By Jake Zamansky, Contributor The Feds have opened their substantial arsenal this week to take down Steve Cohen, the Biggest Fish on Wall Street, and a minnow, Fabulous Fab, or Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs executive who allegedly defrauded investors in a complex mortgage bond called Abacus. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By MarketNewsVideo This morning, Goldman Sachs downgraded shares of Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ) from neutral to sell as the shift to lower margin products will impact earnings. With the downgrade, Goldman set a $28 price target. Shares of NDAQ were down about 2.3%. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
By Robert Lenzner Goldman’s claim that it held only 3% of the world’s aluminum supply was utterly misleading. I now have determined that it holds in its own warehouses–the Metro subsidiary of Goldman Sachs some amount of aluminum that is less than 25% of the aluminum available for delivery in the U.S. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
A former Goldman Sachs trader has told a New York jury in a civil case stemming from the mortgage market meltdown that he didn’t try to mislead anyone in a transaction that cost investors more than $1 billion. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Steve Schaefer, Forbes Staff
Investors in Tesla Motors have not had much to complain about this year, with the electric carmaker reporting surprise profits and its stock surging more than 250%. But with shares near the $120 level a Goldman Sachs analyst is warning the company may be priced for perfection. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Filed under: Earnings, Market News, Stocks, Investing
Big brand winners, and strong earnings from Goldman Sachs. Those and more are what’s in business news Tuesday.
The Dow industrials (^DJI) rose 20 points Monday and the S&P 500 (^GPSC) added two points — both edging further into record territory. The Nasdaq (^IXIC) gained 7.
What companies are being talked about the most around the water cooler? YouGov’s BrandIndex puts Ford (F) at No. 1, largely because of the automaker’s Focus model. It was followed by Amazon.com (AMZN), sandwich-maker Subway, the History Channel and retailer Lowe’s Cos. (LOW). And what about V8, the beverage that everyone belatedly remembers they could’ve had? It made No. 6 on the British market-research firm’s list.
AT&T (T) is rolling out a plan today to keep existing customers happy. Instead of the typical two-year mobile phone contract, it will allow customers to upgrade after just one year to buy the newest gadgets on the market. There are no upgrade fees and no down payments, but you will have to pay the full cost of the phone.
Coca-Cola (KO) reports flat quarterly earnings, and when you’re talking about Coke, flat is not so good. It said cool and wet spring weather in many areas hurt soft drink consumption.
But Goldman Sachs (GS) easily beat expectations on both the top and bottom line. The investment banker also sees improving economic conditions in the U.S.
After the closing bell we’ll hear from Yahoo (YHOO), the first of the big tech companies to report. Later in the week: IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT).
More than 5 million people a day wear uniforms from Cintas (CTAS) — including everyone working at McDonald’s (MCD) restaurants. Because of that, some see it as economic bellwether. But the company’s earnings still fell a bit short of expectations, and it issued a cautious outlook, citing the “uncertain” economy.
Investigators searching for the cause of the fire on a Boeing (BA) 787 Dreamliner last week in Great Britain are reportedly focused on the emergency location transmitter and its battery, made by Honeywell (HON).
And the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles (HSII) is searching for a new boss — after its chief executive resigned.
–Produced by Drew Trachtenberg
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Filed under: Goldman Sachs, Earnings, Bonds, Stocks, Investing
By CHRISTINA REXRODE
NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs says its second-quarter profit doubled, boosted by a surge in stock and bond underwriting.
Profit was $1.9 billion after payments to preferred shareholders, compared with $927 million a year ago.
Per share, those profits were $3.70. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $2.83.
Revenue was $8.6 billion, up 30 percent from $6.6 billion a year ago. That also beat analyst expectations, who had forecast $8 billion.
Goldman Sachs Group’s (GS) stock rose $1.32, or 1 percent, in pre-market trading to $164.20.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Narrative Science Leading up to Goldman Sachs’ announcement of its second quarter earnings on Tuesday, July 16, 2013 analysts have become more wary as expectations have fallen over the past month to earnings of $2.81 per share from earnings of $2.95 per share. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
By Reuters
Filed under: Goldman Sachs, SEC, Scandals and Lawsuits, Securities, Investing
By Nate Raymond
NEW YORK — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission heads to trial Monday against a former Goldman Sachs bond trader in a case it says highlights what went wrong on Wall Street in the financial crisis.
