Morning News: September 6, 2016
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on September 6th, 2016 at 7:02 am

Schaeuble Says German Budget Means Stability in Uncertain Times

German Factory Orders Undershoot Forecast as Momentum Cools

Saudi Arabia And Russia Oil Agreement Not Worth The Paper It’s Signed On

Hong Kong Squares Up to Singapore, Australia With Fintech Hub

Higher Rates Increase The Cost Of Carrying Commodity Inventories

Hanjin Shipping’s Parent Steps In to Help Unload Stranded Cargo

G.E. Offers $1.4 Billion for 3-D Printing Technology Companies

Intel’s Latest Acquisition Is All About Giving Sight to Machines

Bayer Sweetens Monsanto Bid as Talks Enter Final Stretch

Lego Profit Slips as Toy Maker Ramps Up Investment

General Motors Settles Last Bellwether Ignition-Switch Cases

VietJet Buys $2.39 Billion in Airbus Planes

Musk Confronts Wall Street Divided on Tesla in Plea to Workers

Jeff Miller: Test Your Employment Report IQ

Josh Brown: Amenomaniacs!

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Morning News: September 5, 2016
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on September 5th, 2016 at 7:20 am

Sterling Jumps as U.K. Services Data Allays Brexit Fears

Bank of Japan’s Kuroda Sees the Other Side of Negative Rates

Saudi, Russia Pledge Oil Cooperation Without Agreeing Freeze

Oil Pares Gains After Saudi, Russia Sign Pact

Obama Makes Trade Deal Top Priority in Remaining Months

Hanjin Bankruptcy: What Does It Mean To The Global Containerized Shipping Industry?

Telefonica Eyes Sale of Minority Stake in Britain’s O2

Alphabet Ends Effort to Create Modular Smartphone

Volkswagen Faces Brussels Push for Penalties in 20 EU Countries

Smith & Wesson Is On Fire, But Is It Almost Out Of Bullets?

UPS Is About to Get More Expensive

Coca-Cola Says It ‘Replenished’ All The Water It Used to Make Its Soft Drinks

Is Elon Musk Trying To Do Too Much Too Fast?

Jeff Miller: Should We Expect September Mourning?

Cullen Roche: Three Things I Think I Think – Unrealistic Expectations Edition

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Morning News: September 2, 2016
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on September 2nd, 2016 at 7:06 am

China Expedites Economic Transition

Israel Courts Foreign Money In Effort to Become Gas Exporter

In Shakeup, Most Greek TV Stations Set To Lose Licenses

Is The Banking System Stable? FDIC Data Give Warnings

U.S. Firms Take Action Against Hanjin Shipping As Half Its Fleet Gets Blocked

European Commission Hits Back at Former Official in Apple Tax Spat

Caterpillar Considers Closing Belgian Site, Laying Off 2,000

Can Organic Gatorade Succeed?

Yum Brands Sells Slice of China Business Ahead of Spinoff

Enbridge Scraps Plan to Build Sandpiper Amid Bakken

Rocket Internet Posts First-Half Loss, Shares Plunge

When a Commercial Rocket Blows Up, Who Pays?

Samsung Issues Recall for Galaxy Note 7 After Battery Fires

Josh Brown: August NFP Preview: Big Lie Coming

Jeff Carter: A Lot of Things Are Counter-Intuitive

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It’s Been Three Sweet Decades for Hershey
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on September 1st, 2016 at 1:58 pm

Morning News: September 1, 2016
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on September 1st, 2016 at 7:00 am

Yellen Speech Contained Clue to Reading the August Jobs Report

Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Affairs Will Be Overseen by & Experts in Finance and Law

Wall Street’s Next Frontier Is Hacking Into Emotions of Traders

Manufacturing Falters as Global Demand Weakens

Billionaire Li’s Victory in Italy Snaps String of Deal Setbacks

Macau Gaming Snaps Two-Year Drop to Rise 1.1% on New Resorts

Walmart Plans Early Layaway Program to Catch ‘Star Wars’ Holiday Boost

British Airways Flights to Iran Set to Resume

Tim Cook, Apple Chief, Defends Tax Practices and Says Cash Will Return to U.S.

Former Air China Manager Charged With Smuggling in U.S. for Chinese Military

Hanjin Ships Get Stranded in High Seas, Roiling Supply Chain

Samsung Mobile Recovery Suffers Blow As Galaxy Notes ‘Catch Fire’

Hollywood’s Summertime Bombs Got a Lot More Disastrous This Year

Roger Nusbaum: Is Barron’s Right About Options Funds?

