The Fed Gets Ready to Meet in Jackson Hole

The Federal Reserve will get together later this week at their big annual conference in Jackson Hole. From Europe, Mr. Draghi will be there as well. I doubt there will be much in the way of news, but you never know. In previous years, the Fed has used Jackson Hole to announce major policy changes.

It seems that a December rate hike is a diminishing possibility. As I’ve said before, inflation just ain’t there. The futures market currently thinks there’s a 35.9% chance of a rate hike in December.

Here are a few updates on some of our Buy List stocks.

Longbow Research cut Snap-on (SNA) to neutral. The shares are down about 4% this morning. I wouldn’t worry about it.

On Friday, HEICO (HEI) said they’re buying AeroAntenna Technology for $316.5 million. It’s HEICO’s largest merger to date.

To follow up on the great earnings report from Ross Stores (ROST), I saw this at Business Insider:

In some stores, the fitting rooms are “dirty,” the service is “horrible,” and merchandise is mislabeled, ink-stained, broken, or damaged, according to an analysis of dozens of customer reviews on Yelp.

But in those same reviews, customers complaining about the state of the stores admit they love shopping in them for the “insane” deals.

“I LOVE SHOPPING AT ROSS!” one customer wrote on Yelp, adding that she feels like she’s “robbing the bank” when she finds deals there.

Another wrote: “I love this place for cheap clothes. It’s just always so dirty, dank and full of screaming children.”

This is why Ross has been able to withstand Amazon.

Last Thursday, Hormel Foods (HRL) said they’re buying Fontanini Brand Meats for $425 Million

From the WSJ:

Hormel, the maker of Spam canned pork and Skippy peanut butter, said it has acquired Fontanini Italian Meats and Sausages from privately held Capitol Wholesale Meats Inc. The Chicago-based business sells branded meat products such as pizza toppings and meatballs.

Hormel and other major U.S. meat processors, such as Tyson FoodsInc. TSN +0.37% and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. PPC +0.67% , have aimed to fill out their portfolios of branded food products in search of higher and more stable profit margins than they can get from fresh meats sold to restaurants or shrink-wrapped in supermarkets.

“This is a strategic acquisition for our high-growth food-service division,” Hormel’s Chief Executive Jim Snee said in a statement. “The Fontanini brand is highly regarded, and the addition of these products to our portfolio will allow us to accelerate growth.”

Posted by on August 21st, 2017 at 11:06 am


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