Dean Foods (DF) was upgraded by KeyBanc (KEY) to buy with a price target of $21, as the structural transition undertaken by the company that will make it a fluid milk pure play should drive the price higher. Shares are lower by about a third of a percent.
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 cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.
President Barack Obama has tapped Wal-Mart’s Sylvia Mathews Burwell as his next budget chief, thrusting her into the center of Washington’s heated partisan budget battles.
Economists were opposed to automatic spending cutsPresident Obama is not the Jedi you’re looking forCongress Passes Reauthorization of Violence Against Women ActObama faces deadline on gay marriage case
One of the hurdles for the President’s Affordable Care Act is language. Understanding the law is a challenge even for governors, state lawmakers and agency officials. Delivering its message to non-English speakers is especially complicated.
A former sailor won the men’s division of the ‘Conch Honk’ contest in Key West, Florida on Saturday.
By CountingPips.com
The latest weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures traders sharply increased their bets in favor of the US dollar last week and brought the American currency’s overall long position to the highest level in seven months.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, registered an overall US dollar long position of $14.39 billion as of Tuesday February 26th. This was a change from a total long position of $1.481 billion that was registered on Tuesday February 19th, according to the CFTC’s COT data and trader position calculations by Reuters, which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
The non-commercial large trader position in the dollar has now improved for three straight weeks and is at the highest level since July 24, 2012, according to Reuters.
Individual Currencies Large Speculators Futures Positions:
The individual currency contracts quoted directly against the US dollar last week saw just a slight improvement for the Japanese yen while the euro, British pound sterling, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso all had a declining number of contracts compared to the previous week.
Individual Currency Charts:
EuroFX:
EuroFX: Large trader and speculator sentiment for the euro fell somewhat sharply last week to drop for a third straight week as euro positions crossed back over to a negative bearish position. Euro contracts decreased to a position of -9,394 contracts in the data reported for February 26th following the previous week’s total of +19,103 net long contracts on February 19th.
Euro spec positions are now back on the bearish side after turning bullish on January 15th and reaching a recent high level of +37,952 contracts on February 5th.
Great Britain Pound:
GBP: British pound sterling positions declined sharply again last week to fall for a sixth consecutive week. British pound speculative positions dropped to a total of -36,130 net contracts on February 26th following a total of -23,365 net contracts that were reported on February 19th.
Pound speculator positions have now been in a negative bearish position for three weeks and are at the lowest level since March 12th, 2012 when positions equaled -41,848 contracts.
Japanese Yen:
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts inched up last week after dipping the previous week. Japanese yen positions advanced slightly to a total of -65,344 net contracts reported on February 26th following a total of -65,891 net short contracts on February 19th.
Yen positions have been on the bearish side since October 2012 with a recent low point reached on December 11th with -94,401 contracts.
Swiss Franc:
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions decreased last week to fall for a second week and to the lowest level since November 2012. Net positions for the Swiss currency futures dropped to a total of -8,191 contracts on February 26th following a total of -675 net contracts as of February 19th.
CHF positions are on the short side for a second straight week and are at the lowest level since November 20, 2012.
Canadian Dollar:
CAD: Canadian dollar positions decreased sharply lower last week to decline for a sixth consecutive week and to the lowest level in over a year. Canadian dollar positions fell to a total of -21,433 contracts as of February 26th following a total of +19,379 net contracts that were reported for February 19th.
Canadian dollar speculator positions are now at their lowest level since January 17th, 2012 when positions totaled -28,730 contracts.
Australian Dollar:
AUD: The Australian dollar continued to decrease last week to fall for a fifth straight week. Aussie speculative futures positions declined to a total net amount of +25,695 contracts on February 26th after totaling +43,981 contracts as of February 19th.
Australian dollar contracts are at their lowest level since July 17, 2012 when long positions equaled just +13,931 contracts.
New Zealand Dollar:
NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions decreased last week after reaching their highest level in over a year the previous week. NZD contracts decreased to a total of +20,297 net long contracts as of February 26th following a total of +24,693 net long contracts on February 19th.
The New Zealand dollar positions two weeks ago just surpassed their 2012 high level (reached on December 11th at +24,600 contracts) and have remained over the +20,000 long contracts threshold for seven consecutive weeks.
Mexican Peso:
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts dropped last week to decline for a sixth straight week. Peso positions decreased to a total of +104,804 net long speculative positions as of February 26th following a total of +116,165 contracts that were reported for February 19th.
Peso speculative positions continue to be at their lowest level since November 27, 2012 when long speculative positions equaled +93,858 contracts.
The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).
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.)
Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Market Analysis
This ninth trading week of 2013 comes to a close with investors assessing the impact of steep budget cuts after fiscal talks in the US fail. Hi.
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