Economic and Investment News Bits
- William Henry Harrison was president, the nation’s population had reached 17 million, and Ohio was one of four states with a population of more than 1 million when central Ohio’s’ oldest active business opened in 1840. Wittich’s Quality Chocolates & Nuts is still in business on High Street in Circleville.
- The U.S. dollar is on the move. In the last four months alone, it has soared by more than 7% compared with a basket of more than a dozen global currencies, and by even more against the euro and the Japanese yen. This dollar rally, the result of genuine economic progress and divergent policy developments, could contribute to the ‘rebalancing’ that has long eluded the world economy,” (Source: Mohamed El-Erian).
- Attempts to time the market involve two impulses: trying to opportunistically buy near the bottom and defensively selling to avoid (further) losses. The market does not dependably signal continuity or discontinuity. A headline on Yahoo Finance, August 1, said “S&P 500 Index posts worst fall since April. Indexes down for July.” On August 26, however, the headline read “S&P 500 Pushes to Another Record.” Short-term market timing can be hazardous.
- Strategas Research notes “’It’s difficult to know what’s harder to believe – the fact the S&P 500 has reached 40 new highs this year without a real correction, or that a 24/7 electronic media desperate for negative content has left the story largely unreported.”
- Washington reports receipts grew almost 7% (year over year), while spending was up 15%. The growth in receipts was driven by corporate and individual income taxes, up almost 11%, while the biggest increase on the spending side came from a 65% jump in Medicare outlays. This will only get worse, as 15,000 boomers retire each day over the next 15 years. (Source: Treasury Department)
- The next Alibaba or Amazon? E-commerce is especially hot in India. Two potential big names are Flipkart Online Services and SnapDeal, both of which have received billions in funding recently.
Thought for the week
“Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. The older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.”
May Schmich, American journalist (b. 1953)
Graph of the Week (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The map above shows the largest company by revenue in every state. It draws information from Hoover’s – a Dun & Bradstreet company, and excludes any subsidiaries or government agencies, as well as companies with foreign offices. Some seem to make perfect sense, like Las Vegas Sands in Nevada, Exxon in Texas, General Motors in Michigan, Berkshire Hathaway in Nebraska, and Wal-Mart in Arkansas. But others are perhaps surprising. You might think Microsoft or Boeing would be tops in Washington, but the data reveals that Costco actually is the largest company. Ohio’s biggest company is Cardinal Health, with revenues of more than $91 billion. For a larger, easier-to-view version of the map, go to http://www.businessinsider.com/company-revenue-map-2014-6