Posts Tagged
‘news’
by Promotions - December 15th, 2015 2:15 pm
We know you love coming here for our Stocks & Options education, strategy and trade ideas, and for Phil's daily commentary which you can't live without, but there's more!
PhilStockWorld.com features the most important and most interesting news items from around the web, all day, every day!
News: If you missed it, you can probably find it in our Market News section. We sift through piles of news so you don't have to.
If you are looking for non-mainstream, provocatively-narrated news and opinion pieces which promise to make you think -- we feature Zero Hedge, right here.
For in-depth market analysis and economic and political commentary, visit our Favorites section.
For the FREE weekly webinar replays, check out our YouTube Channel.
And, of course, don't forget that you can see Phil all around the web sharing a little knowledge along with his unique brand of insight. Check out where he's been featured recently!
Tags: news, Philstockworld
Posted in Immediately available to public | Comments Off
by ilene - October 6th, 2010 8:49 pm
Courtesy of Michael Snyder at Economic Collapse
Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don’t even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest.
Most Americans don’t really seem to care about who owns the media. But they should. The truth is that each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media. The average American watches 153 hours of television a month. In fact, most Americans begin to feel physically uncomfortable if they go too long without watching or listening to something. Sadly, most Americans have become absolutely addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all that news and entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year.
The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Together, the "big six" absolutely dominate news and entertainment in the United States. But even those areas of the media that the "big six" do not completely control are becoming increasingly concentrated. For example, Clear Channel now owns over 1000 radio stations across the United States. Companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are increasingly dominating the Internet.
But it is the "big six" that are the biggest concerns. When you control what Americans watch, hear and read you gain a great deal of control over what they think. They don’t call it "programming" for nothing.
Back in 1983 it was bad enough that about 50 corporations dominated U.S. media. But since that time, power over the media has rapidly become concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people….
In 1983, fifty corporations dominated most of every mass medium and the biggest media merger in history was a $340 million deal. … [I]n…

Tags: Americans, CBS, Disney, mainstream media, media corporations, NBC, news, News Corporation, Time Warner, truth, Viacom
Posted in Phil's Favorites | 1 Comment »
by ilene - May 17th, 2010 8:53 pm
The Reformed Broker Joshua Brown shatters any remaining signs of life in dying Decoupling myth. – Ilene
Johnny Cash once ominously sang "you can run on for a long time" before reminding those whom he considered wicked that sooner or later, they’d be cut down.
US stocks were able to ignore the sovereign debt crises of southern Europe…until they weren’t. Now your Staples ($SPLS) and your Akamai Networks ($AKAM) are slaves to the macro once more. The "Decoupling Theory" fails again, just as it did in 2008 when asset prices around the world fell in tandem.
I’m gonna say this one time – Decoupling is a demonstrably false concept in the 21st century global economy. Sure, there are degrees of correlation but there is no decoupling. Everybody around the world owns pieces of everything, regardless of borders, currencies, languages or timezones. The world has been ETF’d, we all reside in a bought-and-sold basket of instruments. China will eventually succumb to its export customers’ malaise just as surely as US and European exporters will ultimately feel the pinch of a China slowdown.
Russia, Australia, Brazil and Canada may be stronger than their ‘customer nations’ because of their vast raw materials but can they really sustain this strength should the ‘customer nations’ begin demanding less raw material from them?
Nothing is decoupled with anything anymore. You may tell yourself that your Abercrombie & Fitch ($ANF) shares have no exposure to Spain or Portugal – but if the market decides to blow itself up over Spain and Portugal, Abercrombie’s gonna get slapped around.
By the way, the same principle is in effect on bounces and rallies. How else to explain the 420 point Dow Jones Industrial Average rally on confirmation of the Euro TARP? How else to explain the fact that every stock was up, European exposure or not?
So the next time you hear Bob Pisani on CNBC emphasize "Europe’s Close", as though the closing of their markets is like the ‘all clear’ signal for US stocks to recover, remember that the macro has reasserted its influence on our market. And this influence doesn’t wane for any market’s closing bell.
Recoupled. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
Tags: decoupling theory, global markets, news
Posted in Phil's Favorites | No Comments »
by ilene - March 3rd, 2010 11:58 am
What Does NOT Move Markets? Examining 8 Claims of Market Efficiency
By Susan Walker, courtesy of Elliott Wave International
If everyone says that shocks from outside the financial system — so-called exogenous shocks — can affect it for better or worse, they must be right.
It just sounds so darned logical, right? Economists believe this trope to be true, mainly because they believe that investors are rational thinkers who re-evaluate their positions after every new bit of relevant information turns up.
Beginning to sound slightly impossible? Well, yes.
It turns out that logic is exactly what’s missing from this it-feels-so-right idea of rational reaction to exogenous shocks. Find out what really moves markets — download the free 118-page Independent Investor eBook. You might be surprised to discover that it’s not the Fed or "surprise" news events. Learn more, and download your free ebook here.
Excerpted from Robert Prechter’s February 2010 Elliott Wave Theorist, published Feb. 19, 2010
The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) argues that as new information enters the marketplace, investors revalue stocks accordingly. … In such a world, the market would fluctuate narrowly around equilibrium as minor bits of news about individual companies mostly canceled each other out. Then important events, which would affect the valuation of the market as a whole, would serve as “shocks” causing investors to adjust prices to a new level, reflecting that new information. One would see these reactions in real time, and investigators of market history would face no difficulties in identifying precisely what new information caused the change in prices. …
This is a simple idea and simple to test. But almost no one ever bothers to test it. According to the mindset of conventional economists, no one needs to test it; it just feels right; it must be right. It’s the only model anyone can think of. But socionomists [those who use the Wave Principle to make social predictions] have tested this idea multiple ways. And the result is not pretty for the theories that rely upon it.
The tests that we will examine are not rigorous or statistical. Our time and resources are limited. But in refuting a theory, extreme rigor is unnecessary. If someone says, “All leaves are green,” all one need do is show him a red one to refute the claim. I hope when we are done with our brief survey, you will
…

