Month: September 2012

This morning, Vanguard Natural Resources declared its monthly dividend of 20 cents per share, maintaining the amount paid to shareholders last quarter. Based on the current stock price, investors can expect a yield of about 8.6% going forward.

In trading on Monday, cigarettes & tobacco shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.7%. Leading the group were shares of Star Scientific (STSI), up about 1.9% and shares of Lorillard (LO) up about 1.6% on the day.

This morning, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) from buy to hold as the effects of QE3 will lower interest rates across the board. In the report, Stifel also cut its EPS estimates.

By CountingPips.com

The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large currency speculators cut their overall US dollar positions back to a total short position last week from a total long position the previous week.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, decreased their total US dollar positions to being short by $6.176 billion on September 11th from a total long position of $1.5 billion on September 4th, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

Individual Currencies:

CAD: Canadian dollar positions rose higher for a seventh consecutive week and surged to the best level since at least before 2010. Canadian dollar positions jumped to a total of 101,860 net long contracts as of September 11th following a total of 66,555 net short contracts that were reported for September 4th. The Canadian currency positions easily passed the highest level of 2012 that was recorded on May 1st when long positions equaled 70,223 contracts.

The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity. Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.

(The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.)

AUD: The Australian dollar positions rose last week after declining for two consecutive weeks. Aussie speculative futures positions increased to a total net amount of 68,259 long contracts on September 11th after totaling 62,439 net long contracts as of September 4th. Australian dollar contracts most recent high level was on August 21st when long positions equaled 86,882.

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions decreased for a third consecutive week following a streak of eleven straight weeks of rises. NZD contracts declined to a total of 10,032 net long contracts as of September 11th following a total of 11,401 net long contracts on September 4th.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts surged higher last week after falling for two straight weeks. Peso positions increased to a total of 122,243 net long speculative positions as of September 11th following a total of 90,881 long contracts that were reported for September 4th.

EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment for the euro increased last week and brought euro positions to their best level since April 2nd. Euro net short positions or bets against the currency fell to 93,658 contracts on September 11th from the previous week’s total of 102,306 net short contracts on August 28th. This is the first week that short contracts have been under 100,000 since April 2nd when positions totaled 79,480 short contracts.

GBP: British pound sterling positions edged up last week after declining the two previous weeks. British pound sterling speculative positions totaled 4,366 net short contracts on September 11th following a total of 6,868 net long contracts on September 4th.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts increased for a third consecutive week to bring yen positions to the highest level since February. Japanese yen positions rose to a total of 32,773 net long contracts reported on September 11th following a total of 24,007 net long contracts on September 4th. Yen contracts are now at the best level since February 6th when positions equaled 55,171 long contracts.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rose after declining the previous week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 8,967 net short contracts on September 11th following a total of 13,112 net short contracts as of September 4th. Franc contracts are now at their best level since June 19th when positions reached 7,007 short contracts.

COT Currency Data Summary as of September 11, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar

EUR -93658
GBP -4366
JPY +32773
CHF -8967
CAD +101860
AUD +68259
NZD +10032
MXN +122243

You’re watching The Financial News Network, I’m Kimberly OdomGoogle Glass and Google co-founder Sergey Brin made a special appearance at New York Fashion Week Sunday afternoon. Models walked Diane von Furstenberg’s runway wearing Google’s upcoming tech device, Glass. The unique eyewear, which google is calling augmented reality-enhanced glasses have smartphone-like functions: users record video, take photos, receive messages and check calendars, among other functions.Each piece was specially modified to complement the designers collection with a range of colors like whites and grays and corals. You can view the Google New York Fashion Week short film DVF Through Glass on DVF’s Google+ page which launched yesterday. The short was filmed using footage shot before and during the fashion show. Google glass will be available to the public in 2014 for cool $1,500.For more on these stories and other news in the business world, follow us on Twitter @fnnonline or catch us on the web at FNNO.com

This thirty seventh trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors globally sending stocks higher on news of the Federal Reserve’s bond-purchase program. Hi.

CF Industries (CF) was upgraded by JP Morgan (JPM) to overweight from neutral with a $253 price target due to improving supply/demand fundamentals. Shares are higher by about 1.3 percent.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

In trading on Friday, metals & mining shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 3.7%. Leading the group were shares of Usec (USU), up about 19.6% and shares of Uranium Resources (URRE) up about 12% on the day.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) announced that it will sell oil and natural-gas assets for $6.9 billion to narrow a cash-flow shortfall which threatens to put a damper on the company’s drilling and production goals. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.