The markets have started the year on the negative side, with the S&P 500 down -.68%. There is a theory called the January Barometer, which states that the movement of the S&P 500 during the month of January sets the stock market’s direction for the year (as measured by the S&P 500). The January Barometer…
Read BlogThe strategy will maintain the expected dividend yield in the 4% to 6% range provided cash is not raised significantly for an unforeseen event. The fundamentals dictate a cautious overall approach. The focus will continue to be on high quality dividend paying stocks. We favor the “blue chip” Dow stocks over the S&P 500, Nasdaq,…
Read BlogWe thought we would revisit a chart we have published recently from Yardeni Research as oil continues to fall. Generally there is some correlation with stock prices and commodity prices. Please click the link below to read more: Market in a Minute 2015-1-6
Read BlogLast week, the market reversed from declining about 5% from a high achieved earlier in the month and rallied about 4% off the bottom. Oil fell about 50% from the high reached earlier in the year and rallied off the bottom last week. The Oil and Gas sector was up about 10% last week and…
Read BlogLast week, Oil continued its plunge falling below $60 a barrel. As a result, the energy sector fell over -8%, and basic materials fell by nearly -7%. The carnage in the energy sector is now starting to take down the rest of the market, the S&P 500 fell by -3.5% last week. The breadth of the…
Read BlogThe price of oil has dropped by close to 50% over the last six months to a level we believe is causing serious problems for oil producers. We believe if current conditions persist it will cause credit issues. The U.S has increased production of oil by an additional 4 million barrels a day since 2010….
Read BlogThe market last week was up slightly, but it felt heavy to us. Of the 10 major sectors of the market, 5 were down last week. Healthcare continued to defy gravity, and the banks were up, anticipating some relief with the expectation that interest rates were headed higher. The Employment report was very strong, which…
Read BlogOil has been collapsing, down roughly 40% from this year’s high. The issue is a lack of enough demand growth to offset the increased production from the U.S. Since 2010, the U.S. has increased production of oil from 5 million barrels a day to about 9 million barrels a day currently. The large increase in…
Read BlogContinuing with the theme of slow to negative global growth worldwide, Japan reported on Sunday that their economy has entered into a recession, falling -1.6% in the third quarter following a -7.1% drop in the second quarter. Japan has been aggressively printing money and causing their currency to fall incredibly. Please see the chart below….
Read BlogWe think the valuations of the BDC sector represent a very attractive opportunity. When you compare BDCs to other yield oriented sectors that have high historical correlation, the chart really stands out as an outlier. You can see there is a high degree of correlation between utilities and BDCs up until February of 2014. This…
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