Showing posts with label Bull Market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bull Market. Show all posts

2018-09-19

Buy or Sell Stocks? Nobody Understands the Stock Market (videos)

One View: "Wall Street Is Probably Too Optimistic on Stocks, Sell Now"

"Investing Strategies - Morning Jolt" video above published by TheStreet.com Sep 18, 2018: Sell now, ask questions later?

"The Reality" according to TheStreet.com's Brian Sozzi, who is bearish, in the video above: "Within a week, two industrial powerhouses have let investors down with their profits. Investors have to start paying attention. 3M warned last week on profits amid higher commodities costs. FedEx missed earnings forecasts on Monday by a whopping 34 cents thanks to investments in higher worker wages."

Fund Managers Say: A net 24% of investors surveyed by BofA expect global growth to slow in the next year, up from net 7% in August. It marked the worst outlook on the global economy since December 2011. Editor's note: this may, in fact, be a bullish sign for buying more U.S. stocks as the large U.S. domestic market is not as dependent on exports as say, China or Germany. In that case,  Wall Street's bull market may be "where the action is" among global equity markets for the foreseeable future, and may have a lot more life left in it. U.S. stock exchanges are still getting plenty of domestic, as well as many, if not most, of the best non-domestic tech listings and IPOs, including from Europe (e.g., Spotify $SPOT) and China.

Market tops usually come when greed has fully displaced fear (which is not the case today), one reason why almost everyone, including the Federal Reserve, didn't see the 2008 crisis coming.

Around The Street: Over on Real Money, TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer tackled why nobody cares about high valuations on stocks. "What's so frustrating, what's so maddening about this market right now, though, is that valuation makes no difference whatsoever in anyone's thinking. Anyone. You get these downgrades by analysts on valuation and you just roll your eyes because, you see -- and this is really the rub -- the buyers do not care. They aren't going to stop here. They get new money in, they look at their stocks, they think their stocks are cheap and they buy more of them. It's an insanely non-rigorous virtuous circle. You want to boil down the current investment thesis? It goes like this: I buy them because they go higher and they go higher because I buy them. Could there be a more stupid or a more profitable investment strategy at this moment -- and perhaps until the end of the year? I don't know. I can't think of one," Cramer said.

Editor's note: end of the year? It could run a lot longer than that--Trump wants a trillion-dollar infrastructure program--and may get the OK from Congress next year, with help from Democrats. Remember,Trump is a real estate developer who was always very comfortable using leverage (debt).
NASDAQ Composite
Trade Wars and Tariffs? "Tariffs on another $200 billion will mean about 12% of U.S. imports have seen a tariff hike. That means an average tariff increase of only 1.6% across all imports, so tiny compared to the 1930s, when they were 20%," says Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors (ampcapital.com)--Markets Shrug Off Fresh Trade Salvo | SeekingAlpha.com Sep 18, 2018.

Looking further into 2019, is Brexit: Friday, 29 March 2019. The UK economy is the fifth-largest national economy in the world measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), ninth-largest measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). The EU seems to be forcing UK into a "hard Brexit" which will only strengthen Trump's hand for a quick "Free and Fair" trade deal between the US and UK, which both Donald Trump and Theresa May say they want. The UK is a net importer from the EU, so the EU stands to be hurt more by a "hard Brexit" than the UK, and opening the UK's $3.028 trillion economy (GDP PPP) to U.S. goods and services will open to the U.S. a developed market 1½ times the size of Canada's (GDP PPP), and for the UK, opening the U.S. economy ($20.4 trillion) to UK goods and services, will more than replace the EU (minus UK), as a trading partner. In such a scenario, don't be surprised if Trump, ever the showman, gloats over the stupidity of Brussels and Merkel, with what one might describe as a "shock and awe" US-UK trade deal meant to embarrass and humiliate the EU overlords in Brussels. Unlike Mexico, the UK, as a US trading partner, does not present competitive problems of low wages, lax environmental rules, crime and corruption. There is no language barrier, and the financial systems of both countries are already closely linked.

