Stock Rally Adds Another Percent while Metals Fade: Week Ahead Worries-- Investor Thread Feb. 22

Weekly investment & finance thread ^ | February 22, 2015 | Freeper Investors

[expat_panama]

[excerpt from Yahoo Finance: What to watch next week: TGT, HD, M, HPQ, GDP and Greece] Next week will be a busy week on Wall Street with a raft of big earnings reports including Target (TGT), Macy’s (M), Home Depot (HD) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to name just a few. Investors will also have a lot of economic data and geopolitics to digest this coming week and in the weeks that follow. The Commerce Department will release the latest reading on third quarter Gross Domestic Product. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman thinks investors will be watching that report closely, as well as the situation in Greece. Newman predicts Greece will finally cave in its standoff with its European underwriters over the terms of its debt deal. “I think next week is going to be the week that Greece blinks,” says Newman. He believes Greek officials will “finally say ‘OK, we have to go along with the bailout terms.’” And Newman believes that will lead to a pop in European stocks. Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task is looking to our nation’s capital and a couple of looming deadlines as the next potential trouble spots that could rankle financial markets. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security will run out at the end of February unless Congress can come to an agreement to extend funding. Task believes this is just the first in a series of contentious debates... [snip] ...The Treasury secretary can use a number of gimmicks to postpone the day of reckoning, and experts think such gimmicks can carry us through September or October. Then we’ll witness a serious confrontation of the sort we’ve seen before—a game of fiscal chicken between Congress and the White House. If Blinder is right and the United States does breach the debt ceiling, Task believes that will set off “all kinds of fireworks in the financial markets.” 5 Oil Stocks Analysts Want You To Buy Now The recent drop in oil prices has created a situation that is very complex for investors. Oil has become cheap again and the stocks tracking the oil and gas sector have tanked to the point that at least ...

Why Female Investors Outperform Men - Heather Long, CNNMoney Females typically save 8.3% of their income, while men only save 7.9%, Fidelity found after looking at over 12 million retirement accounts and adjusting for certain pay disparities between men and women. That may not sound like a big difference, but it adds up over time. Consider that the median household income in the U.S. is around $50,000. If you apply those savings rates to the median income, women save about $200 more a year. So if their returns are about the same, women would end up with more. ..[snip]     After tight trading, volatility set to return to stocks By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - After a holiday-shortened trading week that pinned stocks in a tight trading range, equities are poised for a bout of renewed volatility as investors watch the economy and the Federal Reserve for signs of policy changes and economic strength. Through Thursday's close, the S&P 500 was held to its narrowest trading week since Thanksgiving as investors dealt with uncertainty regarding a forward path for the economy and a deal for Greek debt. Late on Friday, the European Union agreed to a four-month extension for Greece, and a late rally pushed the S&P 500 above technical resistance level of 2,100 after several failed attempts earlier in the week. The index was up modestly for the week, building on a 5-percent gain over the prior two weeks. "The market has done quite well this week holding things together," said Frank Cappelleri, technical market analyst and trader at ...

--and not only has all this been written by experts, but everything here's been posted on the internet so we can to believe every single word.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

This is the thread where folks swap ideas on savings and investment --here's a list of popular investing links that freepers have posted here and tomorrow morning we'll go on with our--

Open invitation continues always for idea-input for the thread, this being a joint effort works well.   Keywords: financial, WallStreet, stockmarket, economy.

[expat_panama]

Investing with experts ping.

[Chuckster]

Please add me to your ping list.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Why Apple Pay could be big: Analyst

“Apple Pay may be a small part of the tech giant’s portfolio, but since launching in October, it has quickly become the biggest driver of mobile payments for its partners, Robert Baird’s senior research analyst told CNBC on Friday.

Apple’s cashless transactions service now accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. mobile payments, Baird analyst Will Power said. Whole Foods has seen smartphone transactions surge 400 percent since it integrated Apple Pay, and Apple now accounts for 80 percent of mobile payments at Panera.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102441925#.

