Barrons: Time to Stock Up On Wheat

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Get ready for wheat prices to reach for the sky. In fact, depending on the weather, they could more than double from current levels.

How so? “Wheat supplies relative to global demand and relative to global trade are the lowest they have been in 50 years,” writes Shawn Hackett, author of the Hackett Money Flow Report, in a recent research note. What he looks at is the ratio of year-end inventories to the level of wheat that is traded on the global market. See original story here.

Photo by meriç tuna on Unsplash

MarketWatch: Britain’s National Bird Should be Awesome, Not Ordinary

By SIMON CONSTABLE

When it comes to creative ideas, the right execution means so much. That’s why Britain’s“Vote for Britain’s National Bird” campaign is so irksome.

A fantastic opportunity has been missed through a startling lack of imagination.

The vote is now down to a shortlist of birds. They are OK, as far as they go, which actually isn’t very far. The list is as follows: Barn owl, blackbird, blue tit, hen harrier, kingfisher, mute swan, puffin, red kite, robin and wren. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen most of these wonderful creatures in the wild myself.

There’s the problem, because that fact alone — that most of the birds are a longstanding part of the domestic fauna, just doesn’t fit with the rest of Britain’s national animals.

Take, for instance, the lion and the unicorn, respectively the national animals of England and Scotland; They are rarely if ever seen loping across Britain’s fields. Likewise the Welsh mascot, the dragon, is rarely, if ever, seen flying around. See original story here.

Photo by Rhii Photography on Unsplash

WSJ: So You Found a Warrant in Your Mutual Fund?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Occasionally, when you look through a mutual fund’s holdings, you’ll come across securities called warrants. What are they, and why would anyone want them?

Warrants are almost identical to stock options. These securities allow the holder to buy a company’s stock at a predetermined price, called the strike price, for a set period. If the stock’s price rises above the strike price, the warrant holder can purchase shares at a below-market price. See original story here.

Barron's: How Pimco is Wading into Stocks

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The trickiest part of investing—and the most important—is determining the right mix of stocks and bonds. When investors think of Pimco, it’s usually with regard to the bond side of its portfolio. Yet its stock funds have done remarkably well.

Enter the $820 million Pimco Dividend and Income Builder fund (ticker: PQIZX). This three-year-old fund is a hybrid stock-bond fund. Despite the considerable experience his firm has in fixed-income investing, manager Brad Kinkelaar runs a fund (with three other managers, including the firm’s new chief investment officer, Dan Ivascyn) that’s heavily skewed toward stocks—its target mix is 75% equities, 25% bonds. “It could be confusing,” he says. See original story here.