ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
The Breakdown Big events can create distinct trading goalposts. Elon Musk’s big reveal for the Cybertruck created the next big goalpost for Tesla (TSLA). The event delivered a bonus with the amount of derision and scorn heaped upon the stark and sharp ugliness of the truck and the big double fail on the test of … Read more
The Stock Performance Roku (ROKU) is up an eye-popping 402% in 2019 year-to-date. ROKU surged off a 13-month low in December, 2018, and the run-up included three straight very positive post-earnings surges. The stock hit its closing all-time high at a stratospheric $169.86 on September 6, 2019. Soon after that milestone, competitive news from Apple … Read more
The ETF Performance The 2019 seasonal trade for home builders was a dramatic one that departed from the typical script. The iShares US Home Construction (ITB) suffered greatly in the late 2018 sell-off. The housing market softened as one of the most notable features of the sell-off in the stock market. Several home builders made … Read more
From Underwhelmed to Overwhelmed Disney (DIS) finally officially jumped into the streaming wars with its introduction of Disney +. The service launched on November 12, 2019 with a press release announcing: ” Disney+, the highly anticipated streaming service from The Walt Disney Company, launched today in the U.S., Canada, and The Netherlands. With nearly 500 … Read more
A Failed Pilot “…with a direct partnership, Nike will be able to ‘elevate the way the brand is presented’ by gaining more control over how its products are marketed on the site…” Former Nike CEO Mark Parker quoted in CNN Business (June 29, 2017) In 2017, the Nike (NKE) pilot with Amazon.com (AMZN) held a … 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
Housing Market Intro/Summary The stocks of home builders are starting to fail their moment of truth. A Moment of Truth Looming Ever Larger On October 25th, the iShares Dow Jones Home Construction ETF (ITB) hit a 21-month high that coincided exactly with a major multi-year peak and post-recession high from January, 2018. The sellers showed … Read more
In late August, I wrote about a bad turn for the Turkish lira. Over two months later, the lira is around the same price levels in USD/TRY and EUR/TRY – two key pairs for the lira – but the path to this point has featured plenty of volatility. From a technical perspective, USD/TRY is testing … 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