The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) is a gauge of builder opinion on the relative level of current and future single-family home sales. It is a diffusion index, which means that a reading above 50 indicates a favorable outlook on home sales; below 50 indicates a negative outlook. The latest reading of 72, down 2 from last month’s number, came in slightly below the Investing.com forecast of 73. Here is the opening of this morning’s monthly report: Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes dropped two points to a level of 72 in January on the National Association o...
Earnings season has now kicked off, and word on the Street is that it’s going to be very good. Overall S&P 500 profits are expected to soar by 11.2% in Q417 according to UBS strategist Keith Parker. He told CNBC that this would be the second-strongest earnings growth period since 2011. The economy has momentum and all sectors are expected to post increases. With this bullish outlook in mind, we used TipRanks’ Earnings Calendar to see which hot stocks are due to report their earnings in the next couple of weeks. Crucially, the Earnings Calendar also displays the analyst consensus and average price target of each stock, so you can...
U.S. industrial production increased for a fourth consecutive month in December, as manufacturing sustained growth in the fourth quarter, the Federal Reserve report showed on Wednesday. Total industrial production rose 0.9 percent in December, up from a revised 0.1 percent decrease. While capital utilization, which measures the number of plants in use climbed to 77.9 percent from 77.2 percent in November. According to the report, factory output increased at a 7 percent annualized rate in the month, capping the year with the strongest fourth quarter since 2010. Improved consumer spending, increased exports and growing business investment are s...
I am not advocating that you invest solely in the Dogs of the Dow. If you want to do so, however, it is pretty darn easy. Simply wait until the end of each year, then select the ten stocks of the Dow 30 which have the highest yield. Invest an equal amount of dollars into each. That’s all there is to it. Next year do the same thing. Rinse and repeat every year. There is a certain logic to using this strategy, if only for a portion of your portfolio. The Dow 30 tend to be big, solid companies that aren’t in any (immediate) danger of going out of business. Often the reason the yield on the Dogs is so high is not because their dividends have ...
Apple stock jumped then dumped after it issued a press release in which the company disclosed how much it expects to pay in repatriation tax to bring its massive offshore cash hoard home, in addition to unveiling its near-term US investment and capital spending plans. The world’s most valuable company said that it anticipates repatriation tax payments of approximately $38 billion as required by recent changes to the tax law, noting that “a payment of that size would likely be the largest of its kind ever made.” Additionally, AAPL announced a new set of investments “to build on its commitment to support the America...
Compiling data on economic inequality from countries all around the world is a hefty task, which has been shouldered by a group of more than 100 researchers around the world who contribute to the efforts of the World Inequality Lab and the World Wealth and Income Database. The World Inequality Report 2018, written and coordinated by Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, provides an overview of their findings. Here are a few of the figures that jumped out at me. This figure shows the share of income going to the top 10% of the income distribution in a number in some prominent countries and regions. ...
Homebuilder sentiment took a little bit of a breather this week, but with last month’s report printing the highest level since 1999, the pullback was expected. In fact, the drop from 74 down to 72 in the NAHB was right in line with consensus expectations. Even at the current level, there haven’t been many other periods in the last 33 years where confidence was higher. Looking at the breakdown of this month’s report for January, sentiment regarding Sales (both Present and Future) and Traffic all declined this month. While the overall levels did pullback this month, we would note that they are all still above levels they were at in Nove...
Conservative investments, such as bank savings accounts or CDs (certificates of deposit in a bank), may not be as safe as you think. These types of accounts may actually produce negative real return rates over the years. Three main factors are responsible for negative return rates: Low interest rates Inflation Taxes Low interest rates Years ago, interest rates on bank savings accounts or CDs rates ranged from 3% – 6%. These days, interest rates are close to zero, generating almost no revenue. Low interest rates create a specific problem for retirees because when they originally invested their money, they expected to make a higher return rat...
BTC/USD Daily Chart (Log) Technical Outlook: Bitcoin broke a multi-month consolidation pattern off the December record highs with an objective break of the monthly opening-range lows/slope support unleashing a 30% sell-off in prices. The decline has taken out confluence support at 11160 with a near-term confluence support-zone eyed at 8354-8729. This is the first major hurdle for the sell-off and IF price is going to rebound, this would be the spot to look. BTC/USD 240min Chart (Log) Notes: A closer look at near-term price action highlights a rebound today off the 61.8% retracement of the September advance at 9303 with price broadly tra...
The Bank of Canada raised interest rates on Wednesday, while at the same time warning that stimulus is still needed to sustain growth. The committee led by Stephen Poloz increased interest rates to 1.25 percent, the highest level since the global economic recession. While the move is in line with the recent economic expansion that saw jobless rate dipped to the lowest in more than four decades, the uncertainty surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement remains a concern going forward. “Uncertainty surrounding the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement is clouding the economic outlook,” the central bank said. Therefore,...