Monday, March 31, 2014

Janet Yellen's Remarks to National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference

Related FED Fed Issues FOMC Statement Mar. 19th, 2014 Fed's Beige Book from Mar. 5th, 2014

March 31, 2014 What the Federal Reserve is Doing to Promote a Stronger Job Market

I am here today to talk about what the Federal Reserve is doing to help our nation recover from the financial crisis and the Great Recession, the effects of which were particularly severe for the people and the communities you serve.

Part of that effort has involved strengthening the financial system. New rules are in place to better protect consumers and ensure that credit is available to help communities grow. The Federal Reserve also plays a role in communities by fostering dialogue that promotes community development. I will highlight some initiatives around the Federal Reserve System that I believe are making a real difference. Later today, I will visit the Manufacturing Technology Program at Daley College, on Chicago's south side, where adult students are acquiring the skills they need to connect to good-paying jobs in that sector.

The Fed supports the work you do in communities because you make a difference. You help ensure that credit is available for families to buy homes and for small businesses to expand. Your organizations sponsor programs that help make communities safer and families healthier and more financially secure. One of the most important things you do is to help people meet the demands of finding a job in what remains a challenging economy. And that help is crucial, but I also believe it can't succeed without two other things.

The first of these is the courage and determination of the people you serve. The past six years have been difficult for many Americans, but the hardships faced by some have shattered lives and families. Too many people know firsthand how devastating it is to lose a job at which you had succeeded and be unable to find another; to run through your savings and even lose your home, as months and sometimes years pass trying to find work; to feel your marriage and other relationships strained and broken by financial difficulties. And yet many of those who have suffered the most find the will to keep trying. I will introduce you to three of these brave men and women, your neighbors here in the great city of Chicago. These individuals have benefited from just the kind of help from community groups that I highlighted a moment ago, and they recently shared their personal stories with me.

It might seem obvious, but the second thing that is needed to help people find jobs...is jobs. No amount of training will be enough if there are not enough jobs to fill. I have mentioned some of the things the Fed does to help communities, but the most important thing we do is to use monetary policy to promote a stronger economy. The Federal Reserve has taken extraordinary steps since the onset of the financial crisis to spur economic activity and create jobs, and I will explain why I believe those efforts are still needed.

The Fed provides this help by influencing interest rates. Although we work through financial markets, our goal is to help Main Street, not Wall Street. By keeping interest rates low, we are trying to make homes more affordable and revive the housing market. We are trying to make it cheaper for businesses to build, expand, and hire. We are trying to lower the costs of buying a car that can carry a worker to a new job and kids to school, and our policies are also spurring the revival of the auto industry. We are trying to help families afford things they need so that greater spending can drive job creation and even more spending, thereby strengthening the recovery.

When the Federal Reserve's policies are effective, they improve the welfare of everyone who benefits from a stronger economy, most of all those who have been hit hardest by the recession and the slow recovery.

Now let me offer my view of the state of the recovery, with particular attention to the labor market and conditions faced by workers. Nationwide, and in Chicago, the economy and the labor market have strengthened considerably from the depths of the Great Recession. Since the unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, the economy has added more than 7-1/2 million jobs and the unemployment rate has fallen more than 3 percentage points to 6.7 percent. That progress has been gradual but remarkably steady--February was the 41st consecutive month of payroll growth, one of the longest stretches ever.

Chicago, as you all know, was hit harder than many areas during the recession and remains a tougher market for workers. But there has been considerable improvement here also. Unemployment in the city of Chicago is down from a peak of nearly 13 percent to about 9-1/2 percent at last count. That is about the same improvement as in the larger Chicago metro area, where unemployment has fallen to 8-1/2 percent. Metro Chicago has added 183,000 jobs since 2009, just below the rate for job gains nationwide.1

But while there has been steady progress, there is also no doubt that the economy and the job market are not back to normal health. That will not be news to many of you, or to the 348,000 people in and around Chicago who were counted as looking for work in January.2 It will not be news to consumers or to owners of small and medium-sized businesses, who surveys say remain cautious about the strength and durability of the recovery.

The recovery still feels like a recession to many Americans, and it also looks that way in some economic statistics. At 6.7 percent, the national unemployment rate is still higher than it ever got during the 2001 recession. That is also the case in Chicago and in many other cities. It certainly feels like a recession to many younger workers, to older workers who lost long-term jobs, and to African Americans, who are facing a job market today that is nearly as tough as it was during the two downturns that preceded the Great Recession.

In some ways, the job market is tougher now than in any recession. The numbers of people who have been trying to find work for more than six months or more than a year are much higher today than they ever were since records began decades ago. We know that the long-term unemployed face big challenges. Research shows employers are less willing to hire the long-term unemployed and often prefer other job candidates with less or even no relevant experience.3

That is what Dorine Poole learned, after she lost her job processing medical insurance claims, just as the recession was getting started. Like many others, she could not find any job, despite clerical skills and experience acquired over 15 years of steady employment. When employers started hiring again, two years of unemployment became a disqualification. Even those needing her skills and experience preferred less qualified workers without a long spell of unemployment. That career, that part of Dorine's life, had ended.

For Dorine and others, we know that workers displaced by layoffs and plant closures who manage to find work suffer long-lasting and often permanent wage reductions.4 Jermaine Brownlee was an apprentice plumber and skilled construction worker when the recession hit, and he saw his wages drop sharply as he scrambled for odd jobs and temporary work. He is doing better now, but still working for a lower wage than he earned before the recession.

Vicki Lira lost her full-time job of 20 years when the printing plant she worked in shut down in 2006. Then she lost a job processing mortgage applications when the housing market crashed. Vicki faced some very difficult years. At times she was homeless. Today she enjoys her part-time job serving food samples to customers at a grocery store but wishes she could get more hours.

Vicki Lira is one of many Americans who lost a full-time job in the recession and seem stuck working part time. The unemployment rate is down, but not included in that rate are more than seven million people who are working part time but want a full-time job. As a share of the workforce, that number is very high historically.

I have described the experiences of Dorine, Jermaine, and Vicki because they tell us important things that the unemployment rate alone cannot. First, they are a reminder that there are real people behind the statistics, struggling to get by and eager for the opportunity to build better lives. Second, their experiences show some of the uniquely challenging and lasting effects of the Great Recession. Recognizing and trying to understand these effects helps provide a clearer picture of the progress we have made in the recovery, as well as a view of just how far we still have to go.

And based on the evidence available, it is clear to me that the U.S. economy is still considerably short of the two goals assigned to the Federal Reserve by the Congress. The first of those goals is maximum sustainable employment, the highest level of employment that can be sustained while maintaining a stable inflation rate. Most of my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee and I estimate that the unemployment rate consistent with maximum sustainable employment is now between 5.2 percent and 5.6 percent, well below the 6.7 percent rate in February.

The other goal assigned by the Congress is stable prices, which means keeping inflation under control. In the past, there have been times when these two goals conflicted--fighting inflation often requires actions that slow the economy and raise the unemployment rate. But that is not a dilemma now, because inflation is well below 2 percent, the Fed's longer-term goal.

The Federal Reserve takes its inflation goal very seriously. One reason why I believe it is appropriate for the Federal Reserve to continue to provide substantial help to the labor market, without adding to the risks of inflation, is because of the evidence I see that there remains considerable slack in the economy and the labor market. Let me explain what I mean by that word "slack" and why it is so important.

