Sectors
Sector Performance Means Little, Industry Results More Telling - 05/14
Don’t read too much into last week’s sector result - it was more about a dead-cat bounce, where the harder a sector fell, the firmer the short-term bounce was. The coming week’s results along with the four-week results at the end of the coming week will really be a more telling description of any bigger-picture [...]
Sector Rotation Waving a Small Red Flag… So Far
Nothing was all that dramatic last week on the sector front in terms of total gains or losses. Yet, it was a huge week in terms of the paradigm shift we saw unfold. How so? It’s just that the market’s biggest habitual losers suddenly because the biggest winner (relatively), and the market’s strongest sectors of [...]
Online Brokerage Firms Hit a Headwind
Schwab set the tone, and other online trading brokerage houses followed suit with pretty tepid first quarter results. Were it just one aspect of revenue-bearing business or another, it may be forgivable. Not much went right for these brokers last quarter though, and the foreseeable future (i.e. growth) doesn’t look [...]
Airlines See Ray of Light, Even Through the Ash Cloud
If the first quarter’s fiscal results along with March’s traffic reports are any indication, airlines may finally be investment-worthy again.
Delta kicked things off this week with a by reporting a quarterly loss of $256 million (or -$0.23 per share) – the smallest one in while. Revenue was up 2% as [...]
The New Shipping & Transportation ‘Make or Break’ Detail
The New Shipping & Transportation ‘Make or Break’ Detail
While total shipping volumes year-to-date are not yet back up to 2008’s (and prior) levels, they are well above 2009’s volumes at this point in the year. That’s true of trucking, rail, marine, and air fright - it’s all on the mend. [...]
Earnings Season’s Biggest Disappointments So Far
Though there have been more ‘beats’ than ‘shortfalls’ to kick off this earnings season, some of the downside surprises were not only disappointing, but may be red flags investors will want to keep in mind with related stocks this quarter, and the same stocks next quarter.
In no particular order, these [...]
Why Fertilizer Stocks Are the Market’s Biggest Habitual Losers
It’s hard to believe that any sector or industry could actually be in the red for the last twelve months, given the catapult-like action the market used to send stocks upward back in mid-March of last year. Yet, the fertilizer/agricultural chemical industry’s stocks are indeed in the hole for that time frame. [...]
Retail Reality Check – Comparing March to What Number?
On the surface, the retail sales numbers unveiled last week looked at least promising for all merchants, and downright amazing for a few of these names. Take Saks Inc. (NYSE:SKS) and Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE:JWN), for instance. Saks saw a 12.7% increase in same-store sales last month, while Nordstrom fostered a 16.8% [...]
Move Over eBay, & Look Out Amazon
Move over eBay, and take notice Amazon.com - you’re not the only internet-retailing game in town anymore. Oh, your dominance in the online-auction and e-tailing spaces (respectively) are still intact - for now. If you think you’re impervious though, you should know that Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) just posted its first full-year [...]
The Only Thing Keeping Gambling Alive
Considering the average one is up about 85% for the last twelve months, one would think casino stocks - and the companies they represent - are on the mend like most everything else. So why then is Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) looking to sell its stake in the half-built Revel Casino [...]
