Earlier this year, I wrote about the troubles I see for the large telecom/cable companies like AT&T and Verizon as everything moves online cutting their services offered from 3 to basically 1 – the internet. If I’m right, then there should be internet based companies that stand to pick up new business. This led me…
Potbelly & My View on IPO’s
Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s) have been hot the past few weeks which is making a lot of people wonder if the stock market as a whole is overheating. I’m not necessarily concerned with the amount of new IPO’s so far this year but I think the stock market is still pretty stretched after last year’s…
Interesting Initial Reaction to this Week’s Fed Meeting
Wednesday was new Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s first meeting at the helm. Stocks sold off pretty hard after the announcement but rebounded yesterday. Neither action was very surprising; stocks are still quite over-extended and investors seem to have a quick trigger finger looking for any reason to sell and take profits. At the same…
A Divergence in Stocks & Why it Concerns Me
Over the past two quarters I’ve noticed a pretty big divergence in the strategy that companies are starting to follow. A large portion (maybe 70% or more of large caps) are on the “return cash to shareholders” trend, while fewer and fewer seem to be executing a growth strategy specific to their business. I see…
Why Emerging Market Stocks are Falling
The Emerging Markets were all the buzz this week, with India, Turkey and South Africa raising interest rates in an attempt to slow capital outflows. Since the 2008 crash, Emerging Market (EM) stocks have not been the same for US investors, significantly underperforming developed market stocks. Unfortunately I think they’re going to remain under pressure…
Why the Stock Market is Falling
Thanks to everyone who has participated in the survey! I received a suggestion asking to talk more about what is driving markets in the short-term. For example, why were stocks down yesterday. Here’s a short video looking at the investment capital flows over the past few weeks. It shows that we had a very strong…
Are Stocks Fairly Valued?
I’ve noticed lately that way too many investment managers, analysts and economists interviewed by the financial media are saying the same exact thing: they think that stocks are fairly valued with the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 right at its historical average. Why is it that it seems people just regurgitate the same stuff everyone…
The Little Market That Could…
This stock market continues to chug along, like the little engine that could. This has been the most resilient market since the 1990’s, showing just how much money is trying to work its way into stocks. This is forcing people to buy on the shallowest of dips. The market action this week tells me there’s…