Slack means that there are significantly more people willing and capable of filling a job than there are jobs for them to fill. During a period of little or no slack, there still may be vacant jobs and people who want to work, but a large share of those willing to work lack the skills or are otherwise not well suited for the jobs that are available. With 6.7 percent unemployment, it might seem that there must be a lot of slack in the U.S. economy, but there are reasons why that may not be true.

One important reason relates to the skills and education of people in the workforce. It is no secret that America faces some daunting challenges in educating people and preparing them to work in a 21st century, globalized economy. Many of you in this audience are helping workers address this challenge, but you also know that the economy continues to change very rapidly.

To the extent that people who desire to work lack the skills that employers are demanding, there is less slack in the labor market. This is an example of what economists call "structural" unemployment, and it can be difficult to solve. Even understanding what workers need to appeal to employers is difficult in a fast-changing economy. For government, effective solutions for structural unemployment, beginning with improved education, tend to be expensive and take a long time to work. The problem goes deeper than simply a lack of jobs.

But a lack of jobs is the heart of the problem when unemployment is caused by slack, which we also call "cyclical unemployment." The government has the tools to address cyclical unemployment. Monetary policy is one such tool, and the Federal Reserve has been actively using it to strengthen the recovery and create jobs, which brings me to why the amount of slack is so important.

If unemployment were mostly structural, if workers were unable to perform the jobs available, then the Federal Reserve's efforts to create jobs would not be very effective. Worse than that, without slack in the labor market, the economic stimulus from the Fed could put attaining our inflation goal at risk. In fact, judging how much slack there is in the labor market is one of the most important questions that my Federal Reserve colleagues and I consider when making monetary policy decisions, because our inflation goal is no less important than the goal of maximum employment.

This is not just an academic debate. For Dorine Poole, Jermaine Brownlee, and Vicki Lira, and for millions of others dislocated by the Great Recession who continue to struggle, the cause of the slow recovery is enormously important. As I said earlier, the powerful force that sustains them and others who keep trying to succeed in this recovery is the faith that their job prospects will improve and that their efforts will be rewarded.

Now let me explain why I believe there is still considerable slack in the labor market, why I think there is room for continued help from the Fed for workers, and why I believe Dorine Poole, Jermaine Brownlee, and Vicki Lira are right to hope for better days ahead.

One form of evidence for slack is found in other labor market data, beyond the unemployment rate or payrolls, some of which I have touched on already. For example, the seven million people who are working part time but would like a full-time job. This number is much larger than we would expect at 6.7 percent unemployment, based on past experience, and the existence of such a large pool of "partly unemployed" workers is a sign that labor conditions are worse than indicated by the unemployment rate. Statistics on job turnover also point to considerable slack in the labor market. Although firms are now laying off fewer workers, they have been reluctant to increase the pace of hiring. Likewise, the number of people who voluntarily quit their jobs is noticeably below levels before the recession; that is an indicator that people are reluctant to risk leaving their jobs because they worry that it will be hard to find another. It is also a sign that firms may not be recruiting very aggressively to hire workers away from their competitors.

A second form of evidence for slack is that the decline in unemployment has not helped raise wages for workers as in past recoveries. Workers in a slack market have little leverage to demand raises. Labor compensation has increased an average of only a little more than 2 percent per year since the recession, which is very low by historical standards.5 Wage growth for most workers was modest for a couple of decades before the recession due to globalization and other factors beyond the level of economic activity, and those forces are undoubtedly still relevant. But labor market slack has also surely been a factor in holding down compensation. The low rate of wage growth is, to me, another sign that the Fed's job is not yet done.

A third form of evidence related to slack concerns the characteristics of the extraordinarily large share of the unemployed who have been out of work for six months or more. These workers find it exceptionally hard to find steady, regular work, and they appear to be at a severe competitive disadvantage when trying to find a job. The concern is that the long-term unemployed may remain on the sidelines, ultimately dropping out of the workforce. But the data suggest that the long-term unemployed look basically the same as other unemployed people in terms of their occupations, educational attainment, and other characteristics. And, although they find jobs with lower frequency than the short-term jobless do, the rate at which job seekers are finding jobs has only marginally improved for both groups. That is, we have not yet seen clear indications that the short-term unemployed are finding it increasingly easier to find work relative to the long-term unemployed. This fact gives me hope that a significant share of the long-term unemployed will ultimately benefit from a stronger labor market.

A final piece of evidence of slack in the labor market has been the behavior of the participation rate--the proportion of working-age adults that hold or are seeking jobs. Participation falls in a slack job market when people who want a job give up trying to find one. When the recession began, 66 percent of the working-age population was part of the labor force. Participation dropped, as it normally does in a recession, but then kept dropping in the recovery. It now stands at 63 percent, the same level as in 1978, when a much smaller share of women were in the workforce. Lower participation could mean that the 6.7 percent unemployment rate is overstating the progress in the labor market.

One factor lowering participation is the aging of the population, which means that an increasing share of the population is retired. If demographics were the only or overwhelming reason for falling participation, then declining participation would not be a sign of labor market slack. But some "retirements" are not voluntary, and some of these workers may rejoin the labor force in a stronger economy. Participation rates have been falling broadly for workers of different ages, including many in the prime of their working lives. Based on the evidence, my own view is that a significant amount of the decline in participation during the recovery is due to slack, another sign that help from the Fed can still be effective.

Since late 2008, the Fed has taken extraordinary steps to revive the economy. At the height of the crisis, we provided liquidity to help avert a collapse of the financial system, which enabled banks and other institutions to continue to provide credit to people and businesses depending on it. We cut short-term interest rates as low as they can go and indicated that we would keep them low for as long as necessary to support a stronger economic recovery. And we have been purchasing large quantities of longer-term securities in order to put additional downward pressure on longer-term interest rates--the rates that matter to people shopping for a new car, looking to buy or renovate a home, or expand a business. There is little doubt that without these actions, the recession and slow recovery would have been far worse.

These different measures have the same goal--to encourage consumers to spend and businesses to invest, to promote a recovery in the housing market, and to put more people to work. Together they represent an unprecedentedly large and sustained commitment by the Fed to do what is necessary to help our nation recover from the Great Recession. For the many reasons I have noted today, I think this extraordinary commitment is still needed and will be for some time, and I believe that view is widely shared by my fellow policymakers at the Fed.

In this context, recent steps by the Fed to reduce the rate of new securities purchases are not a lessening of this commitment, only a judgment that recent progress in the labor market means our aid for the recovery need not grow as quickly. Earlier this month, the Fed reiterated its overall commitment to maintain extraordinary support for the recovery for some time to come.

This commitment is strong, and I believe the Fed's policies will continue to help sustain progress in the job market. But the scars from the Great Recession remain, and reaching our goals will take time. In the meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will continue to expand its efforts to promote community development. The Board and each of the 12 Reserve Banks have community development staff members who focus on improving the availability of financial services in low- and moderate-income communities. They help bankers comply with the Community Reinvestment Act, but they are also a source of research and a facilitator of communication among financial institutions and practitioners to identify and share best practices.

This conference is one example of how the Fed pursues those goals, and I would like to mention a few of the Fed's other community development initiatives that I find particularly promising. In 2012, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco partnered with the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a community development financial institution that bridges the gap between low-income neighborhoods and private capital sources, to publish the book Investing in What Works for America's Communities. This book cited innovative and effective community development initiatives across the country and advocated for a "Community Quarterback" model to coordinate initiatives and better leverage funding among groups with similar goals.

