Archive for October 2011
China’s Golden Week Retail Sales Remain Strong – No Hard Landing
China’s Golden Week is one of two major 7-day national holidays in China. The two holidays are the Lunar New Year which begins sometime in January or February and Golden Week which starts in early October. The idea of a week long holiday is to provide an opportunity to take time off from work and…
Read MoreA Commitment to Recapitalize European Banks is Bullish for US Financials
The Euro rallied 2% today against the USD causing a sharp reversal of crisis-fearing “risk off” trades which have been working against all financial markets around the world. The Euro rallied based on indications that France and Germany are going to work seriously towards recapitalization of the European banking sector. This has been one of…
Read MoreOccupy Wall Street – Part Protest, Part Woodstock, Part Circus
Occupy Wall Street is part protest, part Woodstock, and part circus act, but none of it has anything to do with Wall Street. I live in Manhattan and figured I would check out the scene this weekend not quite sure of what to really expect. There has been plenty of financial press calling the protest…
Read MoreCrying Wolf – False Recession Calls Brutally Hurt Returns
The ECRI has come out and caused a stir from continually touting their “unavoidable recession” forecast. In addition, ECRI co-founder, Lakshman Achuthan has been continually highlighting their 3/3 track record without forecasting a false positive. While this track record is impressive, Crackerjack Finance would like to highlight a term from our disclaimer; “past performance is…
Read MoreUS Economy Demonstrates Resiliency – Retailer Comp Sales Strengthen in September
Despite massive uncertainty stemming from the manner in which Europe is handling its financial crisis, a gut wrenching stock market sell-off (the S&P 500 was down 7.2% last month), negative headlines almost every day, and predictions towards the end of the month that the US economy is now “in a recession”, the US consumer continues…
Read MoreYum! Brands – Results Indicate Strong China Consumption Growth Continues
Yum! Brands (YUM) released results after the close of market yesterday. Yum is the world’s second largest quick service (fast food) restaurant after McDonald’s and operates the KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver, and A&W Restaurant franchises. Yum is an important company I follow because of the exceptionally strong gearing to China. This…
Read MoreExcesses Cause Recession – A Comparison of 2008 and 2011
Recessions are typically caused by some sort of an excess. Real economic activity stretches too far and the subsequent unwind causes a retrenchment via a sudden and abrupt change in business and household behavior. There have been a number of excesses that have built up in the global economy over the past couple of decades.…
Read MoreFinancial Conditions are Driving all the Market Fears
Positive data and developments on the real economy front are being ignored while increases in financial stress are being focused on. The pervasive gloom in the financial markets is a result of growing fears of another financial crisis. If this were to unfold, the financial crisis would surely cause a global recession but I’m remaining…
Read MoreChina PMI – No Evidence of a Hard Landing
China’s official PMI was released over the weekend (after financial markets closed on Friday) and the September data point came in slightly higher than last month and slightly higher than expected. The total manufacturing PMI index came in a 51.2 which is the strongest month of the past 4-months. As important as the slight uptick,…
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