Market News

Russia is challenging Saudi Arabia’s spot as top oil exporter to China. In fact, Russia has sold more oil to China than the Saudis seven times since May 2015.

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What’s the next act after Friday’s July jobs report blew away expectations and lifted stocks to new highs? Retail sales for one, and several other reports of note are also on tap.

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The eight down days in the Dow Industrials since the July 20th high was enough to cause many analysts to question the validity of the rally from the late June lows. Their focus had turned to the historically weak performance of stocks in August.

According to AAII the bullish % of individual investors has declined for four weeks in a row. A Seeking Alpha survey before Friday's job report indicated that only 3.5% were looking for big gains in employment while 27.9% were expecting a "downside surprise after June’s blowout number".

Needless to say the 255,000 surge in nonfarm payrolls caught many by surprise as those who ventured on the short side scrambled to cover their positions. The major averages gapped higher on the opening Monday and several were quickly at new highs.Another push higher in the stock market is likely to add to the pains of the hedge fund industry. Since my July 2014 article “The Week Ahead: One Bubble Starting to Burst?” I have felt that the hedge fund bubble was bursting. As noted in a May CNN article it looks like the industry is now facing up to this reality.As they noted "A barometer of hedge fund performance, called the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index, has generated an annualized gain of just 1.7% over the past five years. Compared to that, the S&P 500's average annualized return for the same period was 11%."


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The U.S. dollar and euro continue to build consolidation patterns that are worth watching to determine their next directional moves.

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The U.S. has become dependent on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy to manage the economy. However, even though the Fed has kept interest rates at historic lows for the past 8 years, the economy’s growth has been anemic at best. Bruce Pile explains why Alan Greenspan and Marc Faber agree that the Fed has reached an important limit and its implications for investors.

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Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. One way we can try to measure the level of fear in a given stock is through a technical analysis indicator called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30.

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The House of Mouse also announced a $1 billion stake in a video streaming company.

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It's likely to be a consumer-spending tale of two retailers, among others, when Macy's and Alibaba at opposite ends of the retail machine... Are consumers spending, and if so, on what?

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Crisis or regulation would appear the only things that will compel banks to change their behaviour. So, with this in mind, can a shake-up in UK retail banking really be instigated after a British financial watchdog announced that new phone-based apps could help customers find banks offering the best account?

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In this series, we look through the most recent Dividend Channel ''DividendRank'' report, and then we cherry pick only those companies that have experienced insider buying within the past six months. The officers and directors of a company tend to have a unique insider's view of the business, and presumably the only reason an insider would choose to take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So when stocks turn up that see insider buying, and are also top ranked, investors are wise to take notice. One such company is Assured Guaranty Ltd (NYSE: AGO), which saw buying by President/CEO/Deputy Chairman Dominic Frederico.

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