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Wednesday June 15, 2016

// June 1st, 2016 // Comments Off on Wednesday June 15, 2016 // Daily News

Keep your eyes on these two things when investing this summer: Analysts
CNBC.com

With all the noise about a possible Federal Reserve rate increase and the presidential elections, investors shouldn’t forget about the Chinese economy and diverging monetary policies overseas this summer, two analysts said Wednesday.
“I think China is still something we need to watch for,” Sarat Sethi, co-managing partner at Douglas C. Lane & Associates, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Overnight, three surveys of Chinese economic activity revived doubts about the durability of the recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.
The official May manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 50.1 (a PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity while a number below that indicates contraction).
But the Caixin manufacturing PMI index slipped to 49.2 in May, the 15th-consecutive month of contraction, while China’s services sector also slipped last month.
“If the dollar gets stronger again, and you see their currency starting to devalue, they’re going to start feeling the effects of all this. I think that, globally, is going to affect them. When oil was down at $25-$30, it was actually helpful for them. But now with oil back at $50, that’s one of their biggest input costs of commodity prices going up,” Sethi said.
“If our currency gets stronger, that, as you know, last August caused a massive revaluation of the global markets as well.”
Last summer, financial markets across the globe tumbled, with a slowdown in China’s economic growth, as well as a soaring dollar, at the center of the storm.
Another concern is the Fed is looking to tighten at a time when the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank are holding interest rates in negative territory, trying to jump-start their economies, said Michael Tyler, CIO at Eastern Bank Wealth Management.
“With that happening there and the Fed raising here, you do run the potential of the dollar getting so strong, or the yield curve flattening out as long rates are driven by currency exchange and stay low,” he told “Squawk Box.” “That could start scaring investors as well.”
Market expectations for a Fed rate hike in June were 23 percent Wednesday, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, but were nearly 60 percent for July.
“I think July is the most likely time, and I think we see one more hike later this year as well,” Tyler said. “I think markets are prepared to accept that. When you see the futures markets are predicting 60 percent probability [for a] rate hike, it tells you that bond markets and stock markets are feeling comfortable right now about that.”

Today’s Inspiration

You’re an Everything and So Am I

by Joyce Meyer – posted June 01, 2016

What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him? Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory and honor.
—Psalm 8:4-5 AMPC

Pride is a terrible sin, and we are instructed in God’s Word not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to (see Romans 12:3). That doesn’t mean that we need to have a bad opinion of or look down on ourselves. It does mean that we are to remember that we are no better than anyone else and that whatever God has enabled us to do is a gift from Him. We have no more right to claim credit for a special ability we have than we do for blue eyes or brown hair. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and asked them what they had that did not come as a gift from God (see 1 Corinthians 4:7).

When we are warned not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, it means we are to realize that we are nothing apart from Jesus and without Him we can do nothing. The value we have is found in Him, and we can celebrate who we are only because of Him. Actually, when we celebrate who we are in Jesus, it is a way of celebrating Jesus Himself.

We make this a lot more difficult than it needs to be. It is simple—we are everything in Jesus and nothing in ourselves. I like to say, “I am an everything/nothing!” We celebrate because of the amazing work God does in us, and not because of any worth we have in ourselves. As long as we continue giving God the glory for anything good that we manifest, we are on a safe and right track.

For some reason religion has taught people that to be godly they must have a low, or even bad, opinion of themselves, and I believe this kind of thinking has done incalculable damage to the plan of God. As long as we know we are lower than God and He is always our Chief and Head, then we are safe.

Trust in Him: Say out loud daily, “I am nothing without Jesus, but in and through Him I am valuable and I can do great things.”

Monday May 23, 2016

// May 23rd, 2016 // Comments Off on Monday May 23, 2016 // Daily News

Companies ‘drowning in debt’ despite almost $2 trillion in cash

CNBC.com

That American companies have been wadding up huge amounts of cash is no secret. What may be less well-known is that they’re also accumulating debt at a much faster pace.
Total debt among more than 2,000 nonfinancial companies swelled to $6.6 trillion in 2015, dwarfing the $1.84 trillion in cash on their balance sheets, according to a study released Monday by S&P Global Ratings. The ratio of cash to debt is the lowest it’s been in about 10 years, or just before the global financial crisis.
As financial markets came to grips with the prospect of higher rates ahead, corporate America went on a debt bonanza. Debt grew 50 times that of cash, with companies rolling up $850 billion of new IOUs compared to just $17 billion, or 1 percent, cash growth.
“This jump in debt reflects the scant resistance borrowers faced from yield-starved investors as companies pursued acquisitions and returned cash to shareholders,” S&P credit analysts Andrew Chang and David C. Tesher wrote in the report.
What’s more, most of the cash is concentrated in the top 1 percent while most of the debt resides with the rest. Total cash balances outside the elite actually declined 6 percent; by contrast, the other 99 percent held $6 trillion of the total debt load. The top 1 percent (25 companies) now controls more than half the corporate cash, up from 38 percent five years ago.
The cash-to-debt ratio fell to 12 percent among speculative-grade issuers, the lowest level since before the Great Recession.
“There’s a common misconception that companies are swimming in cash, when they are actually drowning in debt,” Chang said in an interview. “Liquidity is not what it appears.”
The surge in debt also comes amid rising defaults. The year has seen 72 defaults, up from 39 at the same time in 2015, S&P reported.
For the most part, defaults have been confined to energy-related issues; 29 are from oil and gas, 12 from metals, mining and steel, and one from utilities. S&P expects the default rate to continue to rise, from 3.9 percent of issuers in the past 12 months to 5.2 percent over the next year.
However, Chang said that while the surge in debt is troubling, it’s not yet at a crisis level. Companies are still able to refinance at low rates and have extended duration.
“While we had that initial freeze in the credit market early this year, investor appetite is picking up again,” he said. “As of today, credit conditions are receptive even to lower-rated issuers. What we’ve seen in the past is it doesn’t take a whole lot for that sentiment to turn.”

Today’s Inspiration

Only God Can Change You

by Joyce Meyer – posted May 23, 2016

The Lord will sustain, refresh, and strengthen him on his bed of languishing; all his bed You [O Lord] will turn, change, and transform in his illness. I said, Lord, be merciful and gracious to me; heal my inner self, for I have sinned against You.
—Psalm 41:3-4

Don’t obsess over your faults, or you will never enjoy the life that Jesus died to give you. Only God can change you, so talk to Him about your desires. The Word says that those who wait on the Lord will change (see Isaiah 40:31).

Meanwhile, quit taking your flaws so seriously. Don’t let discouragement or depression rob you of your energy and make you angry. If you do, you may take that anger out on other people and miss the blessings God has in store for you today. Enjoy yourself, and lighten up! Take the right steps today toward the change you want to make by asking God to help you all day long.