Investment Watch Blog

BY JOHN MAULDIN The mainstream media is packed with criticism of Jerome Powell’s press conference. The market didn’t like what it heard and immediately tanked. People called him tone deaf for not listening to the market. What was Powell thinking? There were many accusations that Powell fumbled the ball, not telling the market what it wanted … Read more

From The Atlantic: It was only after they’d sunk $40,000 and nine months of precious nights and weekends that Jordan McDowell and William Bjork realized how hard it is to make a passive income selling things on Amazon. The couple had hoped to strike it rich – or at least quit their day jobs – buying … Read more

From the National Interest: 2018 was a year of breakthrough diplomacy and proxy warfare, Trumpian chaos and unexpected U.S. military drawdowns. An American president and a North Korean dictator shook hands for the very first time since the Korean Peninsula was divided into two nations. American pilots released more munitions in Afghanistan this year than at any other … Read more

https://twitter.com/JTSEO9/status/1080468631887249408 Tesla missed Q4 delivery #s Despite the incentive for customers to buy, before the impending loss of $3,750 / car federal subsidy Q3 = best $TSLA will ever have Price cut this morning = straight to margins Growth story = OVER Profit story = OVER Cash crunch coming — Gabe Hoffman (@GabeHoff) January 2, … Read more

via CNBC: Robert Lighthizer has reportedly told friends and associates he is intent on preventing Trump from accepting “empty promises” like temporary increases in soybean purchases. In order to avoid this, the U.S. may have to slap tariffs on more Chinese goods, Lighthizer has said, according to The New York Times. U.S. Trade Representative Robert … Read more

via mises.org: Only a few months ago most economic commentators were sanguine about prospects for the US economy. Most of them did not expect an imminent downturn. Now all that has changed with most experts expecting the economy to enter a downward phase of the economic cycle by 2019. According to experts, the key factor behind … Read more

via Bloomberg: Prices in Australia’s largest city drop 11.1% from 2017 peak CoreLogic sees tighter credit weighing on prices this year   The downturn in Sydney’s property market is set to deepen this year as tighter lending standards and the worst slump in values since the late 1980s cause nervous buyers to sit on the sidelines. Average … Read more

Jack Bogle, founder of index fund giant Vanguard Group, is warning investors to prepare for 2019 by decreasing exposure to stocks and increasing investment in defensive strategies, such as fixed income securities like bonds. “Trees don’t grow to the sky, and I see clouds on the horizon. I don’t know if and when they’ll arrive. … Read more

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-01/einhorn-s-greenlight-extends-drop-to-34-in-worst-year-on-record David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital. The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 percent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg. Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but … Read more

Leveraged loan market concerns https://t.co/rwiCZaTNDB — Alastair (@StockBoardAsset) January 2, 2019 U.S. junk-bond issuance fell to zero in December for the first time in a decade. @TheTerminal pic.twitter.com/8W0IefGGtU — Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) January 2, 2019 We have just witnessed one of the biggest drops in the global earnings revision ratio since 1988. pic.twitter.com/E9ta8XmvcU — jeroen … Read more

Via The Daily Caller The caucus of black New York state lawmakers runs a charity whose stated mission is to empower “African American and Latino youth through education and leadership initiatives” by “providing opportunity to higher education” — but it hasn’t given a single scholarship to needy youth in two years, according to a New York Post … Read more