Americas

It is very nearly the perfect storm: just as shrinking paychecks are making consumers more wary about spending their disposable income, so restaurant chains must grapple with a post-drought surge in the price of key ingredients. The result is likely to be a drop in the rate of same-store sales growth for the fourth quarter [...]

This research note is provided by Fathom Consulting. All of the charts below and many many more, covering a range of topics and countries on both the macroeconomy and financial markets are available in the Chartbook to Datastream users at www.datastream.com. Alternatively you can access Fathom’s Chartbook at www.fathom-consulting.com. Introduction Downbeat growth figures from Europe [...]

Major U.S. stock market indices may have spent much of the most recent week moving sideways, but that didn’t stop investors from pouring more money into conventional stock mutual funds, even as they pull back from the more passive equity ETFs. Stronger economic data in both the United States and China may not have produced [...]

It may be difficult to pin a precise value to Dell’s shares at a moment when so much is in flux, but StarMine data suggest that at $13.65 a share, Michael Dell and his private equity be partners may be getting a bargain. What is the fair value of Dell’s shares? For that matter, how [...]

With the fourth-quarter earnings season heading into the home stretch, even some sectors that analysts had expected would report underwhelming results are delivering positive surprises. One week after the next, companies in the S&P 500 have reported stronger than expected earnings. Of the S&P 500 companies that reported last week, 75% reported better-than-expected results and [...]

The US trade balance narrowed sharply in December, highlighting the country’s increasing energy independence. The data suggest that the advance estimate of GDP in the fourth quarter, which was released at the end of January and showed the first fall in output for more than three years, is likely to be upwardly revised. Refresh Chart [...]

In spite of a brief selloff and some economic clouds on the horizon, investors continued to emphasize equity fund investments, with mutual funds and ETFs together reporting $6.1 billion of fresh inflows in the week ended February 6. Investors pushed key stock market indices to new highs during the week ended February 6, a period [...]

Across the board, retailers posted significantly better-than-expected advances in same-store sales in January, with the cold weather helping the index record its biggest advance since September 2011. Retail sales posted a better-than-expected gain during January, as the Thomson Reuters Same Store Sales Index registered a 5.8% jump over year-earlier levels. Although including the results from [...]

Investors threw themselves into “risk-on” investments at the start of the new year, although the odds of greater volatility and uncertainty remain high. After a wary and uncertain end to 2012, investors celebrated the advent of 2013 by once again embracing the concept of risk. They seized on respectable if not dramatic gains in corporate [...]

This research note is provided by Fathom Consulting. All of the charts below and many many more, covering a range of topics and countries on both the macroeconomy and financial markets are available in the Chartbook to Datastream users at www.datastream.com. Alternatively you can access Fathom’s Chartbook at www.fathom-consulting.com. The latest update from the Congressional [...]