Jury selection begins in federal court in New York in the civil fraud case against Fabrice Tourre, 34, who the SEC says misled investors in an ill-fated mortgage-securities investment called Abacus 2007-AC1.
It is the highest-profile trial to date stemming from the SEC’s investigation of the events leading up to the 2008 crisis and, legal experts say, presents a chance for the SEC to hold an individual responsible at trial.
The SEC’s case, as summed up by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest last month, is that Tourre “handed Little Red Riding Hood an invitation to grandmother’s house while concealing the fact that it was written by the Big Bad Wolf.”
According to the SEC, the wolf in question is John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire whose bet against the subprime mortgage market was chronicled in “The Greatest Trade Ever” by Gregory Zuckerman.
In 2006, Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson & Co., turned to Goldman Sachs Group (GS) for help betting against subprime mortgages, the SEC said.
They began discussing Abacus, which would give Paulson a role in picking the underlying portfolio of mortgage securities, the SEC said. Paulson could then short, or bet against, it through an insurance product called a credit default swap.
At the time, Tourre, a French national, was 28 years old and working at Goldman Sachs in New York. He became the bank’s principal employee working on what became Abacus, known in the financial industry as a synthetic collateralized debt obligation.
The SEC said Abacus’s marketing materials failed to disclose Paulson’s role in picking the underlying assets, instead saying that a subsidiary of ACA Capital Holdings selected them.
Tourre’s goal, the SEC contends, was to deceive investors into buying the liabilities of Abacus.
In a much-cited email sent on Jan. 23, 2007, to his girlfriend at the time, Tourre said of the financial markets: the “whole building is about to collapse anytime now.”
“Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab … standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!”
When the underlying mortgage securities turned sour, investors including IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG and ABN AMRO Bank NV, now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), lost over $1 billion, the SEC said.
Paulson, meanwhile, netted …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
After plunging first through $1,500 per ounce and then $1,400 per ounce, gold seems to have not only reversed, but begun to trend higher, rising seven of the eight trading days since the two-day slide. Helping the rise in prices has been increased demand for physical gold by both individuals and central banks. Further aiding the recovery is that many of the short-term forces that were weighing on gold prices have either been resolved or removed. Still, you must wonder if gold prices are getting an extended dead-cat bounce before falling lower, or if a new trend is being established.
Gold Price in U.S. Dollars data by YCharts
Look out below
After falling through a critical support level at $1,500, gold wasted no time dropping all the way through the next century mark at $1,400. So severe was the fall that Goldman Sachs quickly advised its customers to avoid the precious metal, pointing out that cash outflows were likely to take the commodity lower. With the investment bank’s price target for gold at $1,545 for 2013, however, current prices make the metal look cheap, at least as a near-term proposition. That said, it has set its 2014 price target at $1,350, so the longer-term outlook is not great.
The impact of the Cyprus crisis shouldn’t be overlooked, either. As a part of the bailout, Cyprus had to liquidate its gold positions to raise cash. This isn’t expected to have a lasting effect, but it probably added to the downward pressure. Even Goldman’s negative view on gold discounts the short-lived impact of these events: “With our economists expecting few ramifications from Cyprus and that the recent U.S. slowdown will not derail the faster recovery they forecast in 2H13, we believe a sharp rebound in gold prices is unlikely.”
One of the effects of Cyprus and other global macroeconomic events is that the U.S. dollar strengthened. This has been a drag on gold as safe-haven capital is enticed out of the precious metal and into dollar-denominated options. All of these factors pushed down prices, but only temporarily.
Trending does not make a trend
Just because gold has come off its recent lows, that alone doesn’t mean a new trend has started. Factors that should be considered, however, include the fact that despite the highest level of capital outflows from the SPDR Gold Trust ever, the ETF has also recovered since the slide. There also seems to have been a structural shift going on in the past week, potentially driven by the increased demand for physical gold. Central banks have been buying bullion, and individuals have bought sufficient quantities that the U.S. Mint has temporarily halted sales of one-tenth-ounce coins.
