1.Factor Leadership…Min Vol Reappears as Leader.
Topley’s Top Ten – July 31, 2018
1.As Expected….Buyback Explosion Post Tax Cut.
You will notice that this new quarterly record was nearly double that previous one. Corporations aren’t just gradually ramping up their repurchases; they’re falling over themselves to do so.
But is total buyback activity a good stock market indicator? In the 1980s and 1990s, at least, it was. In those decades, a number of academic studies found, the stock of the average company that announced a new buyback company proceeded to significantly outperform the market over several years following that announcement.
Since then, the situation has changed. One recent study, for example, found no outperformance from buyback activity over the decade through 2012 — that the stock of the average company announcing a buyback performed no better than the S&P 500 SPX, -0.58% after that repurchase program was announced.
Opinion: Stock buybacks are no reason to buy a stock
Share repurchases once signaled confidence, but now just substitute for dividends
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-buybacks-are-no-reason-to-buy-a-stock-2018-07-31
PKW-Buyback ETF Still Below Peaks
Continue reading
Topley’s Top Ten – July 30, 2018
1.Similar Charts Leading Popular Argument That Government Stimulus Will Run Out in 2020.
The United States: A significant portion of this year’s GDP growth is due to the federal government stimulus. But the party ends in 2020.
Source: Scotiabank Economics
https://blogs.wsj.com/dailyshot/
Topley’s Top Ten – July 23, 2018
There will only be a couple Top 10’s this week due to vacation
1.Emerging Markets Stock Underperformance Versus U.S. Near Historical Extremes.
Goldman, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton all say now’s the time to buy emerging markets – “The performance of emerging-market equities relative to U.S. large caps, as measured by the spread of rolling three-month returns, is near a threshold of -17 percent, which hasn’t been breached since the global financial crisis”
From Dave Lutz at Jones Trading
Topley’s Top Ten – July 17, 2018
1.10 Year Back Below 3%…Utilities Gain 2% Per Week for a Month Straight.
Utility stocks in the S&P 500 have made gains of at least 2% in four straight weeks, a first for that sector. The previous record was three consecutive weeks in 2000 and 2004.
Why Utility Stocks Are Worth a Second Look
Lawrence C. Strauss
https://www.barrons.com/articles/why-utility-stocks-are-worth-a-second-look-1531344310
