Trade Talk Optimism Puts Record High In Sight

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere. After a strong finish to last weeks trading the stock market once again opened within striking distance of the S&P 500's all-time high set on on Jan. 26 of this year. In fact, it was sitting just 15 pts shy of that mark in early trading but has since backed off a touch as we enter afternoon trading. However, that's proven to be a tough level to crack.

The reason for last week's mid-week reversal was due to reports of planned trade talks between the United States, and China raised hopes of a potential resolution in the ongoing trade war. Lower-level trade talks will be held on Aug. 22 and 23, according to the Wall Street Journal, just as new U.S. tariffs on $16 billion of Chinese goods take effect, along with Beijing's retaliatory tariffs on an equal amount of U.S. goods.

Trade Talk Optimism

This week could also be record-setting for the U.S. stocks market for another reason. On Wednesday, the bull market turns 3,453 days old. Barring a 20% decline between now and then, some investors believe it would mark the most extended bull market in history while other investors think that the S&P 500 needs to make a new high by Wednesday for it to become the longest bull market in history. No matter what, the S&P 500 is up over 300% in that time. Quite unbelievable! Continue reading "Trade Talk Optimism Puts Record High In Sight" →

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by The INO.com Team

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.

Gold Futures

Gold futures in the December contract is currently trading at 1,187 an ounce after settling last Friday in New York at 1,219 down about $32 for the week while trading as low as 1,167 in Thursday's trade before profit-taking took place pushing prices back up to today's levels. If you have read any of my previous blogs, you understand that I am bearish all of the precious metals across the board. If you are short, place the stop loss above the 10-day high which now stands at 1,226, however, the chart structure will not improve for another four trading sessions as I still believe we will retest major support around the 1,125 level in the coming weeks ahead. The U.S dollar is down about 30 points today trading lower for the 2nd consecutive session, but that remains in a bullish trend as that has been the main culprit for gold prices coupled with the fact that there is very weak demand and very little interest at the current time. Presently I am also recommending a bullish S&P 500 trade which is unchanged today but remains strong as money flows continue to go into U.S. equities & out of the precious metals. I see no reason to own gold and no reason to try and bottom fish and take a bullish position at this time as that would be counter-trend trading which is very dangerous in the long run. Silver prices this week also hit a contract low & remains weak as that is also putting pressure on gold as these trends are getting stronger on a weekly basis and I still think there is one more leg to the downside ahead.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: IMPROVING
VOLATILITY: AVERAGE
Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →

Facebook - $119 Billion Disastrous Conference Call

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Facebook’s (FB) fundamentals were shining bright and outweighed its data misuse scandal from months’ prior leading into its Q2 earnings. In the wake of mishandling user data, Facebook’s stock tumbled from $195 to $152 or 22%. Facebook was well off those data misuse induced sell-off lows and marched right through its previous 52-week high and broke out to $219 for a nice ~44% rebound. This scenario ended abruptly on the heels of its Q2 earnings which came in shy of analysts’ expectations on the revenue front. Facebook also issued a major guide down in growth for the next few quarters tampering growth expectations in the near term. Facebook is facing a challenging confluence of slowing revenue growth, margin compression and stagnant daily active users in the near to intermediate term. Facebook’s CFO stated that investors could expect "revenue growth rates to decline by high single-digit percentages from prior quarters." Despite these headwinds, Facebook is still posting accelerating revenue growth across all geographies, expanding market penetration with Instagram’s IGTV, Facebook’s Stories and monetization efforts in Messenger and WhatsApp. Factoring in this high single digit decrease in revenue, Facebook is still poised to grow at a double-digit clip with the most recent growth rate coming in at 42% in Q2. The long-term picture looks bright for Facebook, and the recent sell-off is a good opportunity to initiate a long position as the company contends with and addresses all the issues across its platforms. Facebook remains a premier large-cap growth stock and inexpensive relative to other large-cap growth stocks in its cohort.

Disastrous Conference Call

Well, that was a disaster of a conference call. Facebook posted the largest one-day loss in market value by any company in stock market history. Facebook shed $119 billion worth of market capitalization after dropping ~20%. No other company has ever lost greater than $100 billion in market value in a single day (Figure 1). To add insult to injury, this was also Facebook’s worst day ever on the stock market. This sell-off came on the heels of a minor Q2 advertising revenue miss of $13.04 billion versus expectations of $13.16 billion and lower than expected daily active users in Europe. Key metrics suffered from data misuse and fake news issues within its platform. Continue reading "Facebook - $119 Billion Disastrous Conference Call" →

Shark Tank's "Kevin O'Leary" Has A New Fund

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Kevin O’Leary is best known for his antics on Shark Tank, but to those on Wall Street, he is known for his more conservative approach to investing. O’Leary started his O’Shares ETF Investment firm back in 2015 and launched the firm's first fund the O’Shares FTSE U.S. Quality Dividend ETF (OUSA). A month after releasing that fund he rolled out two more, the O’Shares FTSE Europe Quality Dividend ETF (OEUR) and the O’Shares FTSE Asia Pacific Quality Dividend ETF (OASI).

His next two ETF’s came in 2016 and 2017 and if perhaps you could guess what phrase was in the name of both of those? Quality Dividend!

The O’Shares FTSE Russell Small Cap Quality Dividend ETF (OUSM) starting trading December 30th, 2016 while the O’Shares FTSE Russell International Quality Dividend ETF (ONTL) began trading on March 22nd, 2017.

The first five funds O’Leary has rolled out focused on companies with strong balance sheets, and that paid a nice dividend, what most investors would refer to as “conservative” investments. But, his newest ETF, the O’Shares Global Internet Giants ETF (OGIG), is a lot less about quality dividends and more about quality business and growth potential. So, O’Leary is still looking for quality businesses, but with more growth opportunity than dividend income like his past ETF’s. Continue reading "Shark Tank's "Kevin O'Leary" Has A New Fund" →

Oil Price Spike Will Most Likely Be Averted

Posted on by Robert Boslego

Uncertainties for the balance of 2018 imply that stocks could fall sharply or be adequate. As a result, prices may spike or drop into the $50s, depending on what unfolds.

President Trump has sway over Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf producers. He can also fine-tune the implementation of sanctions on Iran and waivers to them. I’m expecting he will do whatever he has to, to avert a price spike going into the November mid-term elections.

July Production Changes

OPEC estimated in its August Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) that its crude production in July averaged 32.323 million barrels per day (mmbd). That was about 40,000 b/d higher than in June. The “compliance” level with the 2016 deal dropped to 97%, the first time less than 100% in nearly a year.

Saudi Arabia’s production was reduced by about 52,000 b/d, but that was more than offset by gains of 79,000 b/d in Kuwait and 69,000 b/d in the UAE.

Iran’s production fell by 56,000 b/d while Venezuela’s output dropped 48,000 b/d. Libya’s output also dropped by 57,000 b/d. Continue reading "Oil Price Spike Will Most Likely Be Averted" →