The Dirty-Little Secret Behind Corporate America's 'Buyback Frenzy'

By: Christian Hudspeth of Street Authority

Corporate America's "wealth giveaway" continues.

Ever since America's largest corporations hunkered down and began hoarding unprecedented amounts of cash to protect themselves in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, investors have been hounding companies to put that money to work.

Fortunately for investors, companies have responded. But not in the way you might expect.

You see, rather than putting their cash to work through expanding product lines, opening more stores and investing for growth, many large companies have been rewarding shareholders through record amounts of dividends and share repurchases.

For the most part, this is good news for investors. But there's a hidden element to share about buybacks that you need to be aware of... because behind the scenes some companies are actually using this effective tool to erode shareholder wealth.

Let me explain... Continue reading "The Dirty-Little Secret Behind Corporate America's 'Buyback Frenzy'"

HUI, Gold & Silver; Fun With Monthly Charts

Outside of the sound practice that is physical gold ownership in a time of monetary gamesmanship, the precious metals sector is all about speculation, at least according to 9 out of 10 chart jockeys and momentum junkies micro managing every short-term twist and turn.

Indeed, NFTRH manages gold, silver and the gold stocks on down to the short-term views as well, but that is only because the long-term views have stated that this is a time to be paying attention.  Do we pay attention because we have waited so long to promote our orthodoxy and finally be right as gold bugs?  No.  We pay attention when a chart tells us to pay attention.

While we manage the shorter-term views (both macro fundamental and technical) rigorously in the weekly report and interim updates, here I’d like to dial out to the big monthly picture with 3 large (click to expand as needed) charts of HUI, Gold and Silver to see their stories, which are the reasons we are managing shorter-term views.

HUI Gold Bugs Index

hui

First HUI monthly reviews the warnings to the analysis from 2012 and 2013.  They were very clear and should have kept people out of much of harm’s way with respect to gold stock speculation. Continue reading "HUI, Gold & Silver; Fun With Monthly Charts"

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

We've asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Crude Oil Futures

Crude oil futures hit a 5 month low this week in New York finishing higher this Friday afternoon at 96.95 up around $.1.40 as I have been recommending a short position in crude oil for quite some time and if you took that recommendation when the breakout occurred around 98.70 make sure you place your stop at the 10 day low which also stands at 98.70 as prices have been pretty nonvolatile in the last week or so except for Thursday’s trade when oil finished down over $2 as the U.S dollar is pressuring crude oil and many other commodity prices to the downside. The next major level of support is around 94.50 a barrel and if that level is broken I think there’s a possibility prices trade as low as $90 as the U.S government wants oil prices to go lower due to the fact that Russia’s economy relies on high oil prices so if prices drop dramatically Russia’s economy goes in the tank and with all the sanctions against them that could change the current situation with Putin. Crude oil futures are trading below their 20 and 100 day moving average so continue to play this to the downside as the chart structure is outstanding and take advantage of any rally making sure that you use a proper stop loss and proper money management techniques to limit your loss to 2% of your account balance on any given trade.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: EXCELLENT
Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery"

Is It Time To Buy Yelp, Inc. (NYSE:YELP)?

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) is the go-to app for reviews on restaurants, shopping, local services and the like.

Earlier this year in March, Yelp was trading over $100 a share and looked on its way to the moon. However, just the reverse happened and Yelp lost half its value by early June. Since that time, the stock has recovered and traded as high as $80 in early July.

There are several reasons why I like this stock right now and they're all technical. I have no inside knowledge of what is going on inside Yelp, but I can say that the technicals are looking very positive for the stock. Today, the weekly Trade Triangle kicked in, indicating that the intermediate trend is now inline with the longer term uptrend.

1. All of the Trade Triangles are positive and displaying a +100 Chart Analysis Score.
2. There is a monthly Trade Triangle in place.
3. Pivot Point - measures the move to $85 a share.
4. Weekly Trade Triangle kicked in today at $76.49.
5. The RSI indicator is trending to the upside and is over 50.
6. The MACD indicator has recently turned up.

Just remember, there are no guarantees in trading, even with all the positive indicators. I'm looking for Yelp, Inc. (NYSE:YELP) to trade back to the $85 level in the near-term. As always, please remember to use money management and stops that work for your own trading strategy.

Good luck and every success trading in Yelp shares,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

The Biggest Lesson from Microsoft's Recent Battle with the US Government

By: Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor, InternationalMan.com

A court ruling involving Microsoft’s offshore data storage offers an instructive lesson on the long reach of the US government—and what you can do to mitigate this political risk.

A federal judge recently agreed with the US government that Microsoft must turn over its customer data that it holds offshore if requested in a search warrant. Microsoft had refused because the digital content being requested physically was located on servers in Ireland.

Microsoft said in a statement that "a US prosecutor cannot obtain a US warrant to search someone's home located in another country, just as another country's prosecutor cannot obtain a court order in her home country to conduct a search in the United States."

The judge disagreed. Continue reading "The Biggest Lesson from Microsoft's Recent Battle with the US Government"