Nuclear shares tempt opportunists but risks abound
CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Buying on bad news has often reaped rewards for investors and the Japanese earthquake seems to be such an opportunity, but a possible meltdown at some nuclear plants makes this a riskier gamble than most.
Options bets in major uranium stocks show some don’t view Monday’s selloff as an automatic buying opportunity.
Analysis: Betting on nuclear shares a gamble
CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Buying on bad news has often reaped rewards for investors and the Japanese earthquake seems to be such an opportunity, but a possible meltdown at some nuclear plants makes this a riskier gamble than most.
Options bets in major uranium stocks show some don’t view Monday’s selloff as an automatic buying opportunity.
Japan quake to keep stock investors wary
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The devastation in Japan is set to worsen the negative short-term sentiment gripping a vulnerable U.S. stock market, with companies exposed to Japan and the nuclear energy sector likely to take the biggest hits.
The disaster brought on a flurry of short bets against Japanese stocks on Friday, and that trend could well accelerate on news of deteriorating conditions in Japan over the weekend.
Uncertainty feeds a surge in U.S. options trades
CHICAGO/NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) – The equity options
market has attracted a huge crowd of U.S. investors trading in
a marketplace where daily surprises come from all parts of the
globe.
The stock market has been resilient, but the threat of
rising oil prices has tempered bullish enthusiasm, judging by
lackluster share volume on days when stocks have rallied.
Warren Buffett’s enthusiasm for U.S. could boost markets
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Warren Buffett is going long on America, and investors are likely to take note when markets open on Monday.
Buffett’s annual letter, released Saturday, is brimming with references to the strength of the American people, economy and spirit.
Buffett enthusiasm for U.S. could boost markets
NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Warren Buffett is going long
on America, and investors are likely to take note when markets
open on Monday.
Buffett’s annual letter, released Saturday, is brimming
with references to the strength of the American people, economy
and spirit.
5 Questionable Arguments Against the Double-Dip
Don’t tell George Costanza, but double dipping is all the rage these days. The possibility of the U.S. slipping back into recession after a brief period of growth is a hot topic of late – and while such an occurrence is unlikely, pundits are feverishly declaring that it can’t and won’t happen.
Here are some of their reasons, some of which appear to strain credulity: Double-dips are “rare.” Simon Hobbs of CNBC is a vigorous promoter of this idea, but let’s face it, the last 15 years of financial-market history is a veritable compendium things that no one expected to happen – LTCM, the financial panic, Lehman Brothers. Rare means nothing. The stock market hasn’t dropped enough. Ah yes, the stock market, that stellar indicator of the economy’s future, such as in October 2007, when it hit an all-time high, two months before the onset of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Next. The yield curve hasn’t flattened enough. This indicator comes with a bit more in the way of history, as a flattened/inverted yield curve has been a reliable indicator of economic weakness ahead. But the Federal Reserve is anchoring the short end of the curve to the ground with its zero interest rate policy. It complicates the curve’s predictive value – something Goldman Sachs noted in a morning commentary. “External shocks” are responsible for the declines in economic activity, such as that in Europe. Similar shocks were enough to spark recessions in the 1930s, 1970s, and in 2008. Everything’s connected now, remember? Corporate profits are strong. As they were all the way through the beginning of 2007, once again, before the most recent eruption.
A recent Reuters poll put the odds of a double-dip recession at about 15 percent. Gluskin Sheff’s bearish strategist David Rosenberg puts it around 50-50, and Jim Bianco of Bianco Research also put that kind of odds on it. It may not happen – but when a lot of people are trying to convince you that something’s not going to happen, it can make you believe that it’s more likely than not.
Regulate Us? We’re Hurt.
Obama advisor Paul Volcker wants more regulation.
The popular image of Wall Street institutions involve swagger: the ability to absorb the competition’s blows, taking no prisoners, raking in the money… until it seems like the government could force them to rein in their excesses. It’s at that point that Wall Street’s tough guys suddenly sound wounded.
In Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, an article about the derivatives legislation being considered in Washington has this comment from Bank of America spokesman James Mahoney—the bank is “concerned that we won’t be able to provide our customers with financial products they need to manage risk and grow and that foreign banks will step in and take that business.”
PIMCO’s El-Erian: Further ECB action needed in Greece
NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) – Greece’s deepening credit
crisis could force the European Central Bank to purchase
additional debt of the troubled eurozone nation, the chief of
the world’s largest bond fund said on Tuesday.
“I think what we are going to see over the next few months
is the ECB having to buy more and more Greek bonds,” Mohamed
El-Erian of Pacific Investment Management Co, PIMCO, told
Reuters Insider television.
BP’s U.S. shares plunge on spill liability fears
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – BP Plc (BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) shares tumbled nearly 16 percent on U.S. exchanges to a 14-year low on Wednesday on rising fears about how the wounded company will cope with the massive costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
The stock has now lost more than half its value since the April 20 explosion that sank a BP-contracted rig and led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
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