Michael Lewis: Nobody Understands the Stock Market

Bloomberg.com video above published Apr 2, 2014: "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt" Author Michael Lewis discusses his book, trading and the stock market on Bloomberg Television's "Market Makers."

Editor's note: unless you are a professional trader, hedge fund manager, etc., the above is a good reason why individual investors should stick with index funds, starting with VFIAX, VFINX, or the like.

On the other hand,  cryptocurrencies? Hope you got out:

-- John Poole, Editor  Domain Mondo 

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DISCLAIMER

2018-08-25

Tech Review: 1) Digital Fashion Models, 2) Dating in the Digital Age

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2018-08-25)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Digital Fashion Models, 2) Dating in the Digital Age3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Bull Market, Emerging Markets, Turkey, Venezuela, China, EU, US4)ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft, Huawei, ZTE, Alibaba, Tencent, Nordstrom.

1) Miquela, Shudu, And The Rise Of Digital Fashion Models 

There are an increasing number of digital fashion models. Some have thousands and even millions of Instagram followers and brands and retailers are starting to show interest. A look at the growing trend. CNBC.com video published Aug 21, 2018

2) Dating in the Digital Age

Over 200 million people worldwide use online dating platforms and about one-third of married couples in the U.S. meet online. In this Economist cover story, an examination of the way online dating has changed and the way people now search for love. Economist.com video above published Aug 17, 2018.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +1.7% | S&P 500 Index +0.9 | DJIA +0.5%

"The data still points to U.S. equity markets as being the better asset class. Look around the world. We're the best game in town ... If someone calls telling you to take money out of the U.S. and put it in emerging markets because they are cheap, HANG UP. Dead money for 12 years. Cheap for a reason."--Belpointe Asset Management chief strategist David Nelson.
"The main reason why Stay Home has been outperforming Go Global since the start of the bull market is that the forward earnings (i.e., the time-weighted average of consensus estimates for this year and next year) of the US MSCI stock price index has outpaced the forward earnings of the All Country World ex-US MSCI (in local currencies). The former is up 172% since it bottomed during the 4/30 week of 2009 through the 8/2 week this year, while the latter is up 78% over the same period"--Dr. Ed Yardeni.
Wall Street's Charging Bull
graphic of Charging Bull | DomainMondo.com
Investing Notes:
Goldman Sachs "cut its bond yield forecasts for all the G-10 countries based on changes in the outlook for monetary policy and inflation in several regions and less recovery in term premium in the U.S." Goldman lowered its end-2018 forecast for the 10-year (US) Treasury yield to 3.10% from 3.25%, and still expects 6 more rate hikes, or one per quarter until the Fed funds rate rises to 3.25%-3.5%--ZeroHedge.com.
Emerging Markets: 
  • Turkey's lira still under pressure, Trump resolute--reuters.com 
  • Venezuela devalues its currency, the bolĂ­var, by 95% and pegs it to a cryptocurrency--trying to contain "rampant inflation of more than 1 million percent a year."--businessinsider.com.
China: In their IPO filings, Chinese startups are warning investors about Tencent and Alibaba--Startups Struggle to Escape the Shadows of Alibaba and Tencent | Bloomberg.com: "the startups benefit from the cash and customers Alibaba and Tencent provide, [but] the deals can also feel like a trap. They can give Alibaba and Tencent inordinate voting power through board seats and veto rights; come laden with conflicts of interest over hiring, mergers and acquisitions, and other strategic decisions; and deepen the startups’ dependence on traffic from the larger companies to life-and-death proportions."

EU: Denmark targets U.S. and British companies and individuals in its global campaign to recoup billions of crowns allegedly paid out in fraudulent tax refunds between 2012 and 2015--reuters.com.

