Morning News: May 15, 2015
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 15th, 2015 at 7:00 am

ECB’s Mario Draghi Says Will Not Stop Short in Money Printing

India, China Commit to Work Together on Climate Change

SEC a Stumbling Block in Banks’ Forex Guilty Pleas

Treasury Yields Rediscover Downward Groove

The Scary New World of Tax Fraud

U.S. Labor Market Tightening; Inflation Still Muted

3 Things: The Labor Hoarding Effect

Netflix In Talks To Take Content To China

Avon Manipulation May Have Been Designed For Algorithms, Not Humans

Sally Beauty Hit By Data Breach For The Second Time In Just Over A Year

Macquarie-led Group Pays $1.6 Billion for Crown Castle Wireless Towers

Honda Recalls Nearly 5 Million Vehicles With Takata Airbags

Just 38 Miles Apart, One Texas Oil Town Is Still Booming and the Other Is Dead

Joshua Brown: Battle of the Quants 2015: Wall Street vs. Silicon Valley

Jeff Carter: How Do You Trust Your Gut?

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Morning News: May 14, 2015
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 14th, 2015 at 6:43 am

European Stocks Hurt By Dollar’s Decline

Chinese Jewelry Demand Falls In Favor of Stocks

Schaeuble Backs Greek Referendum to Break Bailout Impasse

IDB Puts Islamic Finance on AIIB drawing Board

Alibaba to Invest More Abroad As Globalization Top Priority

Wal-Mart to Challenge Amazon Prime With $50 Shipping Service

UBS Guilty Plea for Libor Seen Opening Door to Political Battle

Cisco Sets Up For New Boss

Facebook to Increase Minimum Wage and Benefits for Contractors

Cypress Semiconductor Offers to Buy Integrated Silicon Solution

JC Penney ‘On The Offensive’ After Smaller Than Expected Loss But Not Out Of The Woods Yet

Morgan Stanley Fined $2 Million Over Short-Sale Reporting

5 Big Banks Expected to Plead Guilty to Felony Charges, but Punishments May Be Tempered

Niels Jensen: How to Dress For A Rainy Day (Of Low Nominal Investing Returns)

Roger Nusbaum: Close to Retirement and Under-Saved, What Should You Do?

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Wabtec Raises Dividend by 33%
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 13th, 2015 at 4:26 pm

Good news for Wabtec (WAB):

Wabtec Corporation (WAB) today increased its regular quarterly dividend to 8 cents per share, from 6 cents per share. The new dividend rate will be payable initially Aug. 31, 2015 to shareholders of record Aug. 17, 2015.

Raymond T. Betler, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer, said: “Based on our current financial performance and future outlook, the company has ample financial strength to invest in growth opportunities and to return a greater portion of our cash flow to shareholders. We intend to continue to review our policies periodically based on Wabtec’s ongoing performance and growth prospects.”

This is a pretty tiny dividend for the company. WAB is expected to earn $4.13 per share this year. The annual dividend of 32 cents works out to a payout ratio of less than 8%. The yield is now 0.32%.

Another Poor Retail Sales Report
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 13th, 2015 at 10:42 am

Today we got another poor retail sales report. April sales were unchanged from March. In the last 12 months, retail sales were up a scant 0.9%. One bright spot is that the numbers for February and March were revised higher. When you exclude gasoline, retail sales were again unchanged, and without autos, sales were up 0.1%.

The market is holding onto early gains this morning. Tech stocks are doing especially well. The Tech ETF (XLK) is up 0.77%. That’s good for our Buy List. Qualcomm (QCOM) is up more than 2.2% and Microsoft (MSFT) is up close to 1.5%.

The Dow is trailing due to a big drop at DuPont (DD). The company appears to have won its fight against Nelson Peltz who was trying to get on DuPont’s board. It’s interesting how the company won, but the stock is down more than 6% today.

Morning News: May 13, 2015
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 13th, 2015 at 7:14 am

Bank of England Cuts Growth Outlook, Backs Market’s View on Rates

U.S. Set to Rip Up UBS Libor Accord, Seek Conviction

Greece Back in Recession as Bailout Impasse Drains Economy

China’s Economy Not Getting High on Stimulants

Global Bond Market Suffers From Erratic Swings Amid Liquidity Drought

Oil Glut Worsens as OPEC Market-Share Battle Just Beginning

Oil Prices Rise on Weaker Dollar

Moody’s Investors Service Downgrades Chicago’s Credit Rating to ‘Junk’ Category

AOL Valued at a Fraction of WhatsApp Tells 15 Years of Messaging

Facebook Begins Testing Instant Articles From News Publishers

Tencent Profit Slows Significantly in Latest Quarter

AP Moller-Maersk’s $1.57 Billion Q1 Net Profit Beats Expectations, Lifts 2015 Forecast Slightly

Japan’s Three Top Carmakers to Expand Recalls By Millions

Joshua Brown: How Many Active Mutual Funds Have Beaten the S&P 500 in 8 Consecutive Years?

