Category: INO.com Contributors

Did The Markets Overreact - Again - To Yellen's Remarks?

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


You may not have noticed it, but before last Wednesday the bond market had been in kind of a mini-rally for the previous month. On Tuesday, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.32%, its lowest level since the end of November. That was down from 2.60% in mid-December, which also happened to be its highest mark since 2014.

But by the end of the week the yield on the 10-year had jumped back up to 2.47%, up 15 basis points in just three days. What happened to put the brakes so suddenly on this rally? Why, Janet Yellen spoke, and when Janet Yellen speaks – well, you know the rest.

But did anyone really listen? Continue reading "Did The Markets Overreact - Again - To Yellen's Remarks?" →

Is Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) A Smart Takeover?

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


Back in September, I wrote that the Stillwater Mining’s stock price was under pressure amid a weakening Platinum. The metal’s price action signaled that another drop below $1000 was in the cards. Indeed the metal price has lost “one digit” sinking to a low of $890 last month from the $1030 level when I wrote the post.

Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) followed the metal’s drop and fell from $12.43 to $11.19 last October, but then it started to rocket higher and hit the 2-year maximum at the $17.50 level last December despite the new low in the platinum price. The clear answer to this contradiction in the metal and stock price behavior came on the 9th of December, 2016. That day, “The Last Mohican” of pure American platinum-group metals (PGM) producers announced that it would be acquired by a South African company for $2.2 billion in a deal that requires U.S. government approval. The purchase price was set at $18 per share and this explains the robust growth of the stock price on the market. Continue reading "Is Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC) A Smart Takeover?" →

Are You Ready For The Next Mortgage Crisis?

Posted on by George Yacik

George Yacik - INO.com Contributor - Fed & Interest Rates


As an avid observer of the U.S. residential mortgage scene, I couldn’t help but take a keen interest in one of the lead articles in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The article was headlined, “The Mortgage Market’s $1 Trillion Pocket of Worry.”

According to the article, bonds backed by “certain risky single-family mortgages topped $1 trillion for the first time in November.” I wasn’t sure what “certain risky” mortgages they were talking about, so I read on. It turns out they are mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (i.e., taxpayers) which, as the Journal noted, “typically go to borrowers with small down payments and lower credit scores.”

While I certainly know what FHA mortgages are, who they go to, and that their market share has been growing sharply since the mortgage meltdown eight years ago, the Journal article was useful in telling a wider audience about yet another government financial crisis in the making. But the article largely skated over another fairly important aspect of the story. Continue reading "Are You Ready For The Next Mortgage Crisis?" →

Analysts' Upgrades For Disney Are A Little Late

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Noah Kiedrowski - INO.com Contributor - Biotech


Introduction

Recently, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has been on a sustained uptrend moving from $90 in October of 2016 to $109 as of mid-January 2017, logging a solid 21% gain in the process. I wrote several pieces on Disney when the stock was trading in the range of $89-$93 advocating that Disney offered a compelling long-term investment opportunity considering the growth, pipeline, diversity of its portfolio, share repurchase program and dividend. The shares sold-off in a meaningful way moving from 2016 highs of $120 per share to the low $90s and remaining at that level for months. This 25% decline in the share price presented a buying opportunity in a great large-cap growth company with strong fundamentals. The fundamentals of Disney were stronger than ever despite the temporary ESPN woes. These ESPN issues were being addressed in a variety of ways via Hulu, BAMTech investment, Vice production deal and Sling TV. Once these issues were arrested and clarity with regard to a path forward in returning to growth in this segment was laid out, I posited that these shares would have tremendous upside. These corrective actions have been in the works with the backdrop of all its other segments reporting record numbers. Continue reading "Analysts' Upgrades For Disney Are A Little Late" →

This Coin Smashed All...Again...And Again To Pieces!

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


A year ago I wrote about the comparative dynamics of three outstanding kinds of money of different generations – the older generation was represented by gold, the 20th-century generation was represented by the Dollar (Index) and for the modern generation I used the cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC). I think some of you have just discovered the serious value of Bitcoin as it just crushed the rivals doubling its value. The dollar index (DXY) gained only 8% as gold showed negative dynamics in 2015. Below I put the result of the poll you voted on a year ago for the 2016 year performance.

Chart 1. Voting results January 2016: You Bet On Safety

INO.com Bitcoin Poll Results

I noticed that there are a plenty of gold bugs among regular readers as gold gathered the most votes. The second position went to bitcoin and it shows that there are many modern enthusiasts among our readers. It looks like the least amount of optimism was felt about the US dollar’s future although it didn’t rank the last in 2015. Let’s see, in the chart below who the winner was. Continue reading "This Coin Smashed All...Again...And Again To Pieces!" →