JPMorgan’s Kasman Sees Greek Depression Coming That Will Damage All Europe

by Zagros on September 24, 2020

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) chief Economist Bruce Kasman said Greece is insolvent and headed toward a depression that will cause catastrophic damage across Europe.

“We have a social contract that’s been broken between Greece and the rest of the region,” Kasman said today during a panel discussion at the Institute of International Finance annual meeting in Washington. “Greece is insolvent and the European Union needs to deal with that. It hasn’t yet come to terms with that.”

Kasman said the uncoordinated and sporadic response from the region’s political leaders has “fed fears” in the markets that they don’t have the wherewithal to deal with the region’s fiscal problems. The lack of clarity in solving Greece’s credit problems has exacerbated the problem.

“Damage is done,” Kasman said. “Europe in our mind is entering recession.” Greece is heading toward a depression, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn Kopecki in New York at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at [email protected]

Source http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2020-09-24/jpmorgan-s-kasman-sees-greek-depression-coming-that-will-damage-all-europe.html

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A Safe Place to Invest your Dead Cash / Good reading

by Zagros on September 24, 2020

Panos Mourdoukoutas

Panos Mourdoukoutas        9/24/2011 @ 1:55PM

Money parked in money market funds, checking accounts, and CDs these days is dead money, as it barely yields any income. But with the economy heading into a double-dip recession, where can investors find a better place to invest?

Some investors have been reaching for pharmaceutical stocks like Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Bristol-Myers Squib (NYSE:BMY), and Abbot Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) that pay close to 5 percent dividend. Others rush to buy utility companies and commercial real estate trusts like Duke Energy (NYSE:DUKE), Southern Company (NYSE:SO), HCP, Inc. (NYSE:HCP), and Kimco Realty (NYSE:KIM) that pay similar or even higher dividends.

The problem, however, is that these trades have already become crowded, as they have been popular for too long among carry trade investors. Besides, pharmaceutical companies are sensitive to budgetary cuts, while commercial real estate trusts are exposed to an impending recession. So what is an alternative for investors? Are there any recession proof dividend paying companies?

Yes, funeral services, and cemetery companies! They do pay reasonable dividends, and have the potential for substantial appreciation, as they ride on favorable demographics, the aging of baby-boomers, who unfortunately would be offered these services irrespective of the state of the economy.

Here are four publicly traded companies and their financials: Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI), specializing in death care services in the US, Canada, and Germany; StoneMor Partners (STON), owning cemeteries; Stewart Enterprises (STEI) and Carriage Services (CSV), both specializing in death services and merchandising–though investors are advised to take a more comprehensive view on the financials of these companies before they commit any funds to any particular company.

Source  http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2020/09/24/a-safe-place-to-invest-your-dead-cash/

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Reducing Risk and Outperforming the market with Pairs / Good reading

by Zagros on September 24, 2020

Greg Troccoli,

For our Forbes readers who have been following some of trades will know we favor “Pair Trades” for out-performance in this heightened volatility.  For those of you who are not familiar with this strategy, please read our prior article .  We are seeing a lot of opportunity in the price action and out-performance in sector trends.  Yesterday at the close, one of our favorite trades, long tech (XLK) and short Financials (XLF) was up +2.43. Another is short long Health-care (XLV) and short Emerging markets (EEM) up +2.02%.  But be careful, this is not a trade to put on the page blindly, it’s not a true relative value strategy, there is not a true correlation to these pairs.  This is playing out-performance with technicals and price action.   As volatility comes in, spreads will come in as well, limiting these returns on our pair trades.   We are currently looking for pairs in todays market

XLF- THE FINANCIAL SPDR -Weekly

Intermediate Trend (12 Weeks): Negative

Monday’s Trade: $12.49 (- .41 cents)

UPDATE: Since posting a high of $17.20, during the week of February 14, 2020, the Financial SPDR has been in a downtrend for the past six months, underperforming against most other sectors. In addition, the 100- Day Moving Average (red) Line has been negatively sloped for the past eleven weeks, implying the “crowd” is generally short this sector.  For the past eight weeks, the market is trading below the major blue horizontal support line denoted by the $13.20 region (see chart).   A weekly settlement (Friday close- since we are analyzing a weekly chart) above $13.20, is the key to attracting buyers. Four weeks ago, XLF was trading $12.77, we stated, “If one were to take a long position, at current levels, only risk down to $12.04”. Subsequently, the market traded as low as $12.00 last week, therefore, you should be flat (no position) at this juncture.

Read More http://www.forbes.com/sites/thechartlab/2020/09/20/reducing-risk-and-outperforming-the-market-with-efts/

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20 Stocks with the Potential to Pop

by Zagros on September 24, 2020

It’s the basic question when investing in a stock: is it on the way up or down?

To answer this question, the street has developed numerous ways of attempting to predict what will happen, estimating various attributes tied to stock performance in order to determine what the future holds for a company’s valuation.

After dissecting the data, analysts following a particular stock produce a price target of where they believe the stock is headed. With data from Thomson Reuters, CNBC.com took a look at which stocks in the S&P 500 have average consensus estimates farthest above their stock prices.

According to the latest data, about 300 stocks or 60 percent of the index constituents are expected to go up in value by 20 percent or more. And only about 23 companies have already met or surpassed their respective price target estimates. The prices and analyst estimates presented here are as of the market close on September 14, 2020.

So, which stocks are analysts expecting to have the biggest pops? Click ahead to find out!

By Giovanny Moreano & Paul Toscano
Posted 14 Sept 2011

20. Hartford Financial (HIG)

19. Baker Hughes (BHI)

18. Aflac Inc. (AFL)

17. Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG)

16. Southwest (LUV)

15. Regions Financial (RF)

14. AK Steel Holding (AKS)

13. MetLife Inc. (MET)

12. PulteGroup (PHM)

11. Morgan Stanley (MS)

10. Newfield Exploration (NFX)

Read More http://www.cnbc.com/id/44517009

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EU May Speed Permanent Fund to Stem Crisis

September 24, 2020

By James G. Neuger and Aki Ito - Sep 24, 2020 11:26 AM PT European governments are exploring speeding the start of a permanent rescue fund for their cash- strapped economies amid fresh signs they may bolster efforts to halt the worsening sovereign debt crisis. Senior finance officials will examine next week the cost advantages [...]

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