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.

MarketWatch: The Price of Dumb: $15 Trillion

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

We all know there’s a price for being dumb. The problem is quantifying it. 

But now some researchers have an estimate of the cost of America’s failure to make the grade in the classroom. It will cost the U.S. economy close to $15 trillion through the year 2050. 

That’s trillion, with a T. It’s enough money to wipe out nearly all of America’s debt. Read more here.

Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

WSJ: The Food Stamps-Beer Connection

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It’s a strange trend, one that could be significant to policy makers: When monthly food-stamp distributions fall on a weekend, beer sales to that population jump – by up to 7%.

According to a new study, the day of the week food-stamp funds are distributed seems to be influencing monthly beer sales among the population eligible for the benefit. The findings were released in a paper this month by Elena Castellari and Chad Cotti of theUniversity of Connecticut, and the University South Carolina’s John Gordanier and Orgul D. Ozturk. See original story here.

United States Department of Agriculture, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

WSJ: What is a Secular Bull Market?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about a “secular bull market” for stocks. It definitely sounds promising. But what exactly does it mean?

In short: It describes a long-term bull market.

“Think about a halcyon economic situation that keeps corporate profits high and extends for a long time,” says Jeremy Hill, managing partner at New York-based asset-management firm Old Blackheath Cos. At such a time, stocks have the wind at their back, with solid economic growth driving higher and higher earnings. However, during the long life of a secular bull market, stocks occasionally will fall back before resuming their climb, Mr. Hill says. See original story here.