US: 
  • SEC rejects bitcoin ETFs--expressing concern about fraud and manipulation of bitcoin markets--cnbc.com.
  • Student loans are now the second-largest category of household debt in America, topping $1.4 trillion, trailing only mortgages at $9 trillion--zerohedge.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
  • Apple and Google Face Growing Revolt Over App Store ‘Tax’--Bloomberg.com: "pushback from devs like Valve, Netflix and regulatory scrutiny."
  • Tesla $TSLA: "The Hype is No Longer with Tesla: Suppliers & Creditors Start to Fret"--WolfStreet.com  Aug 20, 2018: "18 of 22 suppliers believe Tesla is now a financial risk to their companies."
  • Australia bans Huawei and ZTE from providing 5G wireless network equipment to support the country's new telecom networks, citing risks of foreign interference and hacking--NYTimes.com.
  • Alibaba joins Google, others in making custom AI chips--CNBC.com.
  • Online vs Brick-and-Mortar Retail: Nordstrom  NYSE: JWN shares were up 12% after it reported better-than-expected results, but the results were due to ecommerce online sales, not brick-and-mortar store sales. Sales from Nordstrom.com soared 50% year-over year to $897 million, and including its other e-commerce sites, total online sales jumped 23% to $1.35 billion, or to 34% of its total sales--WolfStreet.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2018-02-10

Tech Review | Elon Musk Week: Falcon Heavy Launch of Starman in a Tesla

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2018-02-10)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Elon Musk Week: Falcon Heavy Launch of Starman in a Tesla, 2) Analyst: AWS is Amazon's Fastest Growing Business, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Trump Effect on Gold & Guns4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Elon Musk Week: Falcon Heavy Launch of Starman in a Tesla
photo of Starman in a Tesla
photo of Heavy Falcon side rockets returning in parallel landings
Falcon Heavy side rockets returning in perfect parallel landings
For more:
  • SpaceX (domain: spacex.com) is a privately held company founded by Elon Musk.

2) Analyst: AWS is Amazon's Fastest Growing Business

Tom Forte, D.A. Davidson analyst, discusses the outlook for Amazon.com Inc., Amazon Web Services (AWS) and how the acquisition of Whole Foods has been transformative. He speaks with Bloomberg's Alix Steel on "Bloomberg Markets" Jan 26, 2018.

Amazon Rolls Out Whole Foods Delivery

Bloomberg.com video published Feb 8, 2018: Bloomberg's Olivia Zaleski and Techonomy CEO David Kirkpatrick discuss Amazon's rollout for Whole Foods delivery.  They speak with Emily Chang on "Bloomberg Technology."

Amazon $AMZN--SeekingAlpha.com"Never in history has the largest, most valuable business on earth traded for 338x [or 217x] current-year earnings ... Large, profitable companies during the dot.com years had trouble even reaching 100x earnings ... Apple $AAPL ... trades for 14.5x FY2018 earnings consensus."

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: Worst Week in 2 Years for Stocks Ends on High Note: Markets Wrap | Bloomberg.com: "a furious rally Friday left the equity benchmark [S&P 500] 1.5 percent higher on the day."
S&P 500 is down only 2% since last day of trading in 2017 on Dec 29, but down almost 9% since Jan 26, 2018
Charts suggests 'strong, counter-trend' rally is likely for S&P 500 | MarketWatch.com Feb 9, 2018: "... charts suggest the S&P 500 is likely to experience a "strong, counter-trend (oversold) trading rally," that could take potentially take the index up about 7% from current levels, and "possibly higher," said Dan Wantrobski, technical strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott ..."

Worst of Market Turmoil Behind Us ... This is a Dip You Have To Buy, Fundstrat's Lee Says | Bloomberg | YouTube.com Feb 8, 2018 video--Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors head of research, discusses the selloff in U.S. equity markets, inflation, and his investment strategy.

How Two Tiny Volatility Products Helped Fuel Sudden Stock Slump | Bloomberg.com Feb 7, 2018: "Exchange-traded products ‘major driver’ of Monday mayhem--Lack of cross-asset contagion points to their role in stocks."