Tags: Economy, elliott wave, Elliott Wave Theorist, news, Robert Prechter, Stock Market, the Federal Reserve
Posted in Phil's Favorites | No Comments »
by ilene - February 18th, 2010 4:21 pm
Courtesy of John Carney at Clusterstock
Source: AP
It’s a good thing we grabbed the insane manifesto of Joe Stack, the guy who flew his plane into a seven story building in Austin, Texas.
Because the website is now down.
"This website has been taken offline due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas this morning and in compliance with a request from the FBI," T35 Hosting explains.
While it seems reasonable for T35 to comply with the FBI request, we cannot help but wonder what the purpose of taking the site down might be. Is the FBI worried it might inspire copycat attacks?
See Also:
Tags: airline industry, Austin TX, IRS, Joe Stack, news, Planes, Taxes, terrorism, Transportation
Posted in Phil's Favorites | No Comments »
by ilene - August 4th, 2009 1:36 pm
Welcome to Zach! - Ilene
Courtesy of Zach at ZachStocks
Welcome Back! I have to admit that seeing the S&P 500 index back in “quadruple digit status” makes me just a bit nostalgic. So do you remember where you were the last time the S&P closed above 1,000? For me, the memories are a bit hazy as our twins were born October 21, and since the last time we saw this level occurred on November 4th, I was a good fortnight into sleep deprivation.
Actually the bigger question might be if you remember where you were the first day this side of 2004 when you saw the S&P close below the 1,000 mark. The date was October seventh and being a bit of a pack rat, I still have the Wall Street Journal for Oct 8th in which the headline reads:
US, Britain Up Ante in Fight to Stop Crisis
Obviously, that fight had a long way to go as the S&P eventually dropped another 33% before hitting rock bottom just off the illustrious 666 level. The trip down memory lane is more than just “for old times sake” – it’s important to realize just how far we have come and what issues caused (and prolonged) this financial crisis. Here are a few additional noteworthy headlines:
Sept 13: Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Seeks Buyer, AIG Hunts for Cash
The article explains that after bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just one week prior, the government refused to provide a financial backstop to potential buyers of Lehman
Sept 17: U.S. Plans Rescue of AIG to Halt Crisis; Central Banks Inject Cash as Credit Dries Up
“The Federal Reserve appeared to be motivated in part by worries that Wall Street’s financial crisis could begin to spill over into seemingly safe investments held by small investors such as money-market funds that invest in AIG debt.” I honestly don’t think that the Fed had any idea of the magnitude of what they were dealing with yet.
Sept 20: U.S. Bailout Plan Calms Markets, But Struggle Looms Over Details
The accompanying picture includes SEC Chairman Cox, Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke walking solemnly behind President Bush. The “in process” treasury plan was revealed and was
…

Tags: market nostalgia, market rally, news, S&P, Stock Market
Posted in Phil's Favorites | No Comments »