Retail Sales and Factory Output – Week of April 13-17, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc all around the world. In the USA, retail sales declined by 8.7%, making for a record decline. The previous record was 3.9% in November 2008, during the Great Recession / global financial crisis (GFC) era. Clothing and accessories sales declined 50.5%. Food services and …

Government Stimulus and the Dow Jones – Week of March 23-27, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha Per the table seen above, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) took investors on a volatile ride this week. Down days were seen on Monday and Friday. Up days were seen on the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in between. This pattern in the DJIA was observed due to the federal government’s …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of January 20-24, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha and Anil K. Ambastha On Tuesday, January 21, 2020, China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (CEA) stock dropped by 10.4% for the day. China Eastern Airlines is a major Chinese airline company which offers international, domestic, and regional flights. The company is headquartered at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Changning District, Shanghai. …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of January 13-17, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha and Anil K. Ambastha On Tuesday, January 14, 2020, Pinterest, Inc. (PINS) stock rose by 9.6% for the day because, as per market research firm eMarketer, Pinterest had 82.4 million American users in 2019. With this data point, Pinterest is now the third-largest American social media platform behind Facebook (FB) and …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of November 11-15, 2019

By Kuldip K. Ambastha and Anil K. Ambastha Overstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) is an online retailer which offers a wide variety of products. Its stock fell by 17.4% on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 due to disappointing 3Q2019 results plus an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Specifically, a $0.89 loss per share was …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of September 30-October 4, 2019

By Anil K. Ambastha and Kuldip K. Ambastha On September 26, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) announced a new IBKR Lite service effective from October that will feature unlimited, commission-free trades of U.S.-listed stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) along with no account minimum or inactivity fee. This news caused only a mild reaction on September 26 …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of September 16-20, 2019

By Kuldip K. Ambastha and Anil K. Ambastha After reporting earnings results for the first quarter of its 2020 fiscal year ended August 31, 2019, the shares of FedEx (FDX), a package-delivery company, dropped by 12.9% on September 18. This drop is its biggest one-day percentage drop since the global financial crisis of 2008 and …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of September 3-6, 2019

By Anil K. Ambastha and Kuldip K. Ambastha This past week, the e-signature and electronic document company DocuSign (DOCU) impressed the market with its strong fiscal second-quarter results, improved outlook for the rest of the fiscal year, and addition of 29,000 new customers during the quarter. In return, DocuSign’s stock gained 21.7% on Friday, September …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of August 19-23, 2019

By Anil K. Ambastha and Kuldip K. Ambastha Following its stellar second-quarter earnings due to the success of its store investments, online sales, and same-day delivery along with a stable outlook for the remainder of the year 2019, shares of a discount store chain, Target (TGT), had their biggest-ever one-day gain of 20.4% on Wednesday, …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of August 5-9, 2019

By Anil K. Ambastha and Kuldip K. Ambastha Following its second-quarter earnings report featuring lower than expected losses, higher than expected revenues, a year-over-year 39% increase of active users to 30.5 million, and bright future guidance, shares of a TV streaming platform operator, Roku (ROKU), rose by 20.9% on August 8. The company has lifted …