In a similar way, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has been the catalyst for the Working Cities Challenge, inspired by its own research on cities that managed to diversify away from a declining, manufacturing-based economy. The research found that one key to success is "collaborative leadership," when governments, businesses, and nonprofits unite behind one focused approach. The Working Cities Challenge promotes that principle by inviting smaller Massachusetts cities to consider how they would use collaborative leadership to unite their communities to address a major challenge for lower-income residents. Twenty cities competed for $1.8 million in funding from the state and other sources. Six cities were awarded funds this past January, but many more will benefit from the spread of a new approach to capacity building that Fed research shows helps communities thrive.

Leadership recruitment is also at the heart of a grassroots-oriented program called Economic Avenue that was developed by the Kansas City Fed. In Northeast Kansas City, Kansas, residents and neighborhood leaders are forming a leadership council that will have responsibility for managing the program, which aims to create and grow local businesses, create jobs, and promote homeownership. The bank's community development staff is providing education and training to get the council off the ground, will measure and evaluate its progress, and assist in connecting leaders to resources and other programs.

These examples are just a few among many throughout the Federal Reserve System. By testing ideas, developing better measurement tools, convening interested parties, and sharing the Federal Reserve's skills and knowledge with our partners at the national and local levels, we aim to serve as a catalyst to improve lives.

Through these initiatives, together with the use of monetary policy and steps to safeguard the financial system, the Federal Reserve is committed to strengthening communities and restoring a healthy economy that benefits all Americans. It is my hope that the courageous and determined working people I have told you about today, and millions more, will get the chance they deserve to build better lives.

1. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm employment for the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metropolitan division has increased 183,000 since December 2009, or about 5 percent. Over this period, employment nationally has increased about 6 percent.

2. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics for the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metropolitan division.

3. See Kory Kroft, Fabian Lange, and Matthew J. Notowidigdo (2013), "Duration Dependence and Labor Market Conditions: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 128 (3), pp. 1123-67; and Rand Ghayad (2014), "The Jobless Trap (PDF)," Leaving the Board unpublished paper, Northeastern University, Department of Economics.

4. See, among others, Louis S. Jacobson, Robert J. LaLonde, and Daniel G. Sullivan (1993), "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," Leaving the Board American Economic Review, vol. 83 (September), pp. 685-709; Steven J. Davis and Till von Wachter (2011), "Recessions and the Costs of Job Loss (PDF)," Leaving the Board Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall, pp. 1-55; Till von Wachter, Jae Song, and Joyce Manchester (2009), "Long-Term Earnings Losses due to Mass Layoffs during the 1982 Recession: An Analysis Using U.S. Administrative Data from 1974 to 2004 (PDF)," Leaving the Board unpublished paper, April; and Daniel Cooper (2014), "The Effect of Unemployment Duration on Future Earnings and Other Outcomes (PDF)," Leaving the Board Working Paper No. 13-8 (Boston: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January).

5. From 2010 to 2013, average annual growth in compensation per hour, hourly compensation as measured in the Employment Cost Index and average hourly earnings for all employees in private industries--all independent estimates of wage and compensation growth--increased annually, on average, no more than 2-1/4 percent.

Posted-In: News Federal Reserve Markets

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Russia fallout pushes Europe to develop shale gas

shale gas europe LONDON (CNNMoney) Europe, seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas, is encouraging political leaders to step up efforts to tap the region's shale gas deposits.

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive body, said growing tension with Russia over its actions in Ukraine serve as a "very strong wake-up call for Europe" about energy issues.

"Europe is working very decisively to reduce its energy dependency," he said last week at an EU-U.S. summit in Brussels.

Europe can pursue many long-term options such as ramping up renewable energy production and importing liquefied natural gas, both expensive propositions. But shale gas continues to be front of mind among energy ministers and policymakers.

Accessing nearby shale gas resources would be cheaper than other options and could create up to one million jobs in the coming years, according to research commissioned by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers.

"The outlook [for shale] is undoubtedly brighter now than it was a year ago," said energy analysts at Eurasia Group.

According to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, European countries are sitting on roughly 470 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas resources -- a huge amount considering gas demand in Europe is roughly 18 trillion cubic feet per year.

But it's not going to be an easy process: Europe's shale gas production is essentially zero right now, and it will take a coordinated effort to get moving.

Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst at Raymond James, says the whole process will take years.

"Over the next five years, [European] countries will have to identify where their resources are and build out the infrastructure for this industry to develop -- that can include developing pipelines and training workers," he said. "This also means getting the required rigs to drill for shale gas, which are in the U.S. and Canada, but don't really exist in Europe."

On top of that, a web of regulations is slowing progress, and environmental concerns about the process of extracting shale gas have led some European countries to ban the practice altogether.

The controversial extraction process -- called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- involves injecting water, sand and chemicals deep into the ground at high pres! sure to crack shale rock, allowing oil and gas to flow.

This practice has spurred America's energy boom, but opponents argue fracking can contaminate local water, create earth tremors and wreak havoc on the environment.

Despite the obstacles, the United Kingdom and Poland are making the biggest strides in pursuit of shale gas production.

"Poland is the furthest along. It's conceivable that in the next five years we could see meaningful production," said Will Pearson, director of global energy and natural resources at Eurasia Group.

Lithuania, Romania and Ukraine are also keen to pursue shale, he said.

Meanwhile, other countries are less enthusiastic. Germany, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands have informal fracking bans, requiring so much onerous documentation and pre-drilling research that energy companies are hesitant. Bulgaria and France have outright fracking bans.

"It will take awhile before France and Germany change their policies toward shale," said Pearson, but "hostility toward the sector is going to dissipate" as Europe tries to decrease its dependence on Russian energy.

There's debate over when European shale gas production might start making a dent in the gas market, but experts aren't expecting anything significant until 2020 at the earliest.

"Shale gas production in Europe is effectively zero. Twelve months from now it will still be zero. Five years from now, it will be more than zero," said Raymond James analyst Molchanov.

Fracking fight hits England   Fracking fight hits England

Over the medium term, Europe is working on building more interconnected links and storage facilities to give nations more flexibility with their natural gas supplies.

The process "is not very glamorous," says Pearson, but it wi! ll help E! urope reach its goal of greater energy independence. To top of page

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Why A Boeing 777 Costs $320 Million

The Malaysian Airlines plane that has disappeared on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing is a 777-200ER from The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA). The 777 family of planes itself is Boeing's best selling dual-aisle, two-engine plane. Through the end of February Boeing has delivered a total of 422 of the 777-200ERs including 15 to Malaysian Airlines. Of 370 planes on order from the 777 family, none is a 777-200ER.

The company delivered its first 777-200 to United Airlines in May 1995, and the plane went into service the following month. The first extended range model, the 777-200ER, was delivered to and put into service by British Airways in February 1997. At list price today, the 777-200ER would cost $261.5 million and would be the lowest priced model of the 777 family.

Boeing's order book currently includes 257 new 777-300ER models; 44 777F freighters; and 66 777X models. The list price for the 777-300ER is $320.2 million. That's nearly $71 million more than the two-engine 787-9 which Boeing announced last summer and for which the company has taken orders for 404 planes.

