Morning News: May 12, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 12th, 2017 at 4:04 am

BOE’s Smooth Brexit Assumption Doesn’t Convince Market Skeptics

Greece Eyes Bond Sale Amid Optimism Over Debt Deal

In Fight Against U.S. Shale Oil, OPEC Risks Lower for Longer

G7 Finance Chiefs In Italy Try To Gauge Trump’s Policy Plans

The Economist Who Helped Write Trump’s Tax Plan in Five Days

U.S. Strikes China Trade Deals But Leaves Major Issues Untouched

Airlines Fret About Laptop Ban From Europe During Peak Season

After Disastrous First Report, Wall Street Is Increasingly Worried ‘Facebook is Crushing Snapchat’

Sliding Sales Stoke Fears For US Department Stores

Whole Foods Board Overhaul Fails to Satisfy Activist Jana

Barclays’s Latest Problem: Questions on Chief’s Judgment

SoftBank Leads $502 Million Stake in Virtual-Reality Designer Improbable

GE’s Immelt Bets Big on Digital Factories, Shareholders Are Wary

Cullen Roche: QE, Stock Buybacks and Other Stuff

Michael Batnick: The Map Versus The Terrain

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Morning News: May 11, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 11th, 2017 at 6:14 am

EU Raises Euro-Area Growth Forecast With Risks More Balanced

European Airlines Bracing for Expansion of Trump’s Laptop Ban

BOE’s Reasons to Delay Rate Hike Multiply With Brexit Twists

How `Brexit’ Could Alter London, The World’s Banker

Uber Suffers Bloody Nose in Its Fight to Conquer Europe

Mobius Says Low Market Volatility Is Tied to Social Media

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel Trolls Mark Zuckerberg on Snap Earnings Call

Apple Will Spend $1 Billion And Add 100 Jobs As It Expands Reno Data Center

Tesla’s Solar Roof Sets Musk’s Grand Unification Into Motion

Edward Lampert: Sears’ Troubles Are Everyone’s Fault But Mine

Emirates Profit Drops 70% on Stuttering Economies, Terror Impact

Aldi Raises Stakes in U.S. Price War With Wal-Mart

Jeff Miller: Identifying “Hard” Data

Howard Lindzon: The Laughing Zuckerberg

Ben Carlson: When Markets Defy the Fed

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Wabtec Raises Dividend by 20%
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 10th, 2017 at 2:01 pm

Good news for shareholders of Wabtec (WAB). The company just increased its dividend by 20%. This is the seventh year in a row that WAB has raised its dividend.

The quarterly dividend is rising from 10 to 12 cents per share. Based on yesterday’s close, that’s an increase of 0.59%.

Morning News: May 10, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 10th, 2017 at 7:01 am

French Businesses Hope Macron’s Victory Will Ignite an Economic Revival

The Eurocrat Who Makes Corporate America Tremble

Billions Are Sinking Into a Balkan Black Hole

Oil Rises as Industry Report Shows U.S. Supplies Fell a 5th Week

US Job Openings Near Record High – But The Record Only Started In Dec 2000

Fed Official Warns Fannie-Freddie Reforms Could Cause Shocks

Carl Icahn Scrutinized for Shaping Policy That Helped Him Profit

Disney Parks and Movies Soar, But ESPN Is a Concern

Toyota’s Squeezed Middle

Nvidia’s Stock Zooms Up As Demand Grows For AI Chips

As Department Stores Close, Stitch Fix Expands Online

With New Echo Speakers, Amazon Lets You Ask Alexa to Phone Mom

ChemChina Gets Around 82% of Syngenta in $43 Billion Deal

Josh Brown: Into The Teeth Of The Next Bear

Jeff Carter: The Role of An Angel; The Role of An Early Stage Investor; The Role of a Larger Investor

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

The VIX Closes Below 10
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 9th, 2017 at 12:26 pm

Yesterday, the Volatility Index (VIX) closed below 10. Historically, this is a very low reading for the index. This was its lowest close in 24 years.

Since 1990, the first year of data in my file, the VIX has closed below 10 just ten times. The VIX has been as low as 9.56 this morning.

I have a slightly heterodox view on the VIX. You’ll often hear the VIX discussed on the financial news as if it’s the market’s heart rate. It’s not.

In fact, the VIX is largely tied to what the market is doing. When the market is up, volatility drops. When the market falls, volatility rises.

Morning News: May 9, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 9th, 2017 at 7:04 am

Euro Tumbles From Six-Month Peak As Macron Win in France Spurs Profit-Taking

Slate of Data Shows Germany Economy Barreling Ahead

Australia Budget 2017: Winners and Losers

Oil Holds Gains as U.S. Crude Stockpiles Seen Extending Decline

U.S. Regulators Look at Volcker Rule, a Sign They Hear Wall Street

Will Sinclair Broadcast Group Take on Fox News After Buying Tribune Media in a $3.9-Billion Deal?

