By SIMON CONSTABLE
It’s official. In Britain, Uber Technologies drivers are now employees and not gig workers.
The deal is a (minor) blow to the ride share company, but could become a major hit to the broader economy if policy makers don’t show restraint. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
A new study suggests that the rate of patent filings shoots up as high as 20% during pandemic-related lockdowns. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Gold investors are having a rough time so far this year. But the reasons for the asset’s poor performance are likely not what you think. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Despite reports to the contrary, the recent surge in the price of silver has little to do with the Reddit group that sparked a monster-size rally in the price of beleaguered retailer GameStop. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
What worked for the Reddit group with GameStop Corp is failing in the silver market. The problem seems to come down to a glaring ignorance of how the commodities markets work. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Investors in iconic electric vehicle company Tesla should take heed: The stock is overvalued.
And its not just a little pricey. The odds are against the company’s financials being sufficient to justify the recent price. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Are we in a financial bubble?
There appears to be no end to news stories claiming that indeed we are experiencing one. But the truth is likely the opposite because when you are in a bubble you are likely the last to know. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Last week I got a call from a friend who told me that Tesla
He noted that the stock was recently trading at $883 a share but that some people were buying call options at around $1,000 more a share. That’s approximately $1,900 if you were wondering.
“Tesla at $1,900 is free money,” he said. Read more here.
Photo by Torbjorn Sandbakk on Unsplash
By SIMON CONSTABLE
We like to view it as a critical benchmark for United States presidents—the first 100 days in office. After all, Franklin D. Roosevelt certainly made good and historical use of his first three and a half months, accomplishing great strides in 1933 to help turn the tide on the Great Depression. The only problem is that reality doesn’t quite come out so neatly. Indeed, it has been just the reverse, and one has to wonder how the Biden administration will work out. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
For years, skeptics have warned that the popularity of passive funds could destabilize the markets, making the latter more volatile than they would otherwise be during times of economic stress. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
When investors first read or hear the term “Brobdingnagian base” they might be taken aback. Not only is “Brobdingnagian” a mouthful to pronounce, it is a literary reference that at first glance might seem unrelated to finance. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Increased global demand, together with recent supply cuts, could spark a more than 20% rally in oil prices this year, experts say.
“We expect prices to peak at $65 and remain in the range $55 to $65,” says Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. in New York.Futures contracts for light sweet crude were recently fetching $53 a barrel on the Commodities Mercantile Exchange. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Weary tax payers may remember the banking bailout of 2008. That’s the time when the Federal government forked over $700 billion to financial institutions in order to save the banking system.
Was that favor returned to businesses in need during the recent Covid crisis? No. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
For the first time in what seems like forever, U.S. inflation is trending higher. However, that may not continue and that could have a major impact on the bond market. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
A drop in corn production will result in reduced supplies of the grain, propelling prices higher over the next few months, experts say.
U.S. corn inventory at the end of the 2020-21 growing season will be 1.3 billion bushels, far lower than the 1.7-billion-bushel level expected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says Shawn Hackett, president of Hackett Financial Advisors. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
As if 2020 wasn’t bad enough, 2021 will likely bring biblical-style extreme weather including droughts, frigid winters, and monster hurricanes, recent research shows. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
How will stocks perform in 2021?
It’s hard to know before it happens. However, if you are willing to wait until the end of January you’ll have a highly reliable signal on which way it will go, according to a recent report from Wall Street analytics firm CFRA. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Recent unseasonably dry weather in South America, and worries that the lack of moisture will continue, could propel soybean prices more than 40% higher in the first quarter of 2021.
“South America is a little too dry and uncomfortably dry,” says Sal Gilbertie, founder and CEO of commodity exchange-traded fund company Teucrium Trading. Read more here.
Soybeans
Dalgial, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Some philanthropists are born into families of modest means, while others inherit their wealth. But one thing seems to unite them—giving away money for charitable purposes isn't as easy as it might first appear. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
History shows that America will lead the global recovery this time just like it has in the past. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Investors will hear or read about Wall Street professionals using contrary or contrarian indicators to predict which way asset prices will move. While the concept can be confusing to new investors, it may be particularly relevant now. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is getting serious about going green.
