Turns out the March drop in energy job-cut announcements was not the beginning of a trend. After 20.2k and 16.3k cuts in January and February respectively, March dropped to a mere 1.3k, raising hopes that the worst was over. Job … Continued
Since spot West Texas Intermediate crude broke out of 54 mid-April, it has continued to add to gains, even as XLE, the energy SPDR ETF, has gone sideways/down. Since that major push through four-month consolidation in the middle of April, … Continued
U.S. homeownership continues to take it on the chin, with 1Q15 matching the 1Q93 low of 63.7 percent. A 22-year round-trip! The series goes back to 1Q65; the all-time low was set that year at 62.9, which is not that … Continued
A stronger U.S. dollar finally caused some disturbance with U.S. corporations, especially multinationals. While reporting March-quarter earnings, one after another singled out the dollar for causing top-line shortfall. From trough to peak between last May and March this year, the … Continued
The U.S. factory report out yesterday has ignited a ray of hope. Orders for non-defense capital goods ex-aircraft (proxy for business capital expenditures) in particular were revised higher. March went from $68.19 billion to $68.71 billion, and February from $68.54 … Continued
Back on April 23rd, I wrote a piece on U.S. housing for See It Market (reposted here on 24th), arguing the importance of $26, and then $24, on the Home Construction ETF (ITB). The ETF ($26.32) closed at $27.45 on April … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of April 28, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The week was a head-scratcher from the standpoint of bond vigilantes’ reaction. The 10-year yield rallied hard on a very weak 1Q15 GDP … Continued
For only 4th time in six-plus decades, U.S. GDP price deflator goes negative Macro data weaker than expected this week, but rates come under upward pressure Dollar plays crucial role in inflation outlook, breaks support, could be headed toward 92 … Continued
Apple, Inc.’s (AAPL) March quarter was a blowout – gross margin of 40.8 percent, along with 61.2 million iPhone units sold (135 million in six months), among others. It also increased buybacks to $200 billion from now through 2017. The … Continued
Margin debt in March surged to an all-time high of $476.4 billion. Earlier, it had gone sideways for a year – from $465.7 billion in February 2014 to $464.9 billion in February 2015. With the March spike, a signal that … Continued