Today's Daily Update: George Soros Jumps On The Apple Bandwagon

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, President of INO.com and Co-creator of MarketClub, with your mid-day market update for Thursday, the 15th of August.

First, Carl Icahn tweeted that Apple shares were "undervalued" and shortly after, George Soros disclosed he was accumulating more shares of Apple, while at the same time dumping his gold ETF shares.

Here we have two Wall Street titans whose average age is 80 years old. You have to love that these two guys are really shaking up the tech world showing traders around the world how it is still possible to trade at their age. Now, I'm sure they don't actually make the trades themselves, but like many traders they have others to pull the trigger. They are both doing a great job and I congratulate them both for showing the world that life begins at 80! Continue reading "Today's Daily Update: George Soros Jumps On The Apple Bandwagon" →

Warnings of slower sales sends U.S. stocks lower

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Warnings of weaker sales from two major companies and concern that the Federal Reserve could pull back its support for the economy sent the stock market spiraling lower Thursday.

Before the start of trading, Wal-Mart cut its estimates for annual revenue and profit, warning that cautious shoppers are spending less. The news followed a revenue forecast from Cisco Systems late Wednesday that was weaker than Wall Street expected.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 20 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,666 at noon Eastern Daylight Time.

The selling swept across all 10 industry groups in the index, and 93 percent of the index's 500 stocks fell.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 177 points, or 1.2 percent, to 15,159. The Nasdaq composite index fell 52 points, or 1.4 percent, to 3,618. Continue reading "Warnings of slower sales sends U.S. stocks lower" →

Worldwide Oil & Gas Capex Growth Good News for 'Big Four' Services Companies

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The Energy Report: James, you have said the energy industry is in the early stages of a strong, sustained upside trend. What's driving that?

James West: Sustained high oil prices are driving a trend toward higher capital spending. Oil prices have been at elevated levelsabove $100 per barrel ($100/bbl) for Brent and $85 and above for WTI (West Texas Intermediate)for close to 40 months. Those are exceptionally good levels for most companies; they can make good profits on projects. Capital investments seem to be accelerating somewhat, particularly in the international markets.

North America is going through a little bit of an efficiency phase and a slowdown from rampant growth. That started after the financial crisis. Now the international markets, which are slower to recover after a financial crisis or downturn, as we saw in 2009, are starting to accelerate.

We recently released an update to our spending outlook, where we survey well over 300 companies in the oil and gas space. These companies represent about 90% or so of capital expenditures (capex) on exploration and production (EP), and they are showing about 13% gain year-over-year (YOY) in the international markets for capital budgets. There have been some regional shifts, but that's a pretty healthy number. Also, globally we're showing about a 10% gain in spending. This is the fourth year in a row of double-digit gains driven by high, sustained oil prices, behind which are many factors, one being limited OPEC spare capacity.

TER: Is the trend equally strong for gas? Continue reading "Worldwide Oil & Gas Capex Growth Good News for 'Big Four' Services Companies" →

Stocks slump on Wall Street

Posted on by The INO.com Team

The stock market fell on Wednesday as a poor earnings report from Macy's cast doubt on the outlook for consumer spending, a vital component of the U.S. economy.

Other department store stocks also fell after Macy's reported disappointing earnings for the second quarter and cut its forecast for the year.

The stock market's early summer rally has fizzled out after a strong July, and August is shaping up to be a lackluster month as many traders and investors take their summer breaks. The major indexes have drifted lower in the past week after climbing to all-time highs at the start of the month. Continue reading "Stocks slump on Wall Street" →

Electric Transportation Could Jump-Start Rare Earth Markets

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The Metals Report: You've said that the ratio of natural gas to oil prices [see price charts below] represents the largest arbitrage opportunity in history. What does that mean for the future of transportation and rare earth element (REE) consumption?

Patrick Wong: This trillion-dollar arbitrage will bring a lot of momentum into the electrification of transportation. You need REEs to make the permanent magnets that go into the electric drive motors, so they have a key role. In 10 years, we'll look back and recognize that this is the beginning of the end of a world dependent upon petrol-based transportation. Continue reading "Electric Transportation Could Jump-Start Rare Earth Markets" →