What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of May 18 – 22, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha The American stock exchanges list a variety of companies from all over the world. Restrictions may be soon rolled out for Chinese (and other non-U.S.) companies listed on American stock exchanges, due to the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable (HFCA) Act already passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, May 20, …

Negative Interest Rates in the USA are Unlikely – Week of May 11 – 15, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha Jerome Powell, the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, issued detailed comments this week. The American economy continues to be ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Additional fiscal support aid (e.g. another round of stimulus payments to Americans) will likely be needed for the American economy to recover. However, the Fed is …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of May 4-8, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha During this week, both J.Crew and Neiman Marcus announced their respective bankruptcy filings. The retail industry has been on fragile ground for many years now, and the coronavirus pandemic has pushed both of these companies into bankruptcy. Due to the public health issues around the coronavirus, brick-and-mortar retailers have had to …

GDP Contraction, the Fed, and the Dow Jones – Week of April 27 – May 1, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha The Dow Jones had three down and two up days this week. The coronavirus pandemic has continued to wreak havoc all around the world, and the American capital markets were affected. During 1Q2020, the USA’s GDP (gross domestic product) annualized contraction rate was 4.8%. This figure was announced on Wednesday, April …

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 …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of April 6-10, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha Carnival Corporation (CCL) is well-known as a cruise operator and as a prominent travel / leisure company. This British-American company has struggled recently due to the coronavirus pandemic seen worldwide. However, during this week, the company had strong days on Monday, April 6, 2020 and Tuesday, April 7, 2020, returning 20.3% …

Jobs, Unemployment, and the Dow Jones – Week of March 30 – April 3, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha The Dow Jones was up and down this week day by day, similar to what has been seen in the past few weeks. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and its related public health concerns around the world, massive changes have been seen in the USA and these changes have been affecting …

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 December 30, 2019 – January 3, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha and Anil K. Ambastha On Friday, January 3, 2020, Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) delivered a gain of 3.0% closing at an all-time high of $443.01 per share due to positive news. Intra-day, the share price reached as high as $454.00 per share. Tesla beat Wall Street estimates for both car production and …

What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of November 4-8, 2019

By Kuldip K. Ambastha and Anil K. Ambastha Shake Shack Inc. (SHAK) is an American fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in New York, NY. The company announced its latest quarterly earnings and other key figures during this week. Same-store sales grew by 2.0% in 3Q2019, which was less than the 2.5% figure expected. The company …