ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Housing Market Intro and Summary The housing downturn ended almost as quickly as it began. V-shaped recoveries are evident across a spectrum of data, especially in home builder sentiment and new home sales. Home builders continue to describe extremely strong demand that, in many cases, goes beyond the release of buying power pent-up by the … Read more
Some sporting goods retailers have to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Hibbett Sports (HIBB) looks like one of them. Soaring Sales Results Hibbett Sports provided early sales guidance for its fiscal second quarter that delivered surprisingly strong results (all comparables are year-over-year unless otherwise stated): Total store sales for the quarter: over +70%; for the first … Read more
Nutanix (NTNX) is an IT infrastructure company that helps its customers “modernize their datacenters and run applications at any scale, on-prem and in the cloud.” The stock peaked in June, 2018 after a 13-month, 310% run-up from an all-time low. The March, 2020 stock market crash briefly took NTNX to a new all-time low. Even … Read more
Look no further than LGI Homes (LGIH) as a confirmation that at least some parts of the country are back to business after a temporary pause from COVID-19 (coronavirus) economic woes. Last week, LGI Homes reported more astounding sales results. From the press release: June home closings: +16.7% year-over-year Q2 home closings: +3.1% year-over-year, the … Read more
Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (TMHC) Taylor Morrison Home Corporation (TMHC) is once again doing its best to prove wrong my skepticism over its acquisition of William Lyons Homes. On July 8th, the company recorded strong sales performance as the housing market continues its swift recovery from the temporary economic shutdown forced by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) … Read more
Stock Market Statistics AT40 = 53.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) (2-month low)AT200 = 25.6% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs VIX = 34.7Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary The damage in the stock market the previous week looked strong enough to eventually take trading conditions … Read more
The Stock Alphabet (GOOG), formerly Google, has stalled out in an important gap created in February. At that time, the stock lost 4.3% on a day when the entire stock market gapped down and ushered in he beginnings of the March stock market collapse. The stock rallied into the gap on June 10th. Two weeks … Read more
The Message in Home Builder Sentiment The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported a tremendous surge in the sentiment of home builders. The Housing Market Index (HMI) soared from 37 in May to 58 in June. Just two months after suffering a historic plunge, sentiment among home builders is right back to positive territory. … Read more
“The Company’s cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash on hand is sufficient to fund the Company’s operations into December 2020 but not beyond.” This quote from the May 14 earnings report from Soliton (SOLY) is tattooed in my mind as I consider the implications of the company’s recent good news on cellulite treatment. On June … Read more
I still can hardly believe my eyes, but it seems that a V-shaped recovery is truly underway in the housing market. In my last Housing Market Review, I wrote about housing-related stocks printing V-shaped recoveries ahead of data suggesting that such a recovery was underway. Last week’s sales activity report from home builder TRI Pointe … Read more