Monthly Archives: June 2015

Nearly 70% of global oil demand growth between 2010 and 2040 is projected to come from emerging economies, of which the two largest are China and India. Demand growth from these two countries alone is greater than combined demand growth from the rest of the world.

Now India has passed Japan to become the world’s third largest oil importer behind the United States and China. Not only that, India’s oil use rose by 300,000 barrels a day in April, putting the South Asian country in position to surpass China’s estimated demand growth in 2015 of 295,000 barrels a day.

More of India’s oil is coming from the Middle East as well. Iran shipped 160,000 barrels a day to India in the first four months of this year, and Iraq shipped an average of 555,000 barrels a day in the same period. Saudi Arabian exports to India totaled about 795,000 barrels…

The secret has been out for a while that Janey Yellen and the Federal Reserve are going to begin hiking interest rates. There remains a debate over how soon this will start, and how much rates will actually rise. Investors have to consider how this will impact corporate profits, the stock market, and their overall portfolios.

If Fitch is correct, investors should expect that a rate hike, or hikes, will cause at least modest corporate discomfort. Fitch issued a report showing that higher rates should increase the cost of borrowing – bringing lower profits and causing slower growth. 24/7 Wall St. has a base case calling for the markets being easily able to absorb what is likely heading this way.

Still, there is some good news here. While higher rates might cause some discomfort, Fitch specified that it continues to believe a gradual rise would have limited impact for corporate…

There is absolutely no need to go to an amusement park this summer if you are a stock investor. Just stick around and stay for a ride on the stock market roller coaster. In another volatile week that saw big up and down days, one thing is clear: executives and 10% owners of corporations took advantage of the sell-offs to add to or initiate positions in the companies they own or work for.

We cover insider buying every week at 24/7 Wall St. and with the markets ultimately clinging to levels near all-time highs, insider buying strengthened with this week’s surge. We continue to monitor sectors like energy, looking for trends and buyers taking advantage of price irregularities.

Here are companies that reported notable insider buying this past week.

Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV) had a 10% owner of the company add to its position in a big way this…

Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contibutor

It has happened again.  Several big banks have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar and are paying billions in fines for their admitted transgressions.

“On Wednesday, four large global banks — Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland — pleaded guilty to a series of federal crimes over a scheme to manipulate the value of the world’s currencies. The