More fundamental to the structural shift in the market is that after an extended period of underperformance by gold miners such as Goldcorp and Newmont Mining , this phenomenon has reversed for the time being. As of
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By John Maxfield, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
When I was asked to write this piece for our ongoing series on Berkshire Hathaway‘s annual meeting, I struggled to come up with seven legitimate reasons to sell the Omaha, Neb.-based company. After thinking it over, however, I believe I’ve drawn up a list of factors that fits the bill. To be clear, there’s little about Berkshire that leads me to believe it’s a “sell” right now. But that’s not to say this won’t change in the not-too-distant future.
1. Warren Buffett
If Buffett had it his way, he’d probably run Berkshire forever. But he doesn’t. And in last year’s annual letter to shareholders, the Oracle of Omaha assured investors that the board of directors has not only picked a successor (“an individual to whom they have had a great deal of exposure and whose managerial and human qualities they admire”) but that they’ve identified two “superb backup candidates” as well.
This may be so, but the fact remains that Berkshire won’t be the same without Buffett. Aside from his ethereal ability to grow and manage an increasingly massive conglomerate, Buffett has become a magnate for deals. When Solomon Brothers fell on hard times, who’d they call? When Long-Term Capital Management nearly imploded, Buffett was among the first to offer assistance. And when Goldman Sachs and Bank of America needed to reassure the market of their respective solvencies, it was Buffett who came to the rescue.
The point is that people go to Berkshire because of Buffett. This is equally true for companies that are looking to sell as it is for companies like Goldman and Bank of America that simply need a temporary stamp of approval. And, in return, Buffett ensures that Berkshire is more than adequately compensated for any offer of assistance.
2. Size
Success can be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes on the way up, as companies establish themselves, gain momentum, and grow at spectacular rates of speed. But at some point, they become so large that the growth rate necessarily decelerates. We’ve seen this with the greatest of American companies recently, including Chipotle and Apple . And Berkshire is no exception.
What started as a modest textile business has grown into one of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world. It’s the fifth largest publicly traded company in the United States by market capitalization, behind only ExxonMobil, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, respectively. In his most recent letter to shareholders, Buffett acknowledged the pressure this puts on Berkshire’s growth through acquisition strategy: “Because of our present size, making acquisitions that are both meaningful and sensible is now more difficult than it has been during most of our years.”
Will Berkshire continue to grow? Yes. Will it continue to do so at the same speed? No. It’s just an arithmetic reality that its growth rate will plateau.
3. Recent performance
The curse of size appears already to be exerting its
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Gordon G. Chang, Contributor HSBC Group is expected in the next few months to sell its 8.0% stake in the Bank of Shanghai. The financial services giant could receive as much as $800 million from its shares in the second-tier Chinese lender. Why do analysts think HSBC will unload its holding soon? It looks like the Bank of Shanghai is set to raise $2 billion by selling newly issued stock, on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges, with a value of up to 30% of its existing shares. The listing could occur before June, so HSBC will have to act now if it does not want to be trapped by a lock-up period, typically imposed on existing shareholders for periods of up to a year. Two years ago, nobody thought HSBC would ever dispose of major Chinese assets. Now, there is talk it might get rid of all of them. Analysts sense a change in sentiment because HSBC is already dumping Chinese assets. This year it completed the sale of its 15.6% interest in Ping An to Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group for $9.4 billion. Previously, the shares in China’s second-largest life insurance company had been described as “strategic.” Then, there are rumors that the institution, once known as the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, will also sell its half interest in HSBC Life Insurance, which laid off 130 sales staff recently. The investment community is even talking about a once-unthinkable event, the disposal of HSBC’s 18.7% holding in . John Bond, when he headed HSBC, wanted to increase the stake in Bocom, as China’s fifth-largest lender is known, and eventually control it. Today, however, HSBC looks like it will never achieve management control. The dominant view is