How To Profit From The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Before It Happens

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


The announcement that Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) had made an offer to purchase Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) sent the grocery stocks plummeting. While some experts think Amazon's move into the grocery business is a great idea, others aren’t so sold on the idea.

Regardless of whether this move by Amazon is good or bad for Amazon, the grocery sector was punished by this news and I don’t think stocks like The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) deserved to fall nearly 10% on the news. Or even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) all losing billions in market capitalization just because Amazon is buying Whole Foods.

Really? Continue reading "How To Profit From The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal Before It Happens" →

IBB - Biotech Catches Fire... Finally

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Noah Kiedrowski - INO.com Contributor - Biotech


Introduction

Biotechnology has been a difficult space to deploy capital over the previous ~18-24 months. This cohort plummeted over and over again from both sides of the political isle as the 2016 presidential race unfolded. Between Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump taking aim at drug pricing via speeches, Twitter, and other social media platforms, largely attributed to the entire cohort selling off. The sustained sell-off lead to the entire cohort to sell off from all-time highs of $400 to $240 or 40% in only six months as measured via the iShares Biotechnology Index ETF (NASDAQ:IBB). From February of 2016 through June of 2017 IBB traded in a tight range from $250 to $300 while Donald Trump continually fired shots against the healthcare sector. Any healthcare related stocks became volatile on the heels of any statement or tweet from Donald Trump. Shortly after the inauguration, Trump stated that drug companies are “getting away with murder” when speaking to the drug pricing issue. Now he’s come out and stated that he’s working on a “new system where there will be competition in the drug industry.” Every time any of these remarks were tweeted, they immediately resulted in a downtrend across the entire biotech cohort. As the new proposed health care legislation enters its initial stages in Congress, a level of certainty has entered the picture, and the drug pricing threats are not perceived to be as bad as initially feared. Recently the index has had a resurgence moving from $284 to $321 or 13% over the past month. As the political headwinds continue to abate, I feel the index has room to continue its upward trend. Continue reading "IBB - Biotech Catches Fire... Finally" →

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 August contract settled last Friday in New York at 1,256 an ounce while currently trading at 1,243 down about $13 for the trading week. I'm currently not involved in this market, but I do think lower prices are ahead despite the fact that the U.S dollar was down about 150 points this week, but was still unable to lend any support to gold prices. Gold is still trading below its 20 and 100-day moving average telling you that the short-term trend is lower, if you are short a futures contract place the stop loss at the 10-day high which stands at 1,260. The chart structure is solid with the next level of support at 1,235, and if that is broken, I think we could retest the 1,200 level rather quickly. I do not have any precious metal recommendations. I still believe that they remain weak except for copper prices which have broken out to the upside. Gold remains relatively nonvolatile over the last several weeks, and we need some fresh fundamental news such as interest rate hikes or global geopolitical problems to start pushing prices in either direction.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: SOLID
Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →

Currency Hedging ETFs; Why You Would Buy Them

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


While there is certainly some additional risk associated with Exchange Traded Funds that offer currency hedging, investors looking for international exposure need to consider currency hedging ETF's as a viable option.

I am not normally in favor of ETFs that increase investors risk by using sophisticated investment strategies which increase leverage or offer hedged protection. These products are 'offering' this added feature at increased cost to the investor and usually more so than that at rather elevated risk levels.

In most cases I would argue that if you need to hedge against something, than why even invest in that sector at all? When it comes to foreign equities, it is hard to ignore the developed markets like Europe and Asia. But, the big risk of investing in those countries today is how fluctuations in the currency will affect your returns.

If your investment increases in value by say 10%, but the U.S. dollar compared to that foreign currency increases by 10%, then you have not made a single dollar. Your entire investment gain was wiped out by the currency exchange rate changing. The opposite can also happen; if your asset declines in value, but so does the dollar, than you haven’t lost anything. Continue reading "Currency Hedging ETFs; Why You Would Buy Them" →