• Morning News: February 7, 2011
    Posted by on February 7th, 2011 at 8:01 am

    German Industry Orders Sink in December

    Hong Kong Stocks Fall; Worst Start of Lunar New Year Since 2008

    Egypt Pound Hits Six-year Low Despite State Bank Support

    U.S. Treasuries Slide on Upbeat Economic Outlook

    S&P 500 Beating Estimates for Sales by Most Since 2006

    Breach Tied to Nasdaq May Have Wider Effect

    Humana Net Falls 57% Amid Higher Expenses

    Loews Profit Rises 16%

    AOL to Buy The Huffington Post for $315 Million

    Danaher to Purchase Beckman Coulter for $6.8 Billion

    Santander Offers $5.8 Billion for Polish Bank

    Finish Line Nears for Sanofi-Genzyme Talks

    Tibet Ad Not Likely to Help Groupon in China

    Leigh Drogen: The Lion And The Gazelle

    Howard Lindzon: Merger Monday is Awesome…Congrats Huffington Post and Steve Case is the New Grinch

  • Happy 40th Birthday, Nasdaq Composite
    Posted by on February 5th, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    The Nasdaq Composite Index debuted 40 years ago today. The index started at 100 on February 5, 1971.

    The all-time low close came on October 3, 1974 when the index hit 54.87. The high came on March 10, 2000 at 5048.62. Nearly 11 years later we’re barely more than half that.

  • Reagan at 100
    Posted by on February 5th, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    Ronald Reagan was born 100 years tomorrow.

    Here’s a fascinating video of Reagan speaking to Yale students in 1967. You almost expect Don Draper to come walking through.

    I could have posted one of Reagan’s many famous speeches, but I think this clip really captures Reagan the man, It really is interesting that Reagan isn’t speaking down to the students or glad-handing them. There’s no Bill Clinton-style “great question.”

    Regan defends himself with charm and grace, and most importantly, facts. The students should also be commended for asking serious questions. It’s a contentious but civil encounter.

  • Michael Lewis on Ireland
    Posted by on February 4th, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    Here’s another great piece by Michael Lewis (warning: it clocks in at 13,000 words). This time, he looks at Ireland.

    Here’s my favorite line:

    Across Europe just now men who thought their title was “minister of finance” have woken up to the idea that their job is actually government bond salesman.

  • Unemployment Drops to 9% in January
    Posted by on February 4th, 2011 at 9:05 am

    Here’s a rather strange-sounding jobs report: The jobless rate dropped from 9.4% in December to 9% in January, yet the economy only created 50,000 jobs last month. The private sector added 50,000 jobs and the public sector shed 14,000.

    The reason for the big decline in the rate is that fewer people are looking for jobs. Economists are also blaming the snow which sounds like a pretty lame excuse. The construction sector lost 32,000 jobs in January.

    If that’s not bad enough, the government did its benchmark revisions this past month, so the numbers for 2010 were even worse than we originally expected.

  • CWS Market Review – February 4, 2011
    Posted by on February 4th, 2011 at 7:59 am

    Last week was a mixed week for our Buy List. Ford ($F) was hurt by its weak earnings last Friday, but Moog ($MOG-A) came out with a very strong report that beat expectations by 10 cents per share. AFLAC ($AFL), Fiserv ($FISV) and Reynolds American ($RAI) all fell just shy of expectations, but all three gave very good guidance for the year ahead. I still like all of these stocks and I fault Ford for not communicating its business outlook better with the public.

    We’re heading to the back end of earnings season and this is when we often see smaller companies report since the “big boys” usually report at the beginning of the season.

    The latest numbers show that 297 companies in the S&P 500 have reported so far. On the whole, the reports have been quite good. A total of 243 companies have seen higher earnings while 50 have seen lower earnings and four have remained unchanged. Earnings are tracked to hit $22.91 (that’s in terms relative to the S&P 500 index) which is a nice 36.37% increase over the fourth quarter of 2009. No matter how you slice it, that’s very strong growth.

    Considering earnings compared with expectations, a total of 70.7% companies have beaten expectations, 21.8% have fallen short of expectations and 7.5% have gotten it right in the clown’s mouth.

    Let’s break down the numbers some more. Wall Street currently expects full-year 2011 earnings of 95.84 for the S&P 500. Going by Thursday’s close, those figures translate to a forward P/E Ratio of 13.64. If you invert that, you get an earnings yield of 7.33% which easily beats just about any bond you’ll find.

    For comparison, Moody’s index of bonds rated BAA is currently yielding 6.14% which is a good deal less than you can get in stocks. So stocks continue to be a good buy compared with bonds. In fact, “out of bonds and into stocks” has been the major trend over the past few months.

    I expect to see Wall Street raise its full-year forecasts but not by much. The Street currently expects 2012 earnings of 106.17 but I should caution you that that is a very preliminary estimate.

    There will certainly be bumps along the way, but I also expect to see more gains for the stock market. I think the S&P 500 can reasonably hit 1500 by the end of the year. (That’s a 14.8% gain in less than 11 months.)

    The other reason why I like equities is that the yield curve continues to be very wide. The steepness of the yield curve is one of our best “secret predictors” of the stock market. The difference between the yield on the two-year Treasury and the 30-year Treasury just hit an all-time high of 400 basis points. This means that interest rates are expected to rise, but not for a good long time.

    The lesson of history is very clear: Wall Street loves cheap money. The major downside is that Wall Street hates the inevitable consequences of cheap money. But using the yield curve as our guide, we can see that any trouble is still a way off.

    A few years ago I ran the numbers on how the stock market reacts to the yield curve. I found that from 1962 to 2007, all the stock market’s gains have come when the spread between the 90-day T-bill and the 10-year T-bond is 65 or more basis points. Today that spread stands at 340 basis points.

