The economic recovery that has breathed life back into equity markets after the most recent recession seems to be balancing on a knife’s edge. Corporate earnings reports have been solid, but a frustrating lack of job creation looms over every trade on Wall Street, standing as a major obstacle to ongoing economic growth. In recent months pessimism has grown more intense and the bears have come out of hibernation, as more and more investors have upped the likelihood of a double dip recession and tempered expectations for the remainder of 2010. [click to continue…]
As July draws to a close, a glance around the investing landscape carries an eerie similarity to a Yosemite campground littered with discarded food; there are bears everywhere. Unemployment remains elevated, and more and more investors are coming to accept that a meaningful recovery won’t progress until signs of job creation materialize. After implementing aggressive [...]
With investors divided over the prospects for equity markets heading into the second half of 2010, another highly anticipated earnings season kicked off last week, with mixed results. After a flat Monday, markets surged higher following a slew of impressive reports, only to retreat after some disappointing numbers from the financial sector and a shockingly [...]
The last few years have been anything but kind to the global airline industry. After skyrocketing fuel prices ate into profit margins, the onset of a global recession dramatically cut demand for business travel and international flights, two big moneymakers for airlines. Then in one of the more bizarre developments in recent memory, the eruption [...]
Over the last several years, crude oil prices have taken investors on a wild ride. When the global economy was humming along, prices skyrocketed to a historic high of more than $140 per barrel. But from that peak, the downfall was both swift and severe; prices plummeted to almost $30 a barrel as economies around [...]
Most investors were happy to see the calendars turn to June and put a dismal month of May in the rear view mirror. Global equity markets took their cues from Europe for most of the month, as anxiety over the impact of sovereign debt woes on global growth dominated financial headlines and caused a wave [...]
The airline industry is notorious for its cyclical booms and busts, fluctuating with the level of consumer and business discretionary spending and often functioning as a leveraged play on the broader global economy. So far, 2010 has been an interesting year for airlines; the rumor mill has churned out hint after hint at a wave of [...]
When Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted last week, few investors imagined that the ash spewing forth would cause wilting fruit in Kenya, rotting mozzarella in Italy, or flowerless weddings in New York City. The ripples throughout the world from the most recent act of nature served as a reminder of the extent to which global economies [...]
Direxion, one of the leaders in the rapidly-expanding leveraged ETF space, has filed for approval on 36 new ETFs, including two non-leveraged products. The Direxion Auto Shares would seek to match the performance of the Indus Global Auto & Auto Suppliers Index, a benchmark that consists of approximately 30 companies engaged in the manufacturing, maintenance, [...]
The airline industry encountered some unexpected turbulence this week when an eruption beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano began spewing ash and dust into the atmosphere. The eruption has continued since then, grounding air travel across much of Western and Northern Europe. The blast, which was not very large compared to other eruptions in the past, mixed [...]
The airline industry is no stranger to the headlines. This sector has been in focus quite regularly in recent years as reports of bankruptcies, restructurings, and strikes have become common occurrences. But the last year has seen some some positive developments mixed in with the bad. The flow of red ink has been stemmed as [...]
