One could argue we have moved from an age of exuberance to an age of despondency. Not long ago our major concern was sky rocketing commodity prices, and its effect on global inflation; enter the credit crisis. We are currently witnessing an unprecedented global sell-off with no regards to asset classes or quality, or as […]
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This piece is simply an updated version to a piece I published back on March 5th 2008 titled ‘How will it end’. Despite the fact we are much deeper into this financial crisis; the root of the problem has not changed, and that is the US housing market. As an interesting exercise consider that in […]
These are very interesting times… At this point in time, after passing up some deals which could have saved AIG, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw at least part if not all of AIG being bought at bargain basement prices by one of its major competitors. I think it will be tough for them […]
A while back I created an excel file that tracks the conditions of global sub-indices. Essentially, I took over 600 sub-indices from around the world and I broke them out by best and worst performing over the past 6 months, P/E and P/B ratios, and dividend yield. I extracted the 15 best and worst performing […]
Back in March I published some data on the NYSE top 100 short interest ratio (SIR), and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. I am now following that up with June SIR data for all the S&P500 companies. I broke out the data alphabetically, descending SIR, and by the monthly change of the […]
As oil prices continue soaring and consumers’ preference shifts to smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles, we are likely to see a proliferation of hybrid technology. Looking at the most recent car sales data in the US, Honda and Hyundai out-sold both GM and Ford mostly due to their wide selection of smaller more fuel […]
Historically, gold has been an asset investors turn to in times of uncertainty, especially in regards to inflation. The same is true today. However, is the level of today’s gold prices justified? I believe the answer to that question depends on your belief in the Fed’s effectiveness and willingness to fight inflation. It is my […]
Last week’s data was more or less in-line with my expectations; excluding the stronger than anticipated manufacturing numbers. However, for the reasons I outlined in my previous posting, considerable downside risks remain in place for the ISM over the coming months. Friday’s lower than expected payroll data combined with deteriorating jobless claims has likely convinced […]
Looking back to last week, as we expected the market was unable to maintain the upward momentum it experienced the week prior. This was due to weaker than expected data from the consumer sector and financial related news. The Dow and S&P500 ended the week down 1.17% and 1.08%, respectively, and we could have more […]
Consumers around the world are being indirectly taxed through record high gas prices. This of course hurts consumers’ pockets and can raise inflation fears. We wanted to take a look at the crack spread between WTI crude prices and US petroleum prices as measured by the Energy Information Agency. We outline the results below. The […]