Coca-Cola (KO) today reported quarterly results that beat expectations and announced plans to implement a new cost savings program. Fourth quarter net income fell by 71 percent versus the same period last year, to $1.65 billion, or 72 cents per share versus $5.77 billion, or $2.46 per share.
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.
In trading on Tuesday, shipping shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 2.1%. Helping drag down the group were shares of Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM), off about 7.2% and shares of Frontline Limited (FRO) down about 3.9% on the day.
The Central Bank of Jordan raised its key monetary policy interest rates by 50 basis points. The following rates were affected: the overnight deposit window rate will go up to 2.75% from 2.25%, the overnight repurchase agreement rate will increase to 4.75% from 4.25%, and the rediscount rate will go up to 5.00% from 4.50%. The Bank said: “This action aims at supporting monetary stability by curbing expected inflationary pressures and ensuring a competitive return on the JD’s denominated assets; which would promote both domestic and foreign investment environment and support sustainable economic growth rates.”
BP (BP) announced on Tuesday that it earned a profit of $7.69 billion, 38 percent higher than the $5.57 billion profit in the same period last year. Revenue increased by 15 percent to $96.3 billion.
Introduction:
The Dollar index will have to slide down if it breaks the major support level. Seeing all the improvements in the global economy, this was going to happen and many foresaw it. The dollar index has come down to 78.5 after breaking the crucial support level of 80. This was on the back of improvement in the United States data and good cues from Europe as well. The United States markets have also rallied nearly 3 – 4 % this past week. And most of the world economies are in a short term up trend, which is bad news for the Dollar index. If this continues and the Greek debt crisis tends to slow down, then the Dollar index would see lower levels.
Factors Affecting:
The factors affecting this breakdown on some good volumes, is the improvement in the global economy and some depreciation of the dollar against currency of some major economies. As said, the earnings season will play a major impact in this market and also will decide the move of the dollar index. There were some strong earnings by some blue chip companies in the United States and analysts feel that this will lead to a new shorter term uptrend.
Technical Analysis:
In the chart below, the index has fallen below the crucial and important level, i.e, 80. This level has been acting as a good support in the medium term. As this was a major resistance for the Dollar index to break on the upside, many analysts would have assumed that this index will find very difficult to break the 80 mark on the downside. So, to confirm this break down, we need to see whether the index will continue to remain in this range or below 80 for quite some time.
Forecast:
Medium term traders who were long in the index would hold on to their positions and see whether the Dollar is clinging back above the 80 mark. Short term traders would rather wait for all this drama and the earnings season to complete and then have a fresh call on the Dollar index. The longer term trend is still up, so the long term traders wouldn’t have to worry about this fall. The Greek debt problems has got legs to come back in to the markets and we shall see some handsome returns if those problems come back.
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Disclaimer:
THE ABOVE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS SPECIFIC TRADING ADVICE. RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRADE DECISIONS IS SOLELY WITH THE READER.
By TraderVox.com
Euro continues to be the main focus of attraction during the US session. Reuters reported that the Greek deal will be put in front of politicians. If this is to be believed then it is a good development for Euro. The single currency reacted positively to the developments and has broken the resistance of 1.3230 successfully which it was unable to breach four times last week.
The upbeat sentiment in the market propelled the Euro to a high of 1.3268, level last seen on 12th December. The resistance now lies at 1.3300 and above at 1.3370. The support now can be found at 1.3200 and below at 1.3120.It is currently trading at 1.3249, up about 0.90%.
The sterling pound also followed the US dollar weakening move and surged to close to 1.5900 levels. It pierced through 1.5900 mark briefly to print a high of 1.5903, levels last seen on 15 November. The resistance now lies 1.5900 and above at 1.5940/50 levels. The support may now be found at 1.5860 and 1.5820. The pair has surged half a percentage today.
The US dollar plummeted against the Swiss Frank following the general trend and broke the 0.9200 levels. It is now trading around 0.9125, down about 0.70% and threatening the 0.9100 levels. The support may be seen at 0.9110 and 0.9080. The resistance may be seen at 0.9150 and 0.9200.
The USD/JPY is currently trading at 76.85, up about 0.40%. It printed a high 76.96. It failed to break an important resistance of 77. Support now may be found at 76.80 and resistance at 77.
Australian dollar did not rally like Euro and GBP but it regained an important level of 1.0800. The pair failed to break the strong resistance of 1.0810/20. The high of 1.0821, printed during the European session is still in tact. The Australian dollar is currently trading at 1.0802, still up about 0.70%. The support now lies at 1.0780 and 1.0750. The resistance may be seen at 1.0810 and 1.0900.
The dollar index plummeted well below 79. It is currently trading near its low of the day at 78.63. The low so far is 78.56. The risk appetite has returned during the US session after Bernake expressed the concern over slow recovery of US economy.
Article provided by TraderVox.com
Bond investing is the answer to most investors’ needs; not their get-rich-quick dreams, but their real needs. So, you’d think the bond market would be doing everything possible to get these survivors of the stock market into bonds…
But they aren’t!
In fact, the bond market seems to do everything possible to keep the small investor out.
The walls, buying restrictions and ridiculous pricing structure of bonds are set up to keep the little guy out of individual bonds and in bond funds. Bond funds that have all kinds of flaws; hedging and very long average maturities, the implications of which most investors don’t fully understand.
But bond investing can have some real advantages. They’re custom made for investors who:
But plenty of problems stand in the way of the novice investor who’s simply trying to buy a bond:
Unlike most investments, there are no 24-hour television networks that have a constant flow of bond investing ideas. And most bond information that does exist consists of the 10-year Treasury, overnight rates and confusing quotes about rising and falling rates, Treasury auctions and prices.
