The following article, seeking to explain China's recent missteps in handling its domestic stock market, is quite interesting: And congratulations on writing some excellent (& cool-headed) analysis this week
Hi Eoin, I love my daily read of your great service.
What is your opinion on Royal Dutch Shell, I am under water by about 30% not counting dividends.
This article by Shobhana Chandra for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
Amazon.com Inc. held a Prime Day on July 15 to mark its 20th anniversary, featuring reduced prices on television sets, lawnmowers and other goods. The company said the promotion helped to drive orders surpassing Black Friday, an annual U.S. sales event following the Thanksgiving Day holiday that kicks off the year-end shopping season.
The job market is giving consumers the wherewithal to keep spending. Payrolls grew in July by 215,000 workers following a 231,000 gain in the prior month, and the jobless rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 percent.
This article by Katherine Chiglinsky for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
Warren Buffett said buying Mondelez International Inc., the maker of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, would be difficult for him and his partners at 3G Capital because they’re still working on last month’s purchase of Kraft Foods Group Inc.
“It’s quite unlikely that Kraft Heinz will be doing a big acquisition in the next couple of years,” Buffett said Monday in an interview on CNBC. “We’ve got our work cut out for us for a couple of years.”
H.J. Heinz acquired Kraft last month with the backing of 3G Capital and Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Activist investor Bill Ackman revealed last week that he has built a 7.5 percent stake in Mondelez valued at $5.6 billion. Shares of Deerfield, Illinois-based Mondelez climbed after the announcement, contributing to a 12 percent gain since July 3.
“Most of the food companies sell at prices that would be very hard for us to make a deal even if we had done all the work needed at Kraft Heinz,” Buffett said.
RiverFront Investments have been telling us that European stocks are interesting investments now that a recovery of the EU economy is happening. Over the last few years you and David have correctly argued in favour of investment in European Autonomies because such a large proportion of their sales takes place outside Europe. If RiverFront is correct, should we not be investing in European firms that do most if not all their business inside Europe? Which European firms correspond to this criterion?
This article by Lindsey Rupp for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
Same-store sales fell 5 percent last quarter, excluding currency fluctuations. That was a slightly better performance than the 5.4 percent decline analysts predicted. Michael Kors expects comparable sales to decline by a low-single-digit percentage on that basis in the second quarter.
To help spur demand, the brand has been slashing prices on many of its products. Kors is contending with sluggish mall traffic and a strong dollar, which has reduced tourist spending.
The company also is adding new products in the second half and improving its digital operations.
Sales in the handbag business remain “robust,” though they aren’t growing at the same rates as previous years, executives said on the earnings conference call. Backpacks are getting more popular, and millennial customers in particular prefer smaller bags and cross-body purses, which typically have lower retail values. Watch sales also dragged down the company’s North American same-store sales, the company said.
This article by Annelise Alexander for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied 0.9 percent to 2,111.19 at 10:43 a.m. in New York, after slipping 0.7 percent over the previous three sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 91.67 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,642.36 with its rise partially muted by Disney’s drop. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.2 percent.
“The market has been under a little bit of pressure looking for a reason to go back up,” said John Manley, who helps oversee about $233 billion as chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Funds Management in New York. “The market’s moving in the right direction. A slow, steady recovery is probably a good thing. The single most important factor affecting stock markets is what the Fed is doing.”
This article by Michael P. Regan for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
After reporting its lowest profit since 2009 and cutting in half its plans for buybacks this quarter, Exxon Mobil’s vice president of investor relations Jeffrey J. Woodbury told analysts on a conference call: ‘‘Fundamentally, we’re committed to our shareholders to continue to provide a reliable and growing dividend.”
Said Chevron Corp. chief financial officer Patricia E. Yarrington on her company’s earnings call: “We said we would cover the dividend from free cash flow in 2017. We stand by that commitment.”
Chevron is paying almost 5 percent of its share price in dividends, the most since 1992 and near the highest above 10- year Treasury yields in data going back to 1991. It’s one of 19 energy companies in the S&P 500 with dividend yields above 10- year notes, and in recent weeks it exceeded Verizon Communications Inc. as the highest yielding blue chip in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Can’t you almost taste the salt-water taffy, kids? Like others who have addressed the “are we there yet” question in recent months, Martin Adams at Wells Fargo offers a less-than-satisfying answer: not quite yet, kids.