The 777 includes 3 million parts that come from 500 suppliers around the world. Boeing uses three suppliers for the 777-200ER's two engines: General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); Pratt &Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX); and London-listed Rolls Royce. The 777-300ER uses two GE engines each of which develops 115,540 pounds of thrust.

The 777-200ER has a maximum cruising range of just over 6,000 miles, while the -300ER's range is listed at slightly more than 9,100 miles. Cruising speed is 560 mph and maximum speed is 590 mph. The plane's maximum cruising altitude is 43,100 feet.

According to Boeing, a lightly loaded 777 can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in less than 6 seconds. Not exactly McLaren P1 speeds (about 2.1 seconds), but an empty 777 weighs 150 tons.

What makes the plane so expensive? The 777-300ER can carry 365 passengers compared with the 787-9's capacity of 280. The GE engines on the 777 model develop 62% more thrust than the 787's two engines. The plane is also longer than the Dreamliner, has a greater wingspan and a greater wing area, and is taller. The maximum take-off weight of the 777-300ER is 114 tons greater than the 787-9.

When the new composite wing is added to the 777X, the list price on the plane will rise to $349.8 million for the 777-8X which can carry 350 passengers and to $377.2 million for the 777-9X that has capacity for 400 passengers. The list price is usually the starting point in negotiations between an airplane maker and customer. The actual selling price may be 20% to 30% lower — or more,  according to Leeham News and Comment.

The 787 surpasses the 777 in maximum range — around 9,750 miles to just under 9,100 miles — and fuel efficiency. For long-haul flights, the 787, which replaces the discontinued 767, is likely a better choice mainly because it is more fuel efficient.

But the 777 family will not be cannibalized by the 787. Far from it.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Filing Taxes in 2014: The Important Dates to Remember

 

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Have you ever tried reading the entire U.S. tax code? I hope not -- it's close to 74,000 pages long. While simplifying the document to a few pages is impossible, there is something I can offer to make your tax season go easier: a list of important dates to remember when it comes to filing taxes in 2014.

Of course, everyone knows that April 15 is the big day to have your taxes -- and potential payments -- turned in to the IRS. But that date is important for more than just turning your taxes in. There are lots of other benefits you can take advantage of, and lots of other dates to keep in mind. To find out what five dates loom largest, check out the following slideshow.

The dead simple "tax-skipping" strategy
Recent tax increases have affected nearly every American taxpayer. But with the right planning, you can take steps to take control of your taxes and potentially even lower your tax bill. In our brand-new special report "The IRS is Daring You to Make This Investment Now!," you'll learn about the simple strategy to take advantage of a little-known IRS rule. Don't miss out on advice could help you cut taxes for decades to come. Click here to learn more.

Important Dates for Filing Taxes in 2014 from The Motley Fool

Sources:  Pebble Technology, Doc Watson, via Wikimedia Commons.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Why Investors Are Welcoming the 58.com Secondary Offering

China’s version of Craigslist, 58.com Inc. (NYSE: WUBA), sold 6 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) Friday morning at a price of $38.00 apiece. The company is selling 2 million shares and selling shareholders are selling the rest. Selling shareholders have also granted the offering’s underwriters a 30-day option on an additional 900,000 shares.

Shares hit a post-IPO high on March 7 and have been slipping ever since. When the company announced the secondary offering on March 24, shares were trading at more than $46.00. The offering price is a 17% discount to the earlier price and a discount of nearly 36% to the post-IPO high.

The company has adopted a dual-class share structure, and there will be about 43 million Class A shares and 124 million Class B shares outstanding after the IPO. Class B shares get 10 votes per share and will represent about 96.6% of the voting power among 58.com’s shareholders. Class B shares are converted to Class A shares before they can be sold. Each ADS represents two Class A ordinary shares.

Company executives and directors owned 128 million Class B shares before this secondary offering. After the offering, 58.com directors and executives will own about 111 million Class B shares, or 86.9% of the voting power in the company. The board waived the lock-up restriction on the sale of the company’s stock so that current director Dong Yang could sell about 250,000 shares in the secondary offering.

The company’s unique position among China’s Internet stocks is likely the reason that share prices have not been sunk by this stock sale. Shares opened Friday at $37.48 but quickly gained upward momentum. They were nearly 4% higher in late morning trading, at $40.75 in a 52-week range of $21.15 to $58.89.

Ford CEO gets 11% raise to $23.2M in 2013

Alan Mulally earned $23.2 million, an 11% raise, as CEO of Ford in 2013 for his work guiding the automaker to one of its most profitable years in history.

The CEO earned a salary of $2 million and another $5.9 million in cash bonus as well as $15.3 million in long-term stock options, performance equity awards and compensation for items such as security and travel, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mulally's salary remained unchanged from the previous year but his bonus grew. On the performance side, higher profits, cash flow and quality, under the Ford incentive formula, generated an additional $2 million for him because the company as a whole exceeded its targets.

Despite a fall in market share, Ford achieved 112% of its goals in 2013 compared with achieving only 75% of its goals in 2012 when quality scores fell.

The board also gave their CEO an incremental bonus of $2 million, which is allowed when the company has a stellar year in terms of performance and meeting overall objectives.

He also owns 6.2 million shares as of March 1.

Last year Mulally oversaw a company that earned almost $7.2 billion last year with record profits in North America, aggressive growth in Asia and restructuring in Europe and South America.

Mulally also remained at the helm after a period of speculation that he might leave to run Microsoft. He has said he will remain with Ford through the end of this year.

Since joining Ford in 2006, Mulally has made an "unbelievably profound impact on Ford," said David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research.

"If you paid him a billion dollars it would still be worth it. He changed the culture and led a transformation," Cole said.

Among other top executives:

■ Bill Ford, executive chairman, reported total compensation of $12 million including a $2 million salary.

■ Mark Fields, chief operating officer, received $10.1 million including a salary of $1.5 mi! llion.

■ Joe Hinrichs, president of The Americas, received $4.4 million including his $854,000 salary.

■ Bob Shanks, chief financial officer, had total compensation of $4 million with a $772,000 salary.

The annual meeting is set for May 8 where shareholders will vote on six proposals.

Contact Alisa Priddle at apriddle@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisaPriddle

Advisers brace for onslaught as Tax Day nears

Advisers: Brace yourselves for what's likely to be an onslaught of taxes for clients as they prepare their 2013 tax returns.

The ill effects of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2013 are no secret to tax professionals, financial advisers and high-net-worth clients. In fact, if you've been doing your homework, you've probably been beating the "prepare for higher taxes" drum for well over a year.

For those of you who haven't been paying attention, here's a breakdown: Single filers with taxable income over $400,000, and married taxpayers who file jointly and have taxable income over $450,000 will face a top marginal income tax rate of 39.6%. Those top-earners will also be subject to a top marginal tax rate of 20% on long-term capital gains, and a 3.8% surtax on net investment income. The latter levy applies to singles earning over $200,000 and married-filing-jointly taxpayers with more than $250,000 in income.

There's also the dynamic duo of PEP and Pease: The phase out of personal exemptions and itemized deductions.

And then there's the matter of those state capital gains rates.

Anecdotally, those with the biggest tax bills tend to procrastinate. But some clients and advisers have been gearing up for the tax season ahead of time, and projections they've seen so far are looking ugly.

