Japan is in a recession, its population is shrinking, and its debt to GDP is over 250%. However, despite their economic and demographic woes, Japan’s main stock index, the Nikkei 225, just hit a new all-time high. There is much more to the story than the Nikkei stock market diverging from fundamentals. The Nikkei is […]
The Magnificent Seven hog the headlines and are the envy of many investors. Yet since the start of 2024, only two Magnificent Seven stocks have been beating the market significantly. The graph below shows the relative performance of each stock versus the S&P 500. As shown, the Magnificent Seven traded in a unified fashion from […]
The Bloomberg graph below provides us with a reason to be optimistic about the earnings and share prices of the largest corporations. As shown, the amount of cash corporations hold is at an all-time high and double the pre-pandemic trend. Large amounts of cash are a good thing for shareholders in today’s high interest-rate environment. […]
The graphs below show the daily and weekly graphs of MDY, the midcap ETF, alongside ten-year note yields. The midcap index is breaking out to record highs. Such is not surprising given the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq also reached new records recently. What is surprising is that the midcap index […]
On Thursday morning, Japan and the United Kingdom reported a negative GDP for the second consecutive quarter. A few weeks ago, Germany also reported consecutive quarterly declines in GDP. Accordingly, all three countries are now in a technical recession. To appreciate their role in the global economy, consider Germany is the world’s third-largest economy, and […]
Lyft’s earnings announcement Tuesday night was one for the ages. Their quarterly earnings statement reported that its margins rose by 5% or 500 basis points. In other words, for each dollar Lyft receives from its clients, they will earn an additional five cents. That may not seem like a lot, but it is. However, there […]
Per the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 43.5% of GDP comes from small businesses. The Small Business Administration claims small businesses employ 46.4% of private sector employees, accounting for 62.7% of new jobs since 1995. With an appreciation for the economic importance of small businesses, let’s review Tuesday’s National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) monthly sentiment […]
On January 23, we led the Daily Commentary with a couple of paragraphs titled Is Trueflation A Better Gauge Of Inflation? If you want to learn more about the benefits of the Trueflation inflation calculation versus the popular CPI index, check out the article. About three weeks ago, when we wrote it, the Trueflation inflation […]
The Magnificent Seven continue to lead the market higher as they did last year. However, one of the seven stocks is falling woefully behind. Tesla is down 25% this year. Driving Tesla’s share price lower is growing concern that EVs may not be the much-ballyhooed future of automobiles. As evidence, GM and Ford are cutting […]