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Category Archives: Investor education
Corporate Earnings on the Rise
Briefing.Com recently noted that as of the end of last week, about one third of the S&P 500 firms reported earnings results for the 1st Quarter of 2010. Bespoke and Briefing.com both highlighted that about 83% of the earnings reports thus far beat analysts' estimates. To put this in a historical perspective, Thomson Reuters pointed out that, going back to 1994, 60% of earnings reports typically beat analysts' estimates in a given quarter. As a result, it can reasonably be concluded that it was a stellar first quarter for the majority of U.S. large cap firms.Read more
Removing the Peg from the Chinese Yuan
The likelihood of the Chinese Yuan starting to appreciate relative to the U.S. Dollar has increased recently as a result of pressure from the U.S. government on the Chinese government to lift the so-called "peg" that is in place between the Chinese Yuan and the U.S. Dollar in addition to mounting concerns that inflation is completely eroding the current rate of interest that Chinese investors are earning on bank deposits.Read more
2010 Capital Markets Outlook and U.S. Economy Forecast
As part of our annual portfolio reconstitution process at Hennion & Walsh, we strive to build forward looking, asset allocation-oriented portfolios based on our internal views of where we believe both the markets and economy are heading for the next year.Read more
The Bleak Outlook For Unemployment
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current official unemployment rate is 10%. The official unemployment rate, often referred to as the U-3 rate, represents the total unemployed as a percentage of the civilian labor force.Read more
Looking to Earnings for Guidance
According to Thomson Reuters, over 70% of companies beat their 2nd quarter estimates which marked the highest percentage of companies surpassing estimates since Thomson Reuters began tracking this type of data back in 1994. To put this in a historical perspective, in a typical quarter, approximately 61% of companies eclipse their estimates. One particular industry showing particular strength was Health Care which interestingly is also one of the only industries that has actually added jobs in the last twelve month period. However, we, at Hennion & Walsh, believe that third quarter earnings should be carefully dissected before reaching any forward-looking conclusions and further believe that this holiday season will likely disappoint and lead to lower fourth quarter earnings than many analysts are predicting at this point in time.Read more