pexels The FedEx (FDX – Free Report) disappointment likely has some company-specific aspects, but it is reasonable to see this report as providing a read-through for the broader economy that has shown signs of moderation lately. In fact, these signs of macroeconomic softness prompted the U.S. Fed to come out with a bigger interest rate than many in the market expected just a few weeks ago.FedEx missed on the top- and bottom-lines and guided lower, with several analysts covering the stock skeptical of the company’s ability to meet even the lowered guidance. Margins were under pressure as FedEx’s earnings declined -...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    The Fed Just Put All The Bulls On Notice

    Image Source: Pixabay Triple-witching – the September event is coming hot on the heels of our 50bp rate cut. Trillions in notional value in derivatives expired today.If you were expecting fireworks… sorry, you didn’t really get them. Normally a triple-witching afternoon sees a massive jolt of volatility, but we didn’t see that today even around an hour out from the close.But that doesn’t make this a boring market, not by a long shot. Today’s triple-witching actually matters way more than you know – certainly way more than this tame afternoon would let on.Rate cuts and bullish mojo are in play right now, and that adds up...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    Stocks And Precious Metals Charts – The Consumption Of The Ages

    Gold and silver gave us some clean breakouts today, and went out near the highs. The dollar chopped sideways again, finishing marginally higher.VIX fell.The major indices gave back a little ofyesterday’s meteoric rally. “Great designs have linear consequences. Bad designs have exponential consequences.”Have a pleasant weekend. More By This Author:Stocks And Precious Metals Charts – Deceitful Children And Their Illusions Stocks And Precious Metals Charts – Fed CutStocks And Precious Metals Charts – Pretty Much Unchanged...
    On September 20, 2024 / By
  • Finance 0

    First Dissent Since 2005 Shows Total Lack Of Diversity At The Fed

    Every month, a parade of Fed governors offer their views on the economy in various speaking outlets. In those speeches, the Fed presidents may seem diverse in opinion but it’s an orchestrated charade.When the Fed meets to set monetary policy, dissents are measures by months, but by years. The last dissent at a meeting was in 2005. A Fear of Dissent or Something Else?WSJ columnist Joseph Sternberg says A Fear of Dissent Haunts the Federal Reserve A member of the Fed’s Board of Governors dissented from the FOMC’s decision to cut its target short-term interest rate by half a percentage point. Gov. Michelle Bowman would have preferred a qu...
    On September 20, 2024 / By