Category Archives for "Uncategorized"

Weaning consumers off the debt fix – maybe

Well that seemed short-lived. Perhaps the bounce in US equity markets on the February non-farms was just a one day wonder. The numbers however, weren’t too shabby for equity prices; the combination of a better than expected net job growth (including upward revision in the January guesstimate), but with a lower pace of average wage […]

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Wazzup – 23rd May 2017

Chemicals day at Wazzup.     –  Yesterday’s $14bn merger announcement between Huntsman and Clariant show that it can be done, notwithstanding Akzo Nobel still playing ‘hard to get’ in face of PPG’s multiple advances. With the sector also at the cusp of pushing through price rises to recoup earlier increases in raw material and […]

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Wazzup today in the markets – 16th May 2017

ITE (ite_l) – H1 FY17 results & strategy review:  Underwhelming on both                                                                     . Vodafone (vod_l) – FY17 results:  Value trap as investors […]

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eBay – Closing long position with gain of +30% (+28% relative: +60% annualised)

eBay long positioned closed at $31.9 ps to crystallise a >+30% absolute and +28% relative gain (vs the S&P500) since we added the stock to the GrowthRater portfolio, just over 5 months ago at $24.5 ps  (http://growthrater.com/ebay-added-growthrater-model-portfolio-close-price-24-49/).  Annualised, that represents a return of +65% on the trade and +60% on a relative basis against the […]

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Auto & jobs slowdown in August – another excuse for the Fed not to raise rates!

Another month of hints about imminent interest rate increases by Yellen and the Fed leak machine and we are probably no closer to an actual rate increase. At least in July we had another relatively firm private sector job creation and US auto sales to suggest that the super-low rate environment was well past its […]

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Looking beyond central bank interference in equity valuations

Behind the incessant background noise of Yellen’s ‘will she won’t she raise rates’ discussion, the closing of the Q1 results season provides a good opportunity to take stock of the broader earnings and more importantly OpFCF yield basis on which equities are priced. Relative to expectations at the start of the year, there have been […]

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