"I have a client with some large capital gains that all happened last year," said Lyle Benson, a certified public accountant/personal financial specialist who is president of LK Benson & Co. "Many clients get one big year because they've sold a company or they invest in something that pays off big."

Even clients with income holding steady can expect to see a 10% to 15% increase in their tax bill for 2013 compared with the previous year, he added.

In the aforementioned worst case, Mr. Benson had a client with a $2 million tax bill on massive capital gains, all of them tied to the 3.8% net investment income tax. Fortunately, the CPA and client came up with the $2 million figure after doing a projection in the middle of last year. To mitigate the tax blow, Mr. Benson and the client came up with a strategy wherein they set up a private foundation, moved some of the capital gains to charity and cut down the investor's tax rate.

Timely preparation is everything in such cases.

"The conversation of what can we do about it is very good to have during the year, but it's hard to do it now," said Mr. Benson. "There isn't a lot you can do to impact that after the end of the year."

Even advisers themselves aren't immune to the tax bite for the 2013 tax year, particularly after their own investments fared well last year – the market was up by about 30% in 2013. "I've heard quite a bit from the advisers themselves," noted Gavin Morrissey, senior vice president, wealth management at Commonwealth Financial Network. "They're getting hit pretty hard on their own personal income taxes. Not many people were spared."

The le! sson's going to be a tough one for advisers and clients alike: But if anything, a large tax bill come April 15 might be the only way to convince clients of the value of doing tax planning throughout the year and in anticipation of the filing season. Even if clients end up facing a bill, it's better to head it off with planning in advance to mitigate the blow or to at least prepare investors mentally and financially for the shock.

"The only thing that's worse than owing on April 15 is not expecting to owe on April 15," said J. Christopher Raulston, wealth strategist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. "What's difficult, especially with the 3.8% tax, is when you have a huge tax bill and it's a surprise: So will you have the liquidity to pay for it?"

America's 10 Most Popular Cars

There is more than one way to look at how popular car models are. The most traditional is monthly and annual sales. This list has been dominated by full-sized pickups, such as the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) F-150, and fuel-efficient, inexpensive cars like the Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) Camry. Another measure of vehicle popularity is which vehicles people search for online. Since at least some portion of people who go to cars sites plan to buy, search volume and intent likely lead to real sales sometimes.

One notable thing about actual unit sales and number of online searches for vehicles is that sales and searches do not always match. Some of the most searched vehicles were not among the top 20 selling vehicles in February at all.

Edmunds, the car research site, keeps records of search volume by vehicle. The most recent figures, which cover the top 50 most recent cars, SUVs and light trucks, cover the month of February.

Here is a look at the Edmunds top 10 and its comments on each.

1. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) Accord. “The 2014 Honda Accord earns top honors in the midsize sedan class with its mix of excellent packaging, superb fuel economy and rewarding performance.” The Accord was the eighth best-selling vehicle in the United States in February at 23,712. But its sales dropped 16% from February 2013.

2. Honda CR-V. “Roomy, fuel-efficient and loaded with family-friendly features, the 2014 Honda CR-V is our top choice among compact crossover SUVs.” The 13th best-selling car in February at 20,759, roughly flat from the same month last year.

3. Toyota Highlander. “With more room for people and their things, the 2014 Toyota Highlander remains an excellent choice for a do-all family vehicle.” Not among the top 20 cars based on sales in February.

4. Jeep Grand Cherokee. “If you want a midsize SUV that does a little of everything, the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee is tough to beat. Its well-trimmed cabin is comfy for five, and it can handle a daily commute as easily as it does an off-road trail.” Also not among the top 20 best-selling cars.

5. Mazda CX-5.”In many ways, the 2014 Mazda CX-5 is quite a conventional compact crossover. However, its sharp styling and engaging driving experience set it apart from the pack.” Another not among the top 20 best-selling cars in February.

6. Subaru Forester. “A full redesign brings better fuel efficiency as well as greater interior room and refinement for the 2014 Subaru Forester. It’s a top pick for a small to midsize crossover SUV.” Yet another car not among the 20 best sellers last month.

7. Mazda MAZDA3. “Purposeful styling, fuel-efficient engines and an ideal ride and handling balance keep the 2014 Mazda 3 among the favorites in the compact car class.” One more not among the top 20.

8. Honda Civic. “Honda has made another major round of improvements to the Civic for 2014. As a result, the 2014 Honda Civic is one of the best compact cars you can buy.” The 12th best-selling vehicle in February, with sales of 21,575, down 5% from the same month in 2013.

9. Ford Escape. “The 2014 Ford Escape is one of our favorite small crossover utility vehicles, thanks to athletic driving dynamics, an inviting cabin and useful high-tech features.” The ninth best-selling car last month, with 23,145 in sales, down 4%.

10. Ford F-150. “America’s top-selling pickup is offered in a substantial array of trims and powertrains to accommodate all manner of towing, hauling or off-road needs.” The longtime sales champion among American vehicles, with February units of 55,882, up 3% from the same month a year earlier

To show sales and searches are not completely disconnected: popular cars on the 11th through 20th spots on the Edmunds search list do include vehicles that were in the top 20 in actual sales in February. Among these were the Toyota RAV4, Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

A Waste Management Giant and Its Recipe for Success

The waste management industry is subject to various environmental, health, safety and transportation regulations on the federal and state levels in the U.S., which present an entry barrier for new competitors. However, for companies who already own the required licenses, operating in this industry brings profitable returns. This is the case of US Ecology Inc. (ECOL), which provides waste management and recycling services to manufacturing, industrial and energy-related sectors. The company's five waste sites treat hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste, as well as radioactive and PCB waste. In addition, the company´s Robstown treatment plant in Texas counts with a thermal desorption unit that treats refinery sludge.

In the following sections I will show you that we are dealing with a very profitable growth stock, that has an above average ROE rate of 13.89%, and operates with a net margin of 15.99%.

Holding a Strong Position in the Market

ECOL has two revenue streams. Business contracts to treat customers' periodic disposal needs on the one hand, and event-driven services that apply to special projects or cleanup work on the other.

Furthermore, the company has a wide economic moat largely stemming from three factors: its efficient scale, its high switching costs and its intangible assets. Of the 20 commercial hazardous-waste landfills operational in the U.S., the majority are run by US Ecology and its main competitors Waste Management Inc. (WM), and Clean Harbors Inc. (CLH). With barriers to entry stemming from regulatory permits, and a limited market size, ECOL has managed to achieve an efficient scale in the market with five hazardous waste-sides. The company's intangible assets consist of long-term regulatory permits, which enable US Ecology to posses a "gatekeeper privilege" regarding barriers to new entrants. In addition, customer switching costs are high, thus further adding to the firm's ability to sustain growth in the long term.

Good Investments and New Management Should Ensure Profitable Growth

A range of new treatment services should also help ensure profitable growth for coming years. For example, the Texas facility which operates a new thermal desorption technology for oil refinery sludge since 2008 has been responsible for 10% of revenue and is expected to keep growing.

New management should also ensure expansion and growth opportunities in the near future. The promotion of Jeff Feeler to CEO and Eric Gerratt to CFO, with the guidance of former CEO Steve Romano, has boosted management to achieve higher operating income growth in coming years.