Cullen Roche: Felix Salmon is Right – Stocks Are Consistently Overhyped

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FactSet Raises Dividend by 13%
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 12th, 2015 at 2:26 pm

One of my former Buy List stocks, FactSet Research Systems (FDS), just raised its dividend by 13%. The quarterly dividend increase from 39 to 44 cents per share.

The company is expected to earn $5.60 per share, so it pays out a relatively small amount of profits, just over 30%.

FactSet is a wonderful company. Unfortunately, it’s one of those companies that I believe is consistently over-valued. The problem is that it never seems to revert to its fair price. It’s hard passing on stocks like that. The longer I invest, the more leeway I’ve learned to give high-quality stocks.

As Warren Buffett has said, “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

Verizon to Buy AOL
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 12th, 2015 at 8:23 am

Verizon (VZ) announced that it’s buying AOL (AOL) for $4.4 billion in cash.

Verizon Communications on Tuesday said it would acquire AOL for $4.4 billion in an all-cash deal that will see today’s king of mobile phones acquire the one-time king of media.

Verizon is the largest mobile phone operator in the country, and has growing lines of business offering high-speed Internet, as well as business and streaming video services.

AOL, which acquired Time Warner for $165 billion in what is broadly regarded as a debacle and the high-water mark of the dot-com bubble, is now a shadow of its former self, managing a small collection of media and technology properties.

Verizon is billing the deal as a way for the company to expand its video offerings. Already a leader in distributing mobile video through its robust national mobile phone network, Verizon is making a push to become a leader in so-called over-the-top video, shorthand for television content distributed through the Internet.

Verizon is offering $50 per share. That’s a 17% premium over yesterday’s close.

Morning News: May 12, 2015
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 12th, 2015 at 7:07 am

Greece Dodges Economic Bullet With Progress Toward Deal

China Swap Rate Drops to Four-Year Low on Easing Speculation

OECD Says Signs of U.S. Economy Flagging, China Loses More Steam

Chinese Smartphone Makers Try to Make Inroads In India

Fed’s Dudley Says Interest Rate Increases Will Mark Regime Shift

Verizon Communications to Buy AOL for $4.4 Billion

Court Finds Nomura and RBS Misled Investors

Carlsberg Committed to Russia Despite Struggling for Profit

Castleton Joins Oil Trade Titans With Morgan Stanley Deal

Drillers Answer Low Oil Prices With Cost-Saving Innovations

Alibaba Rolls Out Three-Hour Delivery Service for Healthcare Goods

DTZ Agrees to Buy Cushman & Wakefield for $2 Billion

Bill Gross: The Amount of Money I’ll Give Away ‘Is Staggering, Even to Me’

Roger Nusbaum: Juuuuuuust Right

Jeff Carter: Want to Try and Understand Venture Capital? Read This

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Morning News: May 11, 2015
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 11th, 2015 at 7:16 am

Greece Weighs on Europe, China Cut Keeps Shares Steady

Bank of England Holds Rates Steady

India’s KV Kamath to Head New Brics Bank

China’s Smartphone Market Contracts For The First Time In 6 Years

Oil Falls Below $65 on Signs of U.S. Shale Oil Revival

The $900 Billion Influx That’s Wreaking Havoc in U.S. Bills

Apple Working With WWF China to Manage Sustainable Forests

Volvo Cars Picks South Carolina to Supply Toughening U.S. Market

Fiskars Agrees to Buy Owner of Wedgwood and Waterford

Airbus Committed to Military Cargo Plane Despite Fatal Crash

Dish Continues to Lose Subscribers, Though Profit Doubles

Sharp Shares Plunge Ahead of Restructuring

SoftBank CEO Taps a Future Successor in Nikesh Arora

Cullen Roche: Is A Fiscal Deficit Really “Austerity”?

Joshua Brown: Observations From The Mission

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70 Years Ago Today; “We May Allow Ourselves a Brief Period of Rejoicing”
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 8th, 2015 at 10:09 am