Frankly, the information available from all sources, The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s included, is useless! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a news story about an upcoming corporate bond offering, and if there was one, the offering was sold exclusively to institutions.
Second, just getting to a page on an online broker’s site to invest in bonds is ridiculously difficult.
Go to any broker’s website and click on “Trade Bonds,” and you’ll get something that looks like this:
What you’re supposed to do with this chart is beyond me.
To get any sort of usable information and know where to click to get to the next page (it’s never clearly marked), you must fill in as much information as the U.S. government wants from folks joining the military.
Here’s a partial list of the information that’s needed:
If the average guy knew this much about bond investing, he wouldn’t need a broker at all.
Even if you can come up with all the information necessary to find some bond possibilities, you usually end up with a list of thousands of bonds and no information about any of them other than their cusips and descriptions.
Can you imagine having this much trouble trying to find a stock to buy? It’s absurd – but absurd by design – designed by the market to make small-time bond investing virtually impossible.
You see, the bond market doesn’t want the small guy. They only want the big money, and they price their bonds accordingly.
If you buy 10, better yet 20 bonds or more, you have your pick of any type of bond and at the best price. But how many people have $20,000 to invest in each trade? The answer is: very few.
Try to buy five, or just one bond, and the most-likely answer you’ll get from a bond desk is: “We can’t sell one bond,” or “It isn’t worth it to you to buy so few.”
Baloney! What they really mean is that they don’t make enough money on a trade that small to make it worthwhile to them.
Plus, the small bond investor is annoying to the gods of the bond desks. The bond gods don’t like the little guy. They do annoying things like ask questions and expect the people on the bond desk to speak English, not the tree-fort, insider-only lingo they have concocted.
The fact is: You can buy one bond.
Yes, it’ll cost a little more and you’ll get a little less if you sell it before maturity. But most stockbrokers know so little about bonds, they don’t know this, either.
And fortunately, the increase in buying price isn’t so great that it makes a significant difference to the average guy. A bond desk will make the increased cost for small bond orders sound like the end of the world, but do the math and it isn’t that bad.
When you buy individual bonds instead of bond funds, you can get better returns without any leveraging. Leveraging is one of the biggest unknowns to bond funds investors, and it will come back to haunt them.
Investing in individual bonds also allows you to buy many small positions in many different industries. This has the same effect as diversifying in your stock portfolio.
As you diversify, you also have the opportunity to spread your maturities over a much shorter range, preferably less than a seven-year average. The best part is you have control of the maturities you hold and you aren’t bound by a bond fund’s prospectus – which can cost you a lot of money when rates run up.
Buying many small, ultra-short bond positions in this market is the only way you won’t get crushed when rates turn back up. Even though we don’t expect any real uptick in rates for about three more years, you can’t risk holding long maturities (in excess of a seven year maturity). Long-term bond investing isn’t prudent!
The Oxford Club is a good place to begin to learn about the benefits of individual bonds. They have a list of brokers called the Pillar One Partners. Many of these brokers will buy as few as one bond and all of them have met our standard of excellence and have been a part of the Club for many years.
Bond investing can be the answer to almost all of the needs of the average person. It may take a little effort to get to the same level of comfort you feel with stocks, but it’ll be worth it.
Good Investing,
Steve McDonald
Article by Investment U
Most investors are looking for any sign out there to be bullish on the market. For anyone who watches CNBC or FOX Business, there’s always a buzz in the air right before The Department of Labor makes public their monthly employment data. For the most part, this is what the December announcement said:
I think it’s safe to say that these numbers were received with guarded optimism. But a better question is: What does all this mean?
In general, increases in employment means that businesses are hiring and that these businesses are healthy and growing.
Thus, the more people newly employed now have money to spend on goods and services. And this ladies and gentleman is called growth – that all-illusive ingredient missing from our economy over the past few years.
While the overall number of jobs added or lost in the economy is big, there’s other information involved in the report that can weigh on financial markets:
For example, the gains in the transportation sector, which were concentrated in courier and messenger services, may be a seasonal blip, experts say. That could be the same for job growth with retail hiring in December.
Overall, investors shouldn’t invest in a sector based on one month of positive job growth, says Mark Lamkin, the CEO of Lamkin Wealth Management. The more important point is that a fairly wide range of sectors added jobs, which suggests the improvement wasn’t an anomaly, but a sign of real economic growth, Lamkin says. “This type of employment report sets the stage for 3% growth in GDP,” he says.
Is jobs data a one-stop shop to market insight? No, but a few months of compiled jobs data might be.
Good Investing,
Jason Jenkins
Article by Investment U
Source: ForexYard
The US dollar extended its recent bullish run on the Japanese yen today, with the pair reaching as high as 76.85 before staging a slight reversal. In addition to a positive US jobs report from last week, the pair’s ascent was attributed to reports that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) secretly intervened in the marketplace late last year. While the greenback is still fairly close to the lows it hit against the yen last week, it appears that fears of another BOJ intervention have subsided for now.
Turning to tomorrow, USD traders will want to continue monitoring the euro-zone to gauge the level of risk taking in the marketplace. While positive news regarding the Greek debt swap talks is likely to boost the EUR/USD, analysts are warning that additional worries in the euro-zone could limit how high the pair moves. The same can be said for the AUD/USD. While the dollar hit a six-month low against the Aussie during today’s trading, any negative euro-zone news could cause the current trend to reverse.
Forex Market Analysis provided by ForexYard.
© 2006 by FxYard Ltd
Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you could sustain a loss of all of your investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with Foreign Exchange trading.