Furthermore, the Stablex acquisition in 2010 demonstrated to be a good investment, and is projected to contribute to ROIC expansion over the long term. This acquisition expanded ECOL's disposal network with a facility in Montreal and therefore expanded the company's geographic reach.

A Profitable Future Ahead

Everything indicates that ECOL is a stock with great growth potential and therefore a great investment opportunity. The company's metrics are significantly above the industry average, and investment gurus such as Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) have been buying up shares as of late.

As shown in the following chart, a positive trend in revenue growth and net income over the past years has boosted the ROC rate up to a fair 36.9% rate.

1395757544663.png

In addition, the firm's operating margin rate of 26.32% should ensure ample room for new investments. Furthermore, coming years should be profitable as shown by a revenue growth rate of 23.20%. Also, a solid EPS growth rate of 35.60%, far above the industry median, reinforces my bullish stance regarding ECOL. Hence I feel shareholders will strongly benefit from holding this stock, while those seeking to invest in the waste management industry cannot go wrong with ECOL.

Disclosure: Damian Illia holds no position in any stocks mentioned.

About the author:Damian IlliaA fundamental analyst at Lonetreeanalytics.com constantly looking for value and income investments.

Visit Damian Illia's Website

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Can Workday Inc (WDAY) Top Oracle Corporation (ORCL) In HCM Space?

Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY) is well-positioned for long-term growth with its multi-application strategy, and its unique and differentiated technology that help expanding addressable markets through new product introduction, and penetrate enterprise customers. However, it may have to counter the big fish in the form of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) and SAP to sustain in the HCM market.

Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for human resources and finance functions. Founded in 2005, Workday delivers human capital management (HCM), financial management, and analytics applications designed for the world's largest organizations.

[Related -Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): How Microsoft Could Make Billions From Potential Office For iPad]

Further penetration of the HCM space along with adoption of Workday's Financial Management Suite should lead to long-term sustainable billings growth of more than 30 percent.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Joel Fishbein said Workday has a best-of-breed ERP solution, which is disrupting the market through its on-demand model, and object-oriented architecture that, over time, could pull the company deeper into the data analytics market.

The ERP market is by far the largest application software market, totaling $24.5 billion in 2012, and much of the growth is coming from SaaS, only 10 percent penetration, and augmenting and replacing on-premises applications.

[Related -On Finding Neglected Companies]

Workday has a best-of-breed ERP solution which is disrupting the market. Few software vendors have garnered as much attention as Workday has over the past several months. That's being driven by the company's rapid success in the human capital management (HCM) space, with subscription revenues growing well above 100 percent over the past several years.

When stacked up against the competition, Workday clearly has one of the best all-around HCM solutions, which delivered through the cloud, offers potential customers an excellent alternative to legacy on-premise solutions. Currently, Workday has more than 550 customers and believes its global customer opportunity is 23,000, implying 2.3 percent market penetration currently.

Fishbein noted that Workday should see continued strong customer additions for the next several years, based on the premise that there is a wave of pending upgrade cycles for many legacy ERP applications over the next few years.

That said, competition remains stringent, and the 'stickiness' of ERP applications should not be discounted. Over both the near and long term, Workday will be able to sustain above-average industry growth by driving further adoption of its core HCM, expanding Financials portfolio, and new analytics solution. Vertical experience in Educations and Government remain large opportunities.

ERP applications are sticky. Workday may have a hard time acquiring new customers. One of the biggest risks to Workday's success is the fact that ERP applications are typically exceeding entrenched, at least more so than customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence, content management, and other less critical business applications.

Fishbein said that the incumbent market share leaders – SAP and Oracle – have a very strong hold on their customers within the ERP market. Even though Workday's SaaS offering provides customers an alternative that may provide a better total cost of ownership (TCO) profile, there are concerns that customers may take longer than usual to make the move to SaaS-based ERP.

There is a preference by IT buyers to use a multivendor strategy to get best-of-breed solutions; a potential roadblock for Workday Financials. The decision to use multi-vendors to fill ERP needs has been helped by standard integration links between disparate providers. As such, existing Workday HCM customers may opt to utilize their existing financials solution, potentially resulting in slower-than-expected adoption of Financials.

Fishbein's checks suggest that, when stacked up against Oracle, Workday has difficulty winning deals with international enterprises. This is in part due to Oracle's concerted efforts to box Workday out from its install base.

Both Oracle and SAP are offering SaaS ERP applications of their own which, though may not be up to the same standards of Workday's offering, should eventually get there.

On the positive side, Workday's platform could play a vital role in analytics. SaaS vendors (Salesforce.com, Workday, others) are in the early stages of creating interesting Big Data solutions that feed third-party data into their own data and delivers business insights from the cloud.

The benefit for customers is they would not need to worry about building out Big Data infrastructure, particularly in the small and medium business (SMB) market. Further this could dampen growth in the traditional database, data warehousing, and business intelligence market as data is shifted from on-premise datacenter silos to cloud providers.

Workday is already in the market with a big data solution that can tap multiple structured and unstructured data sources and combine them with Workday data to gain new business insights.

Fishbein noted that Workday leverages Hadoop to gain access quickly to data and discover information that is relevant to business questions without IT involvement. Workday should generate more than $6.0 billion in revenue, and expand margins close to 20 percent over the next 10 years at a minimum to justify its valuation.

On the valuation front, WDAY shares trade at 16 times its EV/2016 sales multiple. The multiple implies the company will be able to execute on its strategy and deliver well-above-average sales growth over the long term. Shares of the company have gained 67 percent in the last one year and 25 percent year-to-date.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Wall Street stock futures see modest gains

U.S. stock futures were trading just above the flat line on Monday as Asian stock markets moved higher as investors focused on signs of strengthening overseas demand in an otherwise weak China manufacturing survey.

Dow Jones industrial average index futures rose 0.3%, Standard & Poor's 500 index futures added 0.3% and Nasdaq index futures also rose 0.3%.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 1.8% to 14,475. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.9% to 21,846. China's Shanghai Composite index advanced 1% to 2,066.

The preliminary version of HSBC's purchasing managers' index dropped to 48.1 in March from February's 48.5. Readings below 50 on the 100-point scale indicate a contraction in activity. Factory output shrank at the fastest clip in 18 months.

But the survey had a bright spot that for investors may have outweighed the signs of weakness in China's domestic economy. It showed that new orders from overseas export customers rose, spelling a recovery in overseas demand.

European shares traded lower.

On Friday, the S&P 500 slipped 5.49 points, or 0.3%, to 1,866.52. The Dow lost 28.28 points, or 0.2%, to 16,302.70. The Nasdaq composite dropped 42.50 points, or 1%, to 4,276.79.

FRIDAY: Stocks end lower as S&P 500 retreats from record

Benchmark crude oil for May delivery was down 39 cents to $99.07 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 56 cents to settle at $99.46 on Friday.

Contributing: Associated Press

Monday, March 24, 2014

The last five years: Quite a ride, but did you stay in it?

stocks, rally, emotions, behavioral finance, bull market, recession, investing

On March 9, 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 6,547.05, which was, at the time, its lowest close in 12 years. That night, like many nights back in the height of the crisis, people went home wondering: How much lower it could go?

As it turned out, that was the bottom, and if you had bought that day, you probably did very well. Here we are five years later and the Dow is over 16,000, which would have been unthinkable on that March day back in 2009.

