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Who's Checking Out?Some high-profile exits in international and corporate news are worth checking into, says Morningstar markets editor Jeremy Glaser.
earnings were up 10%, and same-store sales growth looked good in the United States , growth looked good outside of the United States . Really the company is starting to do very well, even though their consumers are under a lot of pressure with higher gas prices , with stagnant wages and particularly for non-college educated workers. It's really been challenging for them, but they are starting to turn that around. They are starting to see their growth come back, and they are really seeing some good fundamental growth. We found out that Warren Buffett continues to be buying more of the company in a filing that we got from Berkshire Hathaway this week. So, I think certainly they have a lot fundamentally going well for them, but of course there are also some dark clouds over Walmart right now, and particularly the allegations of bribery in Mexico. The New York Times wrote an exposé a couple of weeks ago that Wal-Mart had spent a ton of money to get permits and to get -
U.S. Economy Holds Its OwnData this week--including tamer overall inflation and stable year-over-year retail sales growth--show the U.S. economy is still progressing despite overseas woes.
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Facebook a Future Advertising ForceMorningstar's Rick Summer sees Facebook and Google dominating the Internet advertising market as Facebook finds better ways to monetize its massive user base.
getting the proper bang for the buck. Just recently we heard that General Motors is pulling out [its Facebook advertising] campaign because it didn't feel that it was getting the bang for the buck. We think -
First Day Pop Doesn't Spell Long-Term Success for IPOsRecent tech IPOs have had great first days, but performance has lagged since then, says Morningstar's James Krapfel.
take it in. Glaser: Certainly it sounds like a lot of that excess return has been captured by investors, they are able to get some of that initial allocation at that offering price and not so -
Do Fund Flows Show a Bond Bubble?The $700 billion that has flowed into taxable-bond funds in the last five years is larger than flows into U.S. equity funds in the late '90s, but investors today seem to be reacting to fear and not chasing performance.
of their five best-selling funds over the last 12 months have been actively managed equity funds, which have been, as you mentioned, one of the least popular areas generally speaking with investors. So the fact that some of [the firm's] most in-demand funds are actively managed equity funds really says something, and those funds have had great performance though. JPMorgan Equity Income and the firm's U.S. Core, and Large Cap funds have all had very strong performance and strong inflows -
Troubled Times?A string of disappointments and difficulties led to sour results for some, but not all, newsmakers this week, reports Morningstar markets editor Jeremy Glaser.
talked about a few weeks ago , had a mega flop with John Carter , but they reported results this week, and it was pretty bright. Glaser : They managed to turn that around pretty quickly. I think it just shows that Disney's more diversified model and wide moat really allow it to not worry about one artistic failure, not worry about one creative failure, because they can make it up elsewhere in the business. The shares hit an all-time high after these results, as the theme park business really shined through in the quarter, ESPN is still doing incredibly well, and [that] helps offset weakness elsewhere. The Avengers also has -
A Two-Pronged Approach to Investing in European StocksFPA's Eric Bokota discusses his recipe for finding value in Europe for his new fund as well as why he's cautious of putting money into Asian names.
on there just from a political standpoint; investors are worried about falling economic growth there. But I just wonder if you really have a problem there of misaligned incentives between management and shareholders, especially when theinvest in these shares. But we are able to participate in China's economic growth through our exposure to global companies, and Daimler is a great example as China is one of its largest markets. Davis: All -
Consumers Not Spent Out YetEmployment improvement, cooling commodity inflation, and lower interest on debt should allow consumer spending to sustain its moderate growth trajectory, says Morningstar's Bob Johnson.
and spend? Johnson : Yes, and this is one thing that the government's official statistics don't really capture very well, because they don't actually take ... your mortgage check and calculate that into what consumer spending is. Instead, they make the assumption that if you own a house, what could you rent it for? And that's what goes in the consumption number, and that goes in the income calculation. Well the reality is, that you send a check, and that check can change with the interest rates , and as time has gone on here, people have been able to refinance their mortgages down at a lower rate, and evenrecord low, by the end of this year. Stipp : So low interest rates certainly have crimped a lot of retirees, but on the flipside, the positive side of that, it means less debt payments that you have -
Merk: U.S. Investors Too Exposed to the DollarWhen U.S. policymakers get the 'incentive' from the bond market to address the current deficits, the U.S. dollar may be under far more severe pressure than the euro currently is, says currency fund manager Axel Merk.
take advantage of the opportunity of hot currencies, Asian currencies, or other currencies appreciating versus the U.S. dollar without taking on significant other risk, without taking on equity risk, while trying to only take on minimal -
Pharmacy Benefit Managers Weigh on Drug RetailersThe increasing power of PBM's like Express Scripts is putting pressure on drugstores, according to Morningstar's Matt Coffina.