Opinions

Summary: Lipper Fund Flows for the week ending April 17, 2013 showed $2.7 billion coming out of gold ETFs, although the appetite for equities remains positive. Inflows of combined equity mutual funds and equity ETFs increased also by about $2.7 billion. The largest chunk of that total, almost $2.0 billion headed toward international equities, showing [...]

Incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney explains where he differs with the IMF on austerity, central bank inflation targeting and how he was made Bank of England chief even though he’s Canadian. Click here to view this video on Reuters Insider.

Could dealmakers around the world have reason to be optimistic this year? Global mergers & acquisitions kicked off 2013 with a burst of activity in technology, consumer staples and real estate – potentially signaling the next M&A cycle. At the same time, corporate bond activity continues to push higher along with a resurgence of common [...]

Abstract:  Technical analysis of charts can be applied to any time frame.  This article examines monthly charts for the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 indices since December 1999 and discusses the pros and cons of further market advances in the coming weeks and months from both a technical and fundamental standpoint. While current chart [...]

Retailing ranks well among the industry darlings of the post-market rally since the March 9, 2009 low for the S&P 500. The past 12 months has seen a narrowing of the outperformance of the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) as compared to the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY). Investors looking for complementary ideas in retail may [...]

We cautioned about the dividend amount paid by CenturyLink (CTL.N) back on November 6, 2012 when it was then yielding 7.5% and trading around $38.15.  As of February 28, the stock has a dividend yield of 6.2% and trades around $34.52.  That works out to a total return, including dividends, of minus 7.4% compared to [...]

Investors may have taken their foot off the gas pedal when it comes to equity income fund flows and many of the dividend-paying stocks they hold, but they certainly have not applied the brakes just yet.   The latest data as a February 14, 2013 from Lipper shows a weekly outflow of $156 million, keeping [...]

One or two data points don’t make a trend, especially under the possible influence of seasonal portfolio rebalancing.  While some media have reported “whopping weekly inflows” into stock funds in early January, evidence of a sustained trend is yet to be seen.   A closer look at the data seems to point to a more cautious [...]

We’ll try not to rehash the market excitement about Hormel’s (HRL.N) $700 million acquisition of the Skippy peanut butter brand from Unilever NV (UN.N).  So far, companies aspire to make the type of purchase which is accretive to both revenues and earnings in the first year, and which may also smooth out earnings moving forward.  [...]

Corporate insiders stepped up their pace of stock purchases in dollars for the week following a slow Thanksgiving period, but not enough to raise overall dollar buying averages or sell/buy ratios. Insider buying for the top 1500 market capitalization stocks tracked by Thomson Reuters Stock Reports Plus totaled only $51.9 million, compared to the four [...]