Executive Summary 1. Short-term fears, long-term prospects. Once again, we see some short-term volatility led by various market fears: of a Greek departure from the Euro, of a collapse of European banks or even of the common currency itself; of a “collapse” in the price of oil; of financial stresses Read more…
Executive Summary 1. There are attractive investment opportunities in 2015, but we expect more volatility. As we’ve said over the past several weeks, we see good momentum in economic fundamentals supporting corporate profit growth and stock price appreciation in 2015, especially in the U.S., and potentially in some other global Read more…
Why the Stock Market Bears Have Been So Wrong Today’s negative and incorrect tone from world news commentators — including stock market commentators– is easy to understand. It is not hard to see the source of the media negativity. The negativity is due to the fact that negative news sells. The Read more…
The European Central Bank buys securities from banks. Under Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank has embarked on its boldest stimulus yet — expanding its balance sheet by purchasing various kinds of asset-backed securities from Eurozone banks. We applaud Draghi’s determination, and we are hopeful that governments in Europe will do more to Read more…
Falling Oil Oil continues its sharp decline, driven by seasonal factors, although a strong U.S. Dollar and global growth slowdown fears are also involved. Oil companies have been hurt, and the U.S. consumer is benefitting from cheaper gasoline. Although the strong Dollar may eventually hurt U.S. exports, we note that sharp oil price Read more…
Pay attention: the U.S. Dollar’s rise is critical for investors. The U.S. Dollar has broken out against other developed-market currencies. Although the Dollar may fall for a short period of time over the next few weeks, its longer term trend is higher. We believe that this rise is being permitted in order to Read more…
Home Depot Data Breach Makes Another Bullish Case for Cybersecurity Earlier this month, Home Depot revealed a massive data breach, in which the credit cards of some 56 million customers may have been compromised. Company insiders have since alleged lax cybersecurity practices, but it’s also clear that the attack was performed by Read more…
Is an Education Gap Fueling Income Inequality? 2014 has been the year of “income inequality.” French economist Thomas Piketty’s massive book Capital in the 21st Century was published in English, and strangely rose to the top of the bestseller lists (something that doesn’t usually happen to thick economics texts). The issue of Read more…
New Tech Innovations Keep Coming As part of our ongoing emphasis on tech innovations, we’ll mention a few stories that have caught our eye recently. Some are obviously tech-related, others less so. We continue to believe that such innovations — and the entrepreneurs who bring them from concept to reality — will Read more…
The S&P Hits 2000 Why is the market moving slowly ahead when so many naysayers are calling for a crash, and when so many trouble spots are festering in the world? We all see the fighting — problems in Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine, Libya — and we note that things are Read more…
12400 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 820 Los Angeles, CA 90025
1 310 826-8600
Mon-Fri 6:30-4:30