that HSBC will be content to continue holding its Bocom stake because, as one unnamed Shanghai analyst told the South China Morning Post, a sale would mean “HSBC’s China story will be over.” That analyst may think it is inconceivable that any major bank would ever exit China, but the country is no longer that important to the world’s financial community. In fact, it looks as if HSBC will have to work hard to find another bank to take its Bank of Shanghai shares. The fact that it could not find a financial institution to buy its Ping An stake is a sign that, in general, foreign bankers are “divorcing” China, as South China Morning Post columnist Doug Young recently put it. The reason for the unhappiness is clear. HSBC, for instance, sold Ping An because it was unable to get “strategic returns” from the insurance company. HSBC is not the only institution to feel this way. Analysts think sold the bulk of its remaining holding in 2011 and Goldman Sachs unloaded another tranche of shares in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China this January because, like HSBC, they were frustrated that their large stakes weren’t helping them further their China businesses. Chinese banks simply do not believe that they need enduring relations with foreign counterparts,
From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2013/04/21/global-banks-are-divorcing-china/
By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff
Panic selling in gold markets has accelerated on Monday, with the yellow metal falling more than $200 an ounce over the past two trading sessions. The blood bath started on Friday, as sell orders for 400 metric tons worth about $20 billion hit the market, amid rumors the ECB would force Cyprus to sell gold reserves to help finance its bailout. The violent decline was then fueled by weaker than expected economic data from China, and calls from major banks including Goldman Sachs to short bullion. Continued ETF liquidation and margin call selling makes it difficult to see a bottom in the near-term.
By Alex Dumortier, CFA, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Stocks in Japan and Hong Kong suffered sharp losses today, and major European markets are also in the red. U.S. stocks look to be following their lead this morning, with the S&P 500 and the narrower, price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.8% and 0.64%, respectively, at 10:05 a.m. EDT.
Gold is losing its luster
On the back of a challenging week during which it lost $60 per ounce, gold is reeling on Monday, down more 5%, having dipped below $1,400 intraday for the first time since March 2011. Gold is a highly volatile asset, and recent downward momentum could be nothing more than a spate of volatility in a long-term secular uptrend. Still, I think Societe Generale‘s research note of April 2, titled “The End of a Gold Era,” looks increasingly prescient. The report included an end-of-year price target of $1,375, and that figure is now in sight. Ten days later, Goldman Sachs piled on with a year-end forecast of $1,450.
Bear in mind that the yellow metal was trading just below $1,600 at the publication of both reports. As the following chart for the SPDR Gold Shares ETF shows, gold has dramatically underperformed stocks so far this year:
One of the reasons the metal is so volatile is that, relative to traditional asset markets (stocks and bonds), the gold market is a minnow, particularly when one considers the size of the “free float” — the amount that is actually available for trading. This quality amplified bull-market moves when sentiment was on its side; if a bear market is underway, it will do the same on the downside. And there’s plenty of potential downside left: Gold would need to decline by nearly half to achieve its inflation-adjusted average price since the price of gold floated in Aug. 1971.
If you’re looking for a safer bet than gold, The Motley Fool’s chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in the brand-new free report “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.
The article Gold: The End of an Era originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Alex Dumortier, CFA has no position in any stocks mentioned; you can follow him on LinkedIn. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/15/gold-the-end-of-an-era/
By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
For the second time this year, Goldman Sachs slashed its forecasts for gold prices for both 2013 and 2014, adding to the pressure on gold prices lately. So far, 2013 has seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 11%, the S&P 500 up nearly 9%, and gold prices down more than 5%. Even with the global and U.S. economies continuing to show signs of weakness, gold prices have moved very little since late 2011. Given the negative view that Goldman is taking of gold, the bank now suggests shorting the commodity. While I don’t see things for gold as being quite that weak, significantly reducing your exposure to gold seems prudent.
Gold Price in U.S. Dollars data by YCharts.
