Disappointing Retail Sales

November had lower than expected sales numbers. According to ICSC report “These data suggested that the holiday season got off to a weak start in November for retailers–though the tail-end of the month saw relatively strong sales for electronics and online spending, but that seemed to be at the expense of some in-store performance and [...]

Stocks heavily shorted

Markets have been rising drastically this year, and it is not a surprise that most of the highly shorted stocks are up too.   
Here are some of the stocks with the largest amount of shorts as a percentage of float, out of the Russell 1,000 according to Bespoke Investment Group.
 
 
Find more here.

RIA Assets Shrinking

The annual reports of IAA and NRS revealed that the total number of SEC RIAs  has grown 2% to 11,257 however the their assets under management shrunk 20% after reaching over $42 trillion back last year. We see growth in the amount of smaller firms in the RIA world however they are now looking at [...]

Looking ahead.

Is $2000/oz too much for Gold? Since the beginning of this year GLD has risen almost 25% in value and GDX, which is the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF has increased 40.55% this year. Other than holding physical gold investors can gain exposure to gold by investing in stocks closely tied to gold mining market. [...]

Strong Cisco Earnings

The company reported strong earnings this afternoon. Earnings per share were $0.36 above the expected $0.31.  Cisco also announced today that its board of directors is authorizing up to $10 billion in additional repurchases of its common stock.

Q1 Net Sales: $9.0 billion (decrease of 13% year over year)
Q1 Net Income: $1.8 billion GAAP; $2.1 billion [...]