What is quantitative easing, and why does it matter? Will a Fed interest rate hike derail global growth prospects? How will the stock market respond to lower inflation? Will investors panic and induce a global asset selloff? These are the questions that keep Janet Yellen, America's most powerful woman, awake at night.
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Why "Cult" Is A Dirty Four-Letter Word
What are the stock market’s most notorious “cult stocks,” and how do we identify them? While most investors consider “cult” to be a dirty four-letter word, the corporations that comprise this category have performed incredibly well over the past years. Whereas previously beloved companies like Yelp and Twitter (TWTR) have fallen 44.1% and 21.1% over the last two years, cult stocks like Ambarella (AMBA), Netflix (NFLX), Tesla (TSLA), Chipotle (CMG), and Amazon (AMZN) have experienced near triple-digit gains.
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The Great Greek Failure
I’m sure by now you’re equally annoyed with triple-digit market downturns in both America and Europe, all the direct result of Greece’s selfish financial ministers and incompetent governing body; however, good news, for the collective West, has finally emerged from the childish pit of gloom and doom formerly known as Greece: European leaders have withdrawn from negotiations with Alex Tsipras’ socialist representatives.
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LSU Chooses Amenities Over Education
One of the South’s most popular universities, and a flagship public college, Louisiana State University, is currently facing a $55.5 million state funding cut; not only will LSU need to restructure its annual budget, but the regents will also need to prepare for a devastating alternative: bankruptcy. That’s right, LSU is now mulling the possibility of entering into bankruptcy proceedings.
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Stocks To Move Even Higher
Although the stock market is shattering records, and publically traded companies are more valuable than ever, much of Wall Street fears an upcoming “market correction." The general consensus is that September 2015 will mark the end of the Fed’s Quantitative Easing program, and the beginning of interest rate hikes (also known as the Federal Funds Rate). In response, investors are hesitant to invest capital in the stock market.
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5 Terrible Tech IPOs
2014 proved to be the year of initial public offerings (IPOs). In America alone, 275 companies issued common class stock, the most since 2000 (when over 400 companies engaged in IPOs). Led by Chinese E-Commerce giant Alibaba (BABA), U.S. IPOs in 2014 raised over $85 billion in capital, an increase of more than 40% Y/Y compared to 2013. Alibaba alone raised a record-breaking $22 billion, besting both Facebook’s (FB) 2012 IPO ($16 billion) and Visa’s (V) 2008 IPO ($17.8 billion).
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When Bubbles Don't Burst
On March 2, 2015 the Nasdaq Composite Index, more commonly referred to as the NASDAQ, closed above 5,000 points for the first time in fifteen years. As this occurred, Wall Street trading floors swelled with the collective anxiety of investors who had observed the same milestone during the Dot-Com era (in March 2000). Only two days after the NASDAQ eclipsed 5,000 on March 9th, the tech-oriented index began its dramatic collapse.
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