Beware Wall Street's Charging Bull: "We Are [Still] In A Massive Bull Market"
 Charging Bull
Investing Notes:
photos of Trump in 4 colors | DomainMondo.com
Trump has said he will “never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Since Trump’s election victory in November 2016, gun manufacturer American Outdoor Brands Corp $AOBC has lost almost two thirds of its stock market value, while Sturm Ruger & Company Inc $RGR has fallen by a fourth of its value. See also: U.S. gunmaker Remington reaches deal with creditors to file for bankruptcy | Reuters.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
From the Reuters.com feed:

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DISCLAIMER

2018-02-05

Beware Wall Street's Charging Bull: "We Are In A Massive Bull Market"

UPDATE Feb 10, 2018: see "3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes," in Tech Review | Elon Musk Week: Falcon Heavy Launch of Starman in a Tesla.

UPDATE Feb 6, 2018: Dow closes up more than 560 points, S&P 500 closes up almost 2 percent, Nasdaq closes up more than 2 percent:
 DOW
Photo: Sam valadi/Flickr
SeekingAlpha.com comment Feb 3, 2018: "... there is a massive..massive amount of global institutional money on the sidelines that could not place a position because the market was too strong. U.S. M1 is up 11.8% from a year ago. This is enormously bullish. The p/e is 20x forecasted earnings. The only times the forecasted earnings fail is when monetary policy is the opposite of the forecast. That is not the case today. The BAA corporate bond is 4.34%...4.34%. In August of 1987 prior to a large sudden drop in the S&P it was 10.92%..10.92%. Think about the difference. We are in a massive bull market. No institutional investor is going to sell his equity position to switch into bonds or cash earning 1%. Besides being financial performance suicide it would be marketing suicide."
UPDATE Feb 5, 2018: 
So What Do I Think about the “Crash” in Stocks? | WolfStreet,com"What’ll happen next? Dip buyers will come in, maybe at this very moment, or maybe later, and some of them will likely get plowed under, but there is way too much cash lined up in hedge funds specifically set up to profit from sell-offs."

This Is A Normal, Bull Market Correction: J.P. Morgan Strategist Gabriela Santos

CNBC video above published Feb 5, 2018: Gabriela Santos, J.P. Morgan Funds global market strategist, and Jeremy Zirin, UBS head of investment strategy Americas, discuss their investment strategies during the market sell-off.

Ray Dalio: Recent market declines are just 'minor corrections' | cnbc.com Feb 5, 2018: Dalio said, "these big declines are just minor corrections in the scope of things, there is a lot of cash on the side to buy on the break, and what comes next will be most important."

Legendary Investor Bill Miller On Dow's 500 Point Sell-Off

CNBC.com video above published Feb 2, 2018: CNBC's Brian Sullivan speaks with Bill Miller, Miller Value Partners, and Charles Ellis, Greenwich Associates, discuss the current global market environment.

 DOW

Milken Institute's Lee Says Fed Doesn't Seem All That Nervous

Bloomberg.com video above published Feb 2, 2018: William Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute, discusses the job market, Fed rate hikes and investment spending on "What'd You Miss?"


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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-12

President Trump Fires FBI Director Comey, Markets Rally, Media Shocked!

Photo of the Charging Bull in New York City's Financial District by Sam valadi (CC BY 2.0)
UPDATE  May 15, 2017:  Trump's Bulls Charge, Bears Trapped!  The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed at records Monday and the Dow industrials snapped a four-session losing streak to finish higher, the TRUMP Rally continues:
 NASDAQ Hits New All-Time High
https://www.google.com/search?q=DJIA
 SP500

Original post:
S&P 500 (5 day chart as of May 10, 2017)
Opinion and Analysis

Let’s look at the way US equity markets responded on Wednesday [May 10] to the Tuesday [May 9] news of President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey:
On Wednesday, the next day, the S&P 500 rallied 0.11% (see above chart), the NASDAQ was up 0.14%, and the CBOE VIX Index barely moved back over 10, to close at 10.2. In the words of one seasoned Wall Street analyst: "If you hadn’t read the headlines for 24 hours, you wouldn’t have known anything unusual had happened in Washington or anywhere else."
Conclusion: The media's 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'  so prevalent within the reality distortion field known as "Washington, D.C.," hasn't infected Wall Street (nor Main Street). Most Americans, thankfully, are immune and are either ignoring or laughing at the mainstream media circus which has now reached unprecedented proportions.