Goldman’s case against gold
In the current round of price reductions, Goldman lowered its average price per ounce outlook for 2013 from $1,610 to $1,545. The investment bank now sees the price contracting to $1,350 in 2014, which is a significant reduction from the $1,490 price target it once held. For the rest of the year, Goldman sees plenty of negative pressure: “While there are risks for modest near-term upside to gold prices should U.S. growth continue to slow down, we see risks to current prices as increasingly skewed to the downside as we move through 2013. In fact, should our expectation for lower gold prices continue to prove correct, the fall in prices could end up being faster and larger than our forecast.”
One of the potential catalysts for the above-mentioned increased decline is an accelerating deterioration in investor confidence. A great number of gold investors piled into the commodity on a speculative basis to not miss the expected move. As prices continue to stagnate and fall, investor capital is likely to look for greener pastures more and more quickly. As speculative positions are unwound and more stop-losses at triggered, the move lower could be sharp.
Spikes lower are actually a hallmark of commodities. Prices usually trend gradually higher, or even sideways, but when moves lower happen, they tend to be violent and expensive. This is one of the reasons so much risk is often associated with commodities trades — the move lower can occur before you have a chance to get out. Owning shares of ETFs such as the SPDR Gold Trust can mitigate some of this risk, but large speculative positions in GLD may have contributed to gold’s run, making the relative protection of the ETF somewhat diminished.
Is there safety in miners?
For an extended period, gold miners such as Barrick Gold have underperformed the pure commodity play. Over the past year, Barrick is down more than 40%, while GLD is down about 7%. Over the long term, you would expect this relationship to normalize, meaning miners should outperform at some point. When this happens, however, there’s no guarantee that either investment will be headed higher — the miners
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/14/the-worlds-top-bank-tells-investors-to-shun-gold/
By Matt Koppenheffer, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Why should a Goldman Sachs shareholder want to sell his position? In this video, Matt Koppenheffer gives three reasons:
Check out the video for more details.
During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs did so well pivoting to avoid the worst of the fallout that it had to downplay its success to duck public ire and conspiracy theories. Today, Goldman is still arguably the powerhouse global financial name, yet its stock trades at a valuation of less than half what it fetched before the crisis. Does this make Goldman one of the best opportunities in the market today? To answer that question, check out The Motley Fool’s special report on the bank. In it, Matt uncovers the key issues facing Goldman, including three specific areas Goldman investors must watch. To get access to this report, just click here.
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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/3-reasons-to-sell-goldman-sachs/
By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
When Warren Buffett speaks, the investment world tends to listen, and for good reason. Likewise, when Buffett’s second in command, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, expresses an opinion, you should take note. Nearly a year ago, Munger told CNBC that he thinks that “civilized people don’t buy gold,” instead preferring a collection of well-run business, much like those in Berkshire’s portfolio. While his advice was sound a year ago, it truly resonates this year as analysts across the street slash price expectations and, in some cases, recommend being short gold. Given the turmoil and increasingly negative outlook settling over the gold market, 2013 may be a good year to sit out in pursuit of more prim and proper pursuits.
What Munger advocates
Rather than focus such plebian investment vehicles as gold, or even the gold ETF — the SPDR Gold Trust — Munger talks up Berkshire’s holdings:
We just have a wonderful portfolio in business, if you average them out. By and large they’re doing productive, useful work. It’s not outsmarting the computer systems in the trading markets.
Even though the comment is self-serving, and arguably stale, it highlights an important concept when thinking about the gold market, namely that gold doesn’t really do anything. Unlike silver, which has a myriad of industrial uses, as do Molycorp‘s rare earths, gold is mostly coveted as a safe-haven investment or inflation hedge.
“I think civilized people don’t buy gold,” Munger said; “they invest in productive businesses.” Where the rare earth materials produced by Molycorp and others are used in health care, technology, water treatment, and defense applications, gold is used for very little beyond jewelry. He may not have had other materials companies in mind, but this distinction for gold is an important one and should not be lost.
The analysts are circling
Both Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank recently cut their respective outlooks for gold for the rest of 2013 and beyond. Deutsche focused on the strength of the U.S. dollar, the shift into stocks, and its view on improving U.S. growth as all being negative for gold over the medium and longer terms. It trimmed its 2013 outlook by nearly 12% and, while it dropped its 2014 projection by 4.7%, it still sees gold climbing to $1,810 next year.
