The Labor Department’s Weekly Claims Report for initial unemployment claims showed that claims decreased by 17,000 last week. This was an encouraging development given all the concern about employment—or the lack thereof—during recent weeks after the unemployment rate was raised to 9.8 percent and initial jobless claims rose last week. […]
The weekly mortgage application survey released by Mortgage Bankers Association today gave some bad news. The report (which you can read here) shows a decrease of 2.3 percent in mortgage applications seasonally and a 2.7 percent decrease from last week’s numbers. According to the Department of Labor, the Consumer Price […]
In her International Yield model, manager Vivian Lewis uses closed-end funds, stocks and preferred shares from countries outside the United States in order to create a portfolio with a target yield of 5 percent. Last week, she added offshore deepwater drilling company SeaDrill Ltd (NYSE: SDRL) to the model. After […]
The MergerArb model managed by Atlas Capital stays focused on US companies that are definite or potential takeover targets. Atlas Capital uses screening guidelines to choose which pre-takeover companies to add to the model. These guidelines consider liquidity, premium and share prices of the company. When a certain premium yield […]
While we have a slew of economic data coming this week, today gave us nothing but corporate acquisitions. Some of the major players in the merger and acquisition activity today included Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) who completed its acquisition of LineSider Technologies Inc., Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) who announced […]
There weren’t many new economic revelations today. The Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from Mortgage Bankers Association was released and it did not bring good news for the housing sector, although that wasn’t completely unexpected. According to the report (which you can find here), mortgage loan applications decreased by .9 percent […]
In his Precedent-Based model, manager John Ward couples fundamental analysis with market timing strategies that he’s developed through a daily review of technical data. His main objective for the model is to minimize risk and to ignore the “noise” of Wall Street. Last week he added Grupo Financiero Galicia SA […]
The key moment in this chart is in 2008, when the red ‘All Other’ goes negative. That means that there was no money available in the private sector to fuel business activity. From Global Macro Monitor: If, as the President says, ‘the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our […]
In their Growth Plus Income model, managers BSG&L look for a target yield of 5 percent with bond ETFs and dividend-paying stocks. Their holdings can stretch across multiple sectors and investments. They target overweight sectors and look to income positions to reduce risk. Income producing positions are held in the […]
I recently contemplated Fiduciary / Claymore MLP Opportunity Fund (FMO), which I neither own, nor am I short. Still, there appears to be a lack of awareness about FMO structural inefficiency and recent governance history. I have no interest in being long this Closed-End Fund, even as its relative valuation has become less unattractive.
On Tuesday evening November 23rd 2010, Kayne Anderson Midstream/Energy Fund (KMF) announced the pricing of its Initial Public Offering (“IPO”). Closed End Fund IPOs are always priced at a premium to their Net Asset Value (“NAV”) so regardless how good or bad the investment is for its new shareholders, such an announcement always marks a particular marketing feat.
Volkswagen’s Fun Theory Award is dedicated to the idea that “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better.” This year’s winner, Kevin Richardson, came up with a brilliant approach to lowering driving speeds that was actually turned into reality on a Stockholm throroughfare. Richardson’s idea was to […]