Bottomline: Comey should have been fired by Obama last year after the stunt Comey pulled in connection with the Clinton email investigation. The last thing the U.S. needs is another rogue FBI director like J. Edgar Hoover. Trump did the right thing in following the advice and recommendation (pdf) of the Deputy Attorney General and the Attorney General of the United States, respectively.

To the disbelief and dismay of the liberal media, the Dems and elitists, Trump owns this market and the Trump Bull Rally is still running on Wall Street:
Trump Rally(chart)
The TRUMP Rally
photo of President Donald J. Trump (source: WhiteHouse.gov)
Photo courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov
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DISCLAIMER

2014-06-11

The Bull Market in dot COM Domain Names

Recently I received a newsletter from a domain name broker at Domain Holdings which raised the question "Are we in a bubble?" after noting (among many other things) that "Assets that used to be practically worthless, like NNNNN.com, suddenly started to have face value."

I had already begun to write a post about this, but I replied via email to Giuseppe, and what follows is an edited version of my email:

The Bull Market in Dot Com Domain Names Has Just Begun: Dot Com domain names are, in effect, like a global currency but unlike, for example, bitcoins, Dot Com domain names are completely legal, regulated, easy to buy and sell worldwide in multiple currencies, and form the foundation of the global marketplace -- the internet. For example, Chinese who have wealth but find it difficult to move their wealth outside of China (for safety, security, to diversify investments, minimize currency risks, etc.), are easily able to purchase Dot Com domain names -- the gold standard of domain names. They can even put their ownership under Whois Privacy. This is an IDEAL way for anyone in the world to hold and protect assets! ALL of the world's Central Banks are destroying the value of all of the world's currencies (but they cannot touch Dot Com domain names!). US stock markets are inflated, interest rates are artificially deflated, select real estate markets are already in a bubble again, commodity prices are falling because of the state of the global economy (particularly the construction market in China), and collectible art prices are exploding -- "where to invest" is a real problem for anyone with wealth.

ICANN has destroyed the value of the new gTLDs by flooding them into the domain name ecosystem -- no one will remember hundreds of domain extensions -- but they already know and use .com (and if they are outside the US, also their country code). If you are building a website and your market is global, or you are in the US, you better build on a Dot Com domain name OR you will be solely relying on a search engine, advertising, etc., to get any traffic to your site and, even then, you will still be bleeding traffic to the Dot Com domain name! Example: the US government's healthcare.gov with massive amounts of publicity and money spent in advertising and promotion, still bleeds unbelievable amounts of traffic to privately owned healthcare.com. [And you think you can do better than the US government with your cheapo new gTLD instead of a Dot Com domain name? LOL!] The Chinese, among others, "get this" and they want the "global market's gold standard" -- .com domain names -- this is why Xiaomi (the up-and-coming Chinese smartphone/tablet manufacturer) just bought and now uses (not redirects) mi.com for their global branding and internet website.

Bottom Line: the Dot Com domain names "bull market" has just begun, with lots and lots of room yet to grow and run -- I expect Dot Com domain name prices to increase exponentially from here in the aftermarkets. Why do you think Warren Buffett's office contacted Mike Berkens for a possible consultation about domain names? [This was disclosed by Mike on a domainsherpa.com show.] As more and more people (and corporations) with wealth (cash) understand this, Dot Com domain name prices will only increase. Google is getting ready to launch 180 satellites that will provide global internet service and add 3 billion consumers to the internet's "global market." What do you think this will do to Dot Com domain name prices?*

John Poole
Domain Mondo
June 11, 2014

*Disclaimer notice: As always, note the disclaimer below (bottom of web version page) or at the foregoing link.

Update: title of post revised May 25, 2015, to The Bull Market in dot COM Domain Names





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