Goldman’s view is much grimmer, leading the investment bank to recommend that clients go short gold ahead of continued weakness. In its second cut of the year, Goldman dropped its 2013 price target to $1,545 and its 2014 target to $1,350, well below the estimate of many peers. Some of the reasons cited include the muted response gold prices have had to economic weakness and the potential for accelerated selling pressure as speculative investments are wound down.
Ultimately, I believe reality lies somewhere in between the views of the two investment houses, with the real possibility that another debt hiccup in Europe could serve as a catalyst to redraw the
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/be-civilized-and-dont-buy-gold-in/
By Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Netflix is in a good groove these days.
Goldman Sachs bumped its target on the shares from $125 to $184 on Thursday, encouraged by Netflix’s widening addressable market — not just the 84.2 million U.S. homes with broadband connectivity, but the fact that Netflix is now a viable subscription option for those embracing Web-enabled mobile devices.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings tooted his own company’s horn on Thursday, pointing out in a Facebook status update that the service delivered 4 billion hours of content through the first three months of the year.
Then we have a catalyst that has yet to play out. Hemlock Grove — the latest show that will be exclusively available on Netflix for the time being — begins streaming next weekend. After February’s wildly successful House of Cards, if Netflix can nab another magnetic property, it will be that much harder for folks to cancel subscriptions between programming lulls. Netflix will have proved itself worthy of scoring magnetic content, and the comparison’s with Time Warner‘s HBO will be even more apropos.
Is Netflix on the same level as HBO? Not exactly. As anyone knows who has seen House of Cards available as a DVD preorder on rival Amazon.com , Netflix is often merely paying for exclusive streaming rights or just the benefit of carrying a particular show first. If it’s a hit, it may very well be made available through other outlets down the line.
But what if we don’t get that far with these next shows? What if Hemlock Grove isn’t scary? What if Arrested Development‘s fourth season next month isn’t funny?
We may not be dealing with hypothetical questions here.
“Weird can be good, but this isn’t intentionally weird so much as it is plain bad,” reads a scathing Hollywood Reporter review of Hemlock Grove from Tim Goodman.
Let’s be fair here. Goodman also panned the similarly creepy American Horror Story, the sleeper gothic horror hit of 2011 where the Harmon family moved into a haunted house — and paid the price.
“Unlike the Harmons, watching what goes on in that house even once is enough to know better than to go back again,” he concluded.
He was wrong then. The show fared well on FX and went on to have a second season. Maybe he’s wrong this time, too. Then again, maybe it’s better for Netflix if Goodman is right. Netflix will have some duds on its hands. That’s inevitable.
Amazon is in the process of greenlighting a bunch of pilots. It will then see which ones are fit to bankroll complete seasons for based on the streaming audience’s initial reaction. However, even that hurdle won’t guarantee that Amazon won’t have some clunkers of its own.
Netflix has more money to spend than anybody else on streaming content, because it can justify the content land grab as it spreads it around its 33.2 million streaming accounts worldwide. However, when a show falls
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/what-if-netflix-has-a-flop-on-its-hands/
By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
After a multiyear run that has made countless investors significant returns, gold has fallen out of favor with investors both large and small. Recently, Goldman Sachs recommended shorting gold stating that it could drop even faster than they expect if certain conditions line up against the yellow metal. While the global economy remains on questionable ground, even these negatives seem to be insufficient to drive gold prices higher.
You must now begin to wonder not what the next positive catalyst will be, but if gold falls below $1,500, which looks probable, a dip below $1,400 is likely to follow.
Technically speaking
While Fools don’t follow technical analysis, neither do we ignore clear and convincing evidence that can have a real impact on our investments. The commodity has solid support around $1,500, but not much below that for quite a while. Commodities are notorious for following technical patterns because so many traders look at these factors. This is not reason alone to short gold, but it’s definitely worth noting.
Gold Price in US Dollars data by YCharts.