That five-year ride has been bumpy both in the U.S. and abroad. Nearly everyone has been touched by the crisis in some way. The unemployment rate in the U.S. reached 10.2% in October 2009 and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Note reached all-time low close of 1.43% in July 2012. Through unprecedented intervention from the

3 Stocks Breaking Out on Big Volume

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Professional traders running mutual funds and hedge funds don't just look at a stock's price moves; they also track big changes in volume activity. Often when above-average volume moves into an equity, it precedes a large spike in volatility.

>>5 Stocks Insiders Love Right Now

Major moves in volume can signal unusual activity, such as insider buying or selling -- or buying or selling by "superinvestors."

Unusual volume can also be a major signal that hedge funds and momentum traders are piling into a stock ahead of a catalyst. These types of traders like to get in well before a large spike, so it's always a smart move to monitor unusual volume. That said, remember to combine trend and price action with unusual volume. Put them all together to help you decipher the next big trend for any stock.

>>Hedge Funds Are Selling These 5 Stocks -- Should You?

With that in mind, let's take a look at several stocks rising on unusual volume recently.

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade (AMTD) provides securities brokerage services and technology-based financial services to retail investors, traders and independent registered investment advisors in the U.S. This stock closed up 1.8% to $34.44 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 5.06 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 2.65 million

Volume % Change: 72%

>>5 Stocks Set to Soar on Bullish Earnings

From a technical perspective, AMTD trended modestly higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $32.50 with above-average volume. This stock has been uptrending for the last month and change, with shares moving higher from its low of $29.78 to its recent high of $34.99. During that uptrend, shares of AMTD have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. This spike higher on Wednesday is quickly pushing shares of AMTD within range of triggering a major breakout trade. That trade will hit if AMTD manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $34.99 to its 52-week high at $35.16 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in AMTD as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $32.50 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 2.65 million shares. If that breakout gets underway soon, then AMTD will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $40 to $45.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers (RBA) sells industrial equipment and other assets for the construction, agricultural, transportation, energy, mining, forestry, material handling, marine and real estate industries through its unreserved auctions and online marketplaces. This stock closed up 1.6% at $23.51 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 1.11 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 516,733

Volume % Change: 125%

>>5 Rocket Stocks Worth Buying This Week

From a technical perspective, RBA trended modestly higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $22.75 with above-average volume. This stock recently formed a double bottom chart pattern at $21.88 to $21.98. Since forming that bottom, shares of RBA have spiked higher back above its 50-day moving average of $22.75 with strong upside volume flows. That spike is quickly pushing shares of RBA within range of triggering a big breakout trade. That trade will hit if RBA manages to take out its 52-week high at $23.89 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in RBA as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $22.75 and then once it sustains a move or close above $23.89 with volume that's near or above 516,733 shares. If that breakout materializes soon, then RBA will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $30 to $33.

Vera Bradley

Vera Bradley (VRA), designs, produces, markets and retails accessories for women. This stock closed up 7.4% to $28.20 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 3.67 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 439,150

Volume % Change: 714%

From a technical perspective, VRA ripped sharply higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $25.33 with monster upside volume. This move briefly pushed shares of VRA into breakout and new 52-week-high territory, after the stock flirted with some near-term overhead resistance at $28.60. Shares of VRA closed just below that level at $28.20 but well off its intraday low of $25.61. Market players should now look for a continuation move higher in the short-term if VRA manages to take out Wednesday's high of $28.77 with strong volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in VRA as long as it's trending above $27 and then once it sustains a move or close above $28.77 with volume that hits near or above 439,150 shares. If we get that move soon, then VRA will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are $35 to $50.

To see more stocks rising on unusual volume, check out the Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.


RELATED LINKS:



>>3 Tech Stocks on Traders' Radars



>>5 Big Health Care Stocks to Trade for Gains



>>5 Hated Earnings Stocks You Should Love

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including

CNBC.com and Forbes.com. You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.


Everything You Need to Know About P/E Ratios

When it comes to stock market measures, none is more popular than the price-earnings ratio, a yardstick used to determine whether individual stocks (or the market as a whole) are cheap, reasonably priced, expensive or ridiculously overvalued. A P/E ratio essentially tells you how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of a company's profits. The P/E ratio is calculated by dividing a company's stock price by its earnings, or in the case of the broad market, typically the value of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index divided by its earnings. A low P/E signals a bargain, and a high P/E is a red flag. Simple, right?

See Also: 7 Cheap Stocks the Bull Market Left Behind

Not so fast. There are many permutations of the P/E ratio. Getting the price is the easy part. But earnings? There are a lot of choices.

Earnings can be estimated, or forward-looking—a guess about what a company or the constituents of an index will earn over the current year or the coming four quarters.

Here it gets complicated. If you're talking about the P/E for the market, you can use top-down earnings forecasts (the best guess of Wall Street strategists, reflecting their view of big-picture economic factors). Or you could rely on bottom-up estimates—an average of the numbers crunched by analysts who follow each of the companies in the index. Analysts are often accused of falling in love with the stocks they follow, and bottom-up estimates tend to be more optimistic—resulting in a lower P/E—than top-down forecasts.

Or you could look at trailing earnings: results that have already been logged, typically for the past four quarters. The advantage of trailing earnings is that they're already on the books; no guesswork is involved. The downside: They may be ancient history for a dynamic company or in a rapidly changing economic situation. If profits are growing, then trailing earnings will be lower than forward-looking earnings, and the trailing P/E will be higher.

Whether looking ahead or behind, investors have other choices to make when it comes to what to plug into the denominator of a P/E ratio. Some people prefer to use earnings that are reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles—so-called GAAP earnings. These are the earnings that are reported in a company's official income statements. Other investors prefer operating earnings because they exclude expenses such as interest or taxes that aren't directly related to a company's widget-making, so you get a better picture of the profitability of the company's core business.

The downside of using figures that aren't based on GAAP, say critics, is that companies can get pretty creative about writing off expenses. "Cynics will tell you that operating earnings are earnings before bad stuff," says Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at Standard & Poor's Capital IQ. GAAP earnings will usually give you a higher P/E value than will operating earnings.

A company's profits can be volatile in any given year, for a host of reasons. You can smooth out the impact of outlier years by looking at earnings over the long term. Normalized earnings are averaged over a given period—typically three to five years but sometimes as long as ten. Normalizing earnings is especially useful for companies that are sensitive to swings in the economy, so you can measure profitability over a full economic cycle.

Probably the best-known method of normalizing earnings is one devised by Robert Shiller, a finance professor at Yale. Shiller, who won the Nobel Prize in economics last year, devised what's known as the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio, or colloquially, the Shiller P/E. The CAPE takes the value of the S&P 500 and divides it by the average of ten years' worth of reported earnings, adjusted for inflation. As the ratio rises above the long-term average of around 16, it signals that future stock returns will be less generous. (To calculate a CAPE ratio for individual stocks, visit www.caperatio.com.)

Recently, the CAPE has come under fire for overstating the risk in the market. Current CAPE values skew high, the argument goes, because the past ten-year-period captures the profit plunge during the Great Recession, the biggest ever.

Whatever components you use to calculate a P/E ratio, remember that P/Es are relative. Stocks in different industries or circumstances will have different P/Es, with mature, slow-growing businesses sporting modest P/Es and high-growth companies commanding much higher multiples. What is a high P/E for an energy company (recent average: 13, based on estimated earnings) could be low for a tech stock (recent average: 15), in the same way the P/E of a fast-growing biotech firm (75 for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, for instance) would dwarf the multiple of an old-line pharmaceutical blue chip (14 for Pfizer). P/Es are only useful when comparing apples to apples, that is, a company to its peer group.