    For this earnings season, we have three more reports ahead of us. Don’t hold me to these dates, but I expect Sysco ($SYY) to report on Monday, Becton Dickinson ($BDX) on Tuesday and Wright Express ($WXS) on Thursday. I believe that WXS is the best candidate for an earnings beat. The other two stocks rarely beat or miss estimates by much so I’m not expecting any surprises there.

    I still like all the stocks on the Buy List but I’ll give you a few names that are especially good buys right now. Nicholas Financial ($NICK) had a great earnings report. On Tuesday, NICK got as high as $12.98 per share. I wouldn’t be surprised if NICK earned as much as $1.50 this calendar year.

    Ford ($F) got knocked around this past week but I fault the company for poor communication. The Ford story still holds and the stock is a little cheaper now. Frankly, the amount of selling surprised me. For now, Ford seems to have a floor of $15 per share. Any new position under $16 is a smart move.

    I think Oracle ($ORCL) can be a $40 stock before the end of the year.

    If you like dividends, Reynolds American ($RAI) is still as solid as ever. The stock now yields about 6.1%. The shares are off about $2 in the last month even though they missed earnings by one penny per share.

    JPMorgan Chase ($JPM) hasn’t done much since it creamed Wall Street’s forecast. I think JPM can make a run at $50 very soon, and a big dividend hike should be coming by April.

    In last week’s e-letter, I said that I wasn’t too worried if AFLAC ($AFL) were to miss earnings by a penny or two and that I was more concerned with their future earnings guidance. Well, maybe I was on to something. The company did indeed miss Wall Street’s EPS forecast by two cents ($1.33 versus $1.35) and they gave us decent full-year guidance. AFLAC now sees 2011 earnings coming in at the low end of their range of $5.97 to $6.19 per share. Despite the earnings miss, AFL is an excellent buy.

    That’s all for now. Be sure to keep visiting the blog for daily updates. I’ll have more market analysis for you in the next issue of CWS Market Review!

    Best – Eddy

  • Morning News: February 4, 2011
    Posted by on February 4th, 2011 at 7:57 am

    Oil Climbs, Heads for Second Week of Gains, on Economic Optimism

    Asian Shares End Higher; Merger Talks Boost Japan Steel Plays

    Merkel Turns Crisis into Opportunity to Reshape Euro Zone

    In Asia, Hello to Faster Trades and Goodbye to Lunch Hour

    Gold Falls as Recovering Economy Curbs Alternative-Asset Demand

    Bernanke Takes Sides on Debt Limit Vote

    Municipal Bond Yields Rise as Market Rally Stalls

    Aetna Lifts Dividend as Profit Tops Views

    Blackstone Posts 56% Rise in Quarterly Profit

    Luxury Goods’ LVMH Falls After 2010 Operating Profit Trails Estimate

    Joshua Brown: Brian Shannon: The Answer is Real Simple

    Leigh Drogen: Rupert Murdoch Just Doesn’t Get It

    Paul Kedrosky: Niall Ferguson on Systemic Risk in Egypt

    Turkey Claimed by Ethel Kennedy Sought for Harassing Mail Trucks

  • Fiserv Misses by a Penny
    Posted by on February 3rd, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    After the closing bell, Fiserv (FISV) reported Q4 earnings of $1.06 per share which was a penny below expectations. The market may not be pleased tomorrow by the earnings miss, but I’m not worried about one penny. My concern was a major miss and I thought that was a very remote possibility. In October, I wrote: “if they make less than $1 per share this quarter, we’ll know something went very wrong. In fact, if they made less than $1.04, it would be ugly.” So $1.06 is fine by me.

    For all of 2010, the company earned $4.05 compared with $3.66 in 2009. Quarterly sales rose from $1.06 billion to $1.08 billion. In October, Fiserv’s full-year guidance was $3.96 to $4.07 per share. I had wanted them to at least raise the low end because it seemed very obvious that they would easily top that. As it turns out, they did.

    The earnings miss is a disappointment, but not a major one. By far, the most important news is that Fiserv gave us full-year earnings guidance of $4.42 to $4.54 per share. Wall Street had been expecting $4.46.

    I think we’ll see a lower open tomorrow but that’s just the Street being a drama queen. My view hasn’t changed at all. Even going by the low end, FISV is going for 14.1 times 2011’s estimate. That’s a good buy.

  • Yield Curve At All-Time Steepiness
    Posted by on February 3rd, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    The spread between the two-year and the 30-year Treasury is now over 400 basis points. That’s the widest spread since the Treasury started issuing 30-year paper in the 1970s.

  • Your Efficient Market Data Point of the Day
    Posted by on February 3rd, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    According to Sportsbook.com, the odds for both heads and tails for Sunday’s big coin toss is -101. That means that you have to put up $101 to win $100.

    Since something has to go to the house, you can’t even get 50-50 odds on a coin toss. However, the house’s take on this bet is extremely small so I’m guessing they’re just using it to entice customers to wager on bets with wider spreads.

    Still, that’s better than betting on which team will win the coin toss which is -105 for both teams.

    For the winner of the game, Sportsbook.com has the Steelers at +120 and the Packers at -140.

    That’s like saying the Packers have a 58.3% chance of winning and the Steelers have a 45.5% chance of winning. You may have noticed that those add up to more than 100%, and that excess is the house’s cut.

    I think it’s interesting that on the biggest bet of the year, the vig is still—in my eyes—pretty sizeable.

    According to Brian Burke, one of the top football number crunchers around, the Steelers and Packers are almost perfectly matched. He has the Steelers at 50.07% and the Packers at 49.93%.

    Burke thinks the public’s turn toward the Packers is due to their strong playoff run which he places under the cognitive bias known as the recency effect.