[expat_panama]

Done!

[expat_panama]

Personally, I’d love to see an alternative to PayPal.

[abb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampum

Wampum are traditional shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam.

Wampum were used as money[1] by the Native Americans, and were kept on strings like Chinese cash. European colonists adopted wampum as their own currency; however, the Europeans’ more efficient production of wampum caused inflation and ultimately the obsolescence of wampum as currency.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I think my next phone may be an iPhone because of this. I think there is going to be a big change in the way we pay in the coming years. It’s not just online either. You go out to dinner and hand your card to a complete stranger and she comes back and you sign your bill. You have no idea what took place while she was gone. Blind trust. Sure the Credit card company will foot the bill but it can be a major pain in the butt.

[BipolarBob]

I’d like to see BitCoin go mainstream/more accessible. The idea of no government governance of private transactions appeals to me. As more and more foreign banks reject American citizen customers because of IRS over reach, an alternative currency is greatly needed. Right now gold prices look attractive and GDX and NUGT is on my radar.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Is IBD updating their website? After I sign on and go to the big picture it sends me to a page that looks more like a mobile page and I lose that “My routine” box. I have to go back to their homepage to get the routine thing back.

[expat_panama]

Just checked it and it looked fine 'til I read:

Due to scheduled maintenance, Investors.com may experience intermittent down time beginning Sunday morning from approximately 1:00 am ET to 3:00 am ET.

I hadn't noticed anything wrong on my page but they may still be having problems.

[abb]

So which is it?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tight-trading-volatility-set-return-022732278.html

After tight trading, volatility set to return to stocks
Reuters
February 20, 2015 9:27 PM

http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-u-s-stocks-hit-records-as-volatility-slips-1424642511?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

In U.S., Stocks Hit Records as Volatility Slips
Shift Benefits Mom-and-Pop Investors; a Potential Blow for Banks
By Dan Strumpf
Updated Feb. 22, 2015 5:49 p.m. ET

[expat_panama]

like to see BitCoin go mainstream/more accessible

That was my hope to but apparently an open source monetary policy is not working.  Too many scandals and breakdowns --one of the latest:  Hong Kong Bitcoin Scandal Leaves Investors in the Dark

[expat_panama]

Wampum are traditional shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America.

--but for the serious money changer we got Yap money stones:

[Fightin Whitey]

for the serious money changer

Reckon you have to have a secret PIN for that baby, hey?

[expat_panama]

We can talk about what experts say about volatility right after I finish looking for an expert that says men invest better than women...

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I recently got s surface pro 3 and I don’t know it is trying to put me on mobile or what. Guess I’ll dig out my old laptop and see what it does. When I go to the home page it looks the same but when I go to the big picture it has a menu box up top on the left and that routine thing over on the right disappears. I have to go back to the home page to get it back.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

It’s been like that for over a week.

[Wyatt's Torch]

[expat_panama]

A very happy Monday morning to all!  Our futures trading collegues are already at it w/ stocks'n'metals both holding their own --pretty much (indexes -0.12% and rising, metals -0.27% steady).  The only econ report is Existing Home Sales but it's a big week for earnings reports --we'll have to expect the unexpected --although then but then it wouldn't be unexpected...

News:

• Stocks rise on Greek deal but euro dip shows investors wary Yahoo Finance UK - 5 hours ago LONDON (Reuters) - Shares rose on Monday on relief that Greece had reached a deal to avert an immediate financial crisis, though the euro dipped against the dollar on caution over conditions attached to the agreement.
• Fed rate rise timing back in the spotlight Reuters - 6 hours ago LONDON (Reuters) - Greece's struggles with its euro zone creditors have grabbed much of the world's attention, but U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is likely to reclaim the spotlight as the week progresses with testimony on a long-anticipated shift in ...
• Oil prices dip as worries over U.S. oversupply drag
• White House extends Obamacare deadline, admits subsidy snafu