At least its hard to make any other conclusion following an announcement made Monday by the country’s oil giant Aramco as well as other involved parties. However, you may have to read between the lines to understand the significance. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The U.S. economy continues to bounce back.
Its now estimated to be growing at the rip-roaring rate of 11% during the fourth quarter, according to the latest estimate from the Atlanta Fed dated November 25. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to dog local labor markets in the U.S. And that’s why the government needs to step in with another round of fiscal stimulus or risk derailing the jobs recovery, according to a recent report from Deutsche Bank (DB). Read more here.
BY SIMON CONSTABLE
The recent fall in gold prices might not be over and investors should wait until the market stabilizes before buying the precious metal, experts say. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Investors in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds have been dumping their commodities holdings for five straight weeks, new data shows.
It could be a contrary indicator that it’s time to invest in commodities. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Recent lackluster price action in the precious metals market shouldn't leave gold investors down in the dumps. Shortly, the bull market for the yellow metal is set to resume, according to a recent report from Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
As recent market action shows, there are perils with investments that track market-capitalization-weighted indexes—especially when a rally goes into reverse. Read more here.
By Simon Constable
Wall Street professionals increasingly are investing in companies considered to be “green” in that they follow ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Investors continued plowing their cash into gold bullion in the third quarter, helping propel the price more than 5% higher over the period. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
China wants to say good-bye to smoggy cities and toxic waste. And it seems to mean business this time, as they are bringing in western energy experts to help make sure they achieve it. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
It’s time for British savers and investors to watch out.
The Bank of England, the U.K.’s central bank, is now testing the waters for possible negative interest rates.
If that happens, it would be a financial war on hardworking savers in Britain and at the same time likely hurt the economy. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Veteran investor Charlie Munger once quipped, “Show me the incentive, and I'll show you the outcome.” Put simply, what metrics an employer uses to determine performance pay will likely have a profound effect on the way employees behave. In turn, that impacts how companies perform. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Why would anyone want to buy a bond with a negative yield?
It’s a good question especially given that experts estimate that there are almost $16 trillion of bonds in the world that have negative yields. That’s a lot of securities that investors have purchased knowing that they’ll get back less money than they invested. It means that a one-year bond with a face value of $1,000 that yields minus 1% will leave the investor with $990 when the bond matures. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Investors might start hearing a lot more about the output gap, an obscure metric Wall Street professionals historically have used to predict changes in Federal Reserve monetary policy and the potential for an increase in inflation.
Using it, however, can be more art than science. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The recent fall in gold and silver prices could present a buying opportunity for those wishing to invest in precious metals for the medium and longer term. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Reports of the death of cities are much exaggerated.
Yes, it is true that New York City and other major metropolitan areas have seen some problems lately, but overall it may be more of a media circus than reality, according to a recent research report from UK-based bank Barclays. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
A sweeping victory by the Democrats in early November would be positive news for the stock market, according to a recent report from New York-based bank Goldman Sachs. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
For many people, 2020 is synonymous with the COVID-19 pandemic, a brutal election campaign in the United States, and ongoing tension between the US and China. But there’s one major event that seems to have slipped from the radar: Brexit, Britain’s historic exit from the European Union. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Coastal residents from Florida to New York can start to rest a little bit easier from fears of being battered by tropical storms. But for investors, that’s just when things can tend to get a bit rougher in the stock market.
Stocks have historically seen tumultuous times during October, and that’s something no savvy investor should ignore. “October is a scary month,” says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at the financial research company CFRA. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
“[W]e think this decline will represent an opportunity to buy rather than a reason to bail,” states a recent report from Sam Stovall, chief market strategist at New York-based financial research firm CFRA. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
At the end of last month, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell announced a shift in one of its decades-long policy goals. It’s a move that should worry investors and workers alike. Here’s what happened and why it’s a problem:
At the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium, Powell said that instead of targeting an annualized inflation rate of 2%, the institution would allow the rise in the cost of living to go above that rate for long periods. The idea, Powell explained, was to take account of long periods when inflation had remained stubbornly below its target.
Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Stock-market sectors generally don’t move in strict synchronization. Some will lead as others lag behind, and a key question for investors is which sector is poised to move up fastest next. Read more here.
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