Coach Buys Kate Spade

Elliott Takes Akzo to Court to Oust Chairman in PPG Battle

Micro Focus Stock Falls on HPE Combination Woes

Buying Spree Brings Attention to Opaque Chinese Company

Refugee Turned Fintech Chief Aims to Upend a $444 Billion Market

Here’s What Some of the World’s Top Money Managers Are Betting On

Cullen Roche: Let’s Talk About Expert Predictions

Michael Batnick: A Few Chart s and a Few Thoughts

Roger Nusbaum: This One Goes to 11

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Investors Title Company (ITIC)
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 8th, 2017 at 11:21 am

One of the most popular things I do on the blog is highlight little-known stocks that have done very well.

Today’s example is Investors Title (ITIC) based in Chapel Hill, NC. As you might guess, it’s a title insurance company.

Investors Title Company’s subsidiaries issue and underwrite title insurance policies. The Company also provides investment management services and services in connection with tax-deferred exchanges of like-kind property.

Twenty-five years ago, ITIC was going for $3.50 per share. Today, it’s going for $177 per share. There’s also a very modest quarterly dividend which was increased from one penny to 20 cents.

Guess the number of Wall Street analysts who follow ITIC?

I’ll give you a hint. Zero.

By the way, a few years ago, I wrote about title insurance.

Not too long ago, I had no idea what title insurance was. Now that I follow the industry, I have a hard time believing that everyone doesn’t know about it. I won’t call it a “scam,” but it’s hard to imagine this is not only legal, but lenders make title insurance mandatory.

Title insurance protects homeowners against competing claims for their property. Here’s an interesting historical tidbit for you: Title insurance played an important role in the history of our two greatest presidents. In the 1750’s, Lord Fairfax, the only peer living in North America asked a young man named George Washington (a distant relative) to survey some of his land in the western part of Virginia. By “some land,” I mean half the darn state. Fairfax owned some five million acres. Earlier, the Virginia House of Burgesses tried to do what governments like to do, claim some of his land for itself.

About 60 years later, and not that far away, a Virginia-born farmer named Thomas Lincoln bought a small farm in Kentucky. At this time, this was frontier country. He built a log cabin there and soon, he and his wife had a son. Then along came a man with a competing claim to the farm and the court ruled against the Lincoln family. They had to move and the legal costs were a great hardship to the young family. They were able to lease another farm and soon, the same things happened again. Thomas Lincoln was fed up with Kentucky and moved to Indiana which had recently been surveyed by the Federal government, so land claims were more secure. Or at least, they were supposed to be more secure. Shortly after the family got in Indiana, Thomas’ wife Sarah died. The whole episode left a great impression on Abraham Lincoln and it may have led him to study surveying and the law.

America has been very fortunate to have avoided the ugly land claims problems of the Old World, and that’s were title insurance comes in. I believe that title insurance is required by law in most states. So you have a product that few people know about, no one even thinks about, the prices vary greatly and I can’t imagine there are too many claims. The profits are enormous and the risk is low, so sign me up!

Morning News: May 8, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 8th, 2017 at 7:02 am

Paris to Redouble Efforts to Attract Brexit Banks After Macron Win

Saudi Arabia and Russia Signal Oil-Cuts Extension Into 2018

Top China Official Urges Economic Diversification For Macau Gaming Hub

Will Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy Filing Destroy Your Retirement?

Buffett Confronts Search for Next Big Thing After Missed Chances

Have The ‘Miserable’ Airlines Finally Reached A Tipping Point?

Akzo Nobel Rejects 3rd Offer From Paint Rival PPG Industries

Sinclair Is Said to Be Near a Deal for Tribune Media

Comcast, Charter Joining Forces to Better Compete in Wireless

Etihad Accelerates Reset as Interim CEO Takes Reins Immediately

Candid, Comedic and Macabre YouTube Stars Feel an Advertising Pinch

The Long, Hard, Unprecedented Fall of Sears

Ben Carlson: Passive Aggressive Investing

Howard Lindzon: Netflix…Woops

Jeff Miller: What Is the Message of the Market?

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Update on Friday’s Big Movers
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 8th, 2017 at 6:58 am

Thanks to their earnings reports, we had some big movers on Friday. Continental Building Products (CBPX) jumped 9.64% to close at $25.60 per share.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) rose 4.07% to reach $63.22 per share. CTSH touched a new 52-week high.

Moody’s (MCO), who I thought had a fine earnings report, was our biggest loser on the day with a drop of 0.98%.

Through Friday, our Buy List is up 9.48% for the year. That’s a new high.

Q1 2017 Earnings Calendar
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 7th, 2017 at 6:02 am

In our current earnings season, 20 of our 25 Buy List stocks are reporting their first-quarter earnings results. Here’s a list of reporting dates, Wall Street’s consensus estimates and actual reported results: