ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Overall Assessment I want to be bullish on Century Communities (CCS). Century Communities sports a recession-level valuation and a strong top-line growth profile. The company’s business model is solidly planted in the entry-level and lower-priced homes that are prime drivers of the current housing market. However, a negative cash balance, negative earnings growth (over the … Read more
The Timing and the Stock Charts During the analyst conference call explaining the deal to buy William Lyon Homes (WLH), CEO Sheryl Palmer revealed that Taylor Morrison Home Company (TMHC) began buy-out talks several months ago. That was a time of rising optimism for home builders. The announcement of the deal came shortly after investors … Read more
AT40 = 57.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs)AT200 = 54.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 12.1Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary The stock market seems to be on a slow and steady march toward Christmas. The current bearish divergence and an exceptionally low volatility … Read more
This is a moment of truth for the stocks of homebuilders. The iShares Dow Jones Home Construction ETF (ITB) last week hit a 21-month high that exactly coincided with a climactic high in January, 2018. The subsequent selling this week seemed to unfold like clockwork. The selling was particularly notable given the S&P 500 (SPY) … Read more
Overall Assessment I am neutral on Pulte Homes (PHM). The company’s Q3 2019 earnings report was good but not spectacular. I am warily eyeing year-over-year net income and earnings per share declines even as the company experiences robust demand and buys back shares. Most importantly, with a 2.0 price/book ratio, PHM is relatively expensive compared … Read more
AT40 = 59.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs)AT200 = 53.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 12.7Short-term Trading Call: neutral (see below) Stock Market Commentary A Sufficient Resolution I still harbor lingering skepticism, but the S&P 500’s recovery from the last hiccup and its subsequent slow … Read more
Overall Assessment I am bullish on Lennar (LEN). The company’s Q3 2019 earnings report featured the effects of an on-going pivot to serve the entry-level market and to deliver lower-priced homes. Average selling prices came down, but deliveries, orders, revenues, and margins all improved. A “land light” strategy is helping Lennar increase its cash coffers … Read more
AT40 = 56.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs)AT200 = 49.9% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 14.3Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bearish Stock Market Commentary No Resolution The stock market did little to resolve my lingering skepticism over the meaningfulness of the “Phase One” or partial Trade … Read more
“So I think, in hindsight, even though we’re getting all these encouraging signs, just dealing with the complexity of various kinds of national governments, their processes are more, I would say, kind of persnickety, time wise, and from a procurement point of view. So it’s just frankly, just taken longer than we anticipated. But the … Read more
The wait continues for Soliton (SOLY) to turn promise into profits through the science and business of tattoo removal. Shareholder Letter Soliton recently released its first shareholder letter as a publicly traded company. The report discussed a lot of exciting progress on core technologies and product development, but the letter left shareholders little closer to … Read more