Jeff Miller: Why Smart Investors Struggle to Beat the Market: Over-emphasis on Recent Performance

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5 Signs that Stocks Have Room to Run
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 31st, 2016 at 2:21 pm

Share Buybacks Are Down
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 31st, 2016 at 10:27 am

Interesting facts via James Saft:

U.S. company stock buybacks are down 21 percent in the first seven months of 2016 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to TrimTabs Investment Research, a fall driven in part by five consecutive quarters of year-over-year earnings declines among S&P 500 stocks.

(…)

Over the first six months of the year S&P 500 companies paid out 112 percent of their earnings in the form of either dividends or share buybacks.

(…)

Companies have issued debt in such size that net debt compared to a standard measure of earnings is now at an all-time high for non-financial companies in the S&P 500, according to data from FactSet, having almost doubled in about five years.

How Should We Read Investor Letters?
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 31st, 2016 at 9:57 am

In the latest New Yorker, John Lanchester writes on the science and art of the investor letter. Here’s a sample:

If Buffett hadn’t chosen to be one of the richest men in the history of the world, he would have made an unfailingly readable financial journalist. He has a great eye for telling details: talking about the risks in the insurance business, he comes up with the startling fact that the epicenter of the biggest earthquake in American history, 8.7 on the Richter scale, was located far from any tectonic fault line, in New Madrid, Missouri, in 1812. (At least that’s how Buffett tells it; seismologists agree it was one of the biggest earthquakes, estimated at between 7.0 and 8.8.) He tells us about a year in the insurance business during which a colleague underwrote insurance policies on the life of Mike Tyson, the possibility of more than two hundred and twenty-five Lloyd’s “Names” dying, and two Chinese satellites. “Happily,” he says, “both satellites are orbiting, the Lloyd’s folk avoided abnormal mortality, and if Mike Tyson looked any healthier, no one would get in the ring with him.” His writing is lucid, with a strong folksy streak, often borrowed from the lyrics of country music: “A line from a country song expresses our feeling about new ventures, turnarounds, or auction-like sales: ‘When the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s me.’ ” Or, on acquisitions gone wrong: “How can I miss you when you won’t go away?” He can be mordant, too. “If a CEO is enthused about a particularly foolish acquisition, both his internal staff and his outside advisors will come up with whatever projections are needed to justify his stance. Only in fairy tales are emperors told that they are naked.”

The letters need not have been written. Buffett could easily have decided that the numbers speak for themselves—especially when they’re enunciating as loudly and clearly as his do. Buffett took over Berkshire Hathaway in April, 1965, when the shares cost eighteen dollars. By the time of his fiftieth-anniversary letter to shareholders, in 2015, the shares were trading for two hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars, an annual gain of about twenty-one per cent. No other investor matches that record over that period of time. In the world of hedge funds, secrecy about investment methods is de rigueur: if the sauce weren’t secret, you wouldn’t be having to pay two per cent per year, and twenty per cent of the profit on top, for your serving of it. Buffett, by contrast, doesn’t miss an opportunity to explain his ideas.

Morning News: August 31, 2016
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 31st, 2016 at 7:09 am

Africa’s Biggest Economy Has Crashed Into Recession

Euro-Area Inflation Undershoots Forecast Before ECB Meeting

Apple Ireland Ruling Could Be the End of Easy European Tax Deals

Two Fed Officials Offer Different Views on Risks From Low Rates

Why Apple’s $14.5 Billion Tax Fine Is Worse for Shareholders Than it Looks

Will Amazon Kill FedEx?

Theranos Halts New Zika Test After FDA Inspection

Warren Buffett-Backed BYD Rises To 14-Month High After Electric Car Sales Soar

Alphabet Expands Car-Pooling Project, Casting Shadow on Uber

Mitsubishi Heavy Discusses U.S. Armored Vehicle Tie Up After Losing Sub Deal

SWIFT Discloses More Cyber Thefts, Pressures Banks on Security

College Group Sues U.S., Saying It’s Target of Political Agenda

French Coca-Cola Workers Find Smuggled Cocaine in Shipment

Howard Lindzon: The Myth of Professionals and The Stock Market

Josh Brown: Everyone Is A Closet Technician

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Buy Real Estate Stocks?
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 30th, 2016 at 3:54 pm