FIT

Terrorist Activity Tramples Travel Stocks; FBI Says Can Hack iPhone

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In what have unfortunately become seemingly more frequent occurrences, terrorist activity across the globe appears to be proliferating. The latest, three explosions in the Belgium capital of Brussels, have taken the lives of at least 34 individuals, while wounding as many as 170 more, according to CNN and the Belgian media. Twenty were killed at the Maalbeek metro station while 14 more were killed at Brussels’ international airport, and while at the time of this writing, there has been “no official claim of responsibility,” ISIS appears to be most likely responsible for the terror, tweeting that “What will be coming is worse,” CNN reporting. The events March 22 come only a few short months after the terrorist attacks that rocked … Read more

Recent Add Cracker Barrel Surges Ahead; BHP Cuts

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February 23 was met with intense selling as investors digested news that the crude oil (USO) markets won’t become rational anytime soon. As we had outlined in our opening piece to the Best Ideas Newsletter a few days ago, “,” Saudi Arabia is not going to back down, and the Oil Minister of the member nation of OPEC even went so far as to say he “welcomes new additional supplies,” suggesting that the global glut of crude oil will continue for the foreseeable future. Commodity-oriented equities led the selling pressure. For those that have been reading our work for the past several months, none of this is new “news.” We’ve been warning about the risk for some time, and we … Read more

Creed, Apple, and the Fitbit

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By Brian Nelson, CFA Hanging out in malls on Thanksgiving isn’t really our thing at Valuentum, but what we’re hearing thus far is that “Thanksgiving shopping was a bust.” It even felt as though tourism was down a bit as traditional near-impassable auto traffic was surprisingly absent in at least one key family destination, the gateway to the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and maybe keeping travelers from commuting through the city of Chicago was the potential for riots following the release of the dash cam video allegedly showing a police officer shooting a youth 16 times in November of last year. My trip from northern Illinois to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and back was rather uneventful, not that I am complaining about … Read more

Earnings Roundup: Pinterest and Peloton

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Image Source: Peloton Interactive Inc – Second Quarter of Fiscal 2021 Shareholder Letter By Callum Turcan The outlook for the world economy, keeping near-term headwinds in mind, remains bright as global health authorities are actively working towards putting an end to the coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic largely through ongoing vaccine distribution efforts. As vaccine production scales up, widespread distribution efforts will become a much easier task. We’re continuing with our earnings commentary in this note by covering a social media contender and an upstart exercise company. Pinterest (PINS) On February 4, social media contender Pinterest Inc (PINS) reported fourth quarter earnings for 2020 that beat both consensus top- and bottom-line estimates. Most of Pinterest’s revenues come from its digital advertising business, … Read more

What the Pokémon Sensation Means

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Image Source: Eduardo Woo By Jessica Bishop You might not think putting fuzzy little creatures on a map can drive a company’s market capitalization up more than $7+ billion in one single day (its highest one-day surge since 1983), but Pokémon Go did just that. Starting out as collectible trading cards in the late 1990’s and evolving into a video game franchise, Pokémon is back in the spotlight, bringing excitement to investors. Nintendo’s (NTDOY) equity has jumped 50%+ in all since the company unveiled its new game. Let’s talk about why you should care. What Is Pokémon Go? Pokémon Go is a new game (app) for the smartphone that’s been gaining momentum in the US since the morning of its … Read more

Changing Millennial Preferences and the Death of the Blue Box?

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A video that has been making the rounds challenging the markups at some of the high-end luxury dealers.