Goldman’s view
A significant basis for Goldman’s negative view on gold is the muted reaction the commodity has had to global macroeconomic events: “With our economists expecting few ramifications from Cyprus and that the recent U.S. slowdown will not derail the faster recovery they forecast in 2H13, we believe a sharp rebound in gold prices is unlikely,” Goldman said. While I think this outlook view oversimplifies the forces acting on gold, it’s not without merit. While the events in Cyprus represent evidence of economic uncertainty — which is typically bullish for gold — it also led to a strong U.S. dollar, which is bearish. It should not be surprising that these forces cancelled each other out initially, but the lingering weakness in gold is not promising.
Continuing weakness
Perhaps one of the most troubling realities for gold is that inflation continues to remain in check despite the Federal Reserve‘s slavish devotion to quantitative easing. Many large and small investors piled into gold, specifically into ETFs such as the SPDR Gold Trust . As these investors see their positions dwindling and stops are hit, this may accelerate selling and drive gold even lower. That’s one of the catalysts Goldman points to as a potential driver of gold prices below its target of $1,450. If money flows from GLD become increasingly negative, that has the potential to put significant downward pressure on gold.
The verdict
When gold prices remain stagnant, even in the face of global weakness, it’s time for concern. Gold has enjoyed a solid run, but the current slump seems likely to continue. In addition, where miners such as Goldcorp have underperformed the commodity for an extended period, earlier in the week that trend seemed to be reversing. Structural changes of this nature should be seen as an additional warning sign and a cause to stay on the sidelines. If
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/the-gold-plunge-continues-today-1500-next-stop/
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz recently visited California and was among the featured guests at the Lincoln Club of Northern California’s spring seminar. He spoke of his vision for America which stands in striking contrast with Barack Obama’s.
Senator Cruz was the youngest Solicitor General in Texas; trained at Ivy League Schools (Princeton and Harvard) on the East Coast. He has authored more than 80 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and argued 43 oral arguments, according to his website.
Senator Cruz introduced his wife Heidi, who worked for Condoleezza Rice when Rice served in the White House as National Security Adviser. Then, Heidi handled Western Hemisphere policy. Now, she is Vice President of Goldman Sachs in Houston, Texas.
When Senator Cruz first met Heidi’s family – missionaries who were vegetarians – he celebrated Christmas dinner with them. When asked how a vegetarian Christmas differs from Christmas in Cuba, Senator Cruz said that it’s mostly the same – except that the entree never arrives. He talked of the Cuban tradition which includes roasting an entire pig.
It’s stories like these that endear you to Ted Cruz, who, liked any good Texan, is polite, likable and approachable.
Cruz spoke of protests of a speech he gave at U.C. Berkeley right when Facebook began. He talked about Berkeley’s passionate involvement and suggested students stay engaged and make it a better world. Unlike some on the left who criticize Cruz, he feels that people who disagree with him are not stupid or evil. He suggests approaching people with a more friendly debate demeanor –
“Pretend it is your mother. You cannot convince anyone otherwise.”
Unlike most liberals who’d like to stick a fork in the GOP, stating that the party is “done”, Cruz doesn’t think Republicans will give up –
“Just because we got clobbered in 2012 doesn’t mean we’re done”.
Senator Cruz defines the economic pie as ever-changing. It doesn’t stay stagnant with 47 percent dependent on government. His philosophy, much like other job-creating Republicans is to have a larger economic pie by creating jobs and more taxpayers, enabling more people get a piece of the pie.
He has advice for Republicans who got caught up in the 2012 rhetoric. He believes the party focused too much on acknowledging those who have already succeeded rather than convincing those who want to achieve –
“Rather than saying ‘You built that’ – say – ‘You can build that.’ “
Cruz discussed debt to his young daughters and says that debt has gone from 10 trillion to 16 trillion in the last four years. It clearly troubles him to think that the cost of our bloated government today will be passed on to his kids to pay.
He talks about Obamacare stating that those who will be hurt most by Obamacare are those who may need help the most. Many of them are of Hispanic origin, living in Texas. He talks of the court cases against Obama, stating that in the end we’ve got to win the argument, because the future of America’s economic health depends
From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/limitless-ted-cruz-values-freedom/