Ultimately, P/Es are a measure of optimism (or pessimism) about a company's prospects or about the market overall. When investors are optimistic, whether because of the health of the economy, the certainty of a company's potential for profits or some other reason, they often are willing to pay more for their share of corporate profits. (Of course, the converse is true as well.) When prices rise faster than earnings are growing, you'll see P/Es increase. This P/E expansion is the reason bull markets can continue even after earnings growth has plateaued, while P/E contraction can knock prices down even when earnings continue to roll in.

Be careful when drawing conclusions by comparing current P/Es to historical values. Early earnings data may not be adjusted for inflation or accounting changes over the years. When Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, started in the investment business in the 1980s, P/Es had longstanding valuation ranges that had been consistent for 100 years or more, providing a useful gauge of stock market value. "At the lower end of that range, you had a lot of confidence that stocks were cheap," says Paulsen, and at the higher end, the opposite.

But that all changed after the 1987 stock market crash, he says. "When the market came back in the '90s, it blew through the upper end of that range, never to return" to the older, lower range, he says. Since 1990, Paulson says, the average value of trailing P/Es has increased by almost 50%, from about 14 between 1870 and 1990 to about 20. "You can have a few years when P/E values are way out of bounds," he says. "But can you have a quarter-century of that and say it's somehow an outlier? Or do you have to wonder if something different is going on?" The debate isn't merely philosophical. It makes all the difference in determining whether stocks are dangerously overpriced or worth buying.



Pro Trader Notes: Inside the Mind of a Profit Guru

Markets are being driven by the U.S. dollar and yen as well as "buy the dippers," aka small investors who continue to buy into the market. Today, Putin said he had no intention of invading the rest of Ukraine. Like he would really tell everyone if he planned to do it ahead of time. The bottom line is the markets continue to push higher into the FOMC Policy Statement tomorrow. The market has priced in another $10 billion taper. The comments from the Fed (dovish or hawkish) will be the key to the market move. Whether or not the big drop from last Thursday can be negated with this rally is at the heart of whether or not the stock market is headed higher or lower in the short term. Watch for a closing S&P 500 price above 1,874.40. If it closes above, the markets will likely test the all-time highs on the S&P 500 and very possibly move higher. If the markets cannot close above the highs by tomorrow, look for a flush and Thursday's lows to be wiped out quickly. Copper is an important long-term indicator, but short-term means nothing. The recent collapse after extremely poor Chinese economic news confirms the lack of demand for the building materials metal. Down the line this spells huge trouble for the global economy and should be taken as a warning signal. There is a limited amount of time prior to the copper signal coming into play. Facebook (FB) continues to look weak. The hype is fast fading and the charts show significant downside in the coming months. Look for a test of the $59.00 and then $53.50 level. Gareth Soloway

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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Under Armour shares jump on stock split

Under Armour continues to be a stock market over-achiever.

Its stock jumped 2.3% on Monday in early morning trading, up more than $2.80 to $120.15, after the trendy athletic gear maker announced that its board had approved a 2-for-1 stock split. This mark's the Baltimore-based company's second stock split since going public in November 2005. Its last stock split was in July 2012.

CEO Kevin Plank said in a statement that Baltimore-based company believes the stock split may broaden its investor base and improve the stock's trading liquidity.

The move comes at a time of a still-expanding stock market, even as other high-profile stock splits have recently been announced. Last week, tech mega-giant Google announced plans for its first-ever stock split during the company's fourth quarter earnings call.

Under Armour has been on a tear since the winter Olympics, when the company's high-tech outfits were initially the unwarranted scapegoat for the poor performance of the U.S. speedskating team in Sochi. Company executives, however, never wavered and not only stood by their techy suits, but doubled down, and committed to sponsoring the team through 2022.

Last week, Under Armour announced that it had launched in Brazil. The brand will be available in over 70 of the country's premium points of sale and e-commerce hubs, such as Centauro, Netshoes and Paquetá.

Under Armour Inc. said Monday that the additional shares issued due to the stock split will be distributed on April 14 to shareholders of record on March 28.

Contributing: Associated Press

China's Twitter "Weibo" Files For $500 Million IPO

The Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo, filed a preliminary prospectus on Friday for an initial public offering in the U.S. to raise $500 million.

Weibo was developed by Nasdaq-listed Sina Corp., which now owns the 77.6% of Weibo. A subsidiary of Alibaba Group owns another 19.3% through a $586 million investment made last April.

The IPO may be a step toward Weibo's long-predicted spin-off from Sina. The filing says the transaction agreement "contains provisions relating to the company's carve-out from Sina," and that $250 million of the net proceeds will be used to repay loans to Sina.

Launched in 2009, Weibo boasted 129 million monthly active users as of December, according to its IPO filing. It allows users to post a feed of up to 140 Chinese characters with multimedia attachments, and in December alone some 2.8 billion of those feeds were posted. "Weibo allows people to be heard publicly and exposed to the rich ideas, cultures and experiences of the broader world.

"Media outlets use Weibo as a source of news and a distribution channel for their headlines. Government agencies and officials use Weibo as an official communication channel for disseminating timely information and gauging public opinion to improve public services," says the prospectus.

Yet despite the strong user base and annual revenue of $188 million, Weibo became profitable only in the last quarter of 2013. It generates revenue mainly from "customers who purchase advertising and marketing services, and, to a lesser extent, from platform partners who develop games for our users," says the F-1 filing.

Intensified censorship in China in the past year has prompted concerns for Weibo's continued growth, much of which has relied on pointed social and political commentaries from influential verified users. Its competitor Tencent, which has developed the popular messaging and newsfeed app WeChat, is also increasingly challenging Weibo's dominance in the social media space.

 

Why Goldman Sachs Likes Rite Aid Even More Now

Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) is a turnaround which keeps on turning. That is the theory from Goldman Sachs at least. The brokerage firm upgraded shares of the retail drug store to Buy from Neutral. Perhaps more important is that the price target was raised to $8 from $5 in the call.

What stands out the most is that the prior highest analyst target price was $7 before the upgrade. That makes Goldman Sachs’ Robert Jones the highest price target of all analysts when it comes to Rite Aid.

As a reminder, Rite Aid posted a same-store sales gain of 1.5% in February. That is impressive when you consider how many retail stores were hamstrung by weather. Front-end store sales were down, which are traditional retail consumer products items, but drug sales were the boost even when you count the generic impact.

To show just how much this is in turnaround mode, Rite Aid trades at only about 0.25-times revenue. Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) trades at more than 0.8-times revenue. That does not imply that Rite Aid would be expected to double or triple and still be cheap compared to Walgreen. But that is how turnaround stocks can have so much implied upside.

Goldman Sachs likes the store remodeling that has been seen so far, and the upgrade continued to discuss deleveraging. The NOLs (net operating losses) have to be factored in as well.

Rite Aid shares were up 7% at $6.90 in late Wednesday trading right before the closing bell, and the stock hit a new 52-week and multi-year high of $6.95. Rite Aid is still worth only $6.65 billion in market cap, and the 33 million shares traded is over 1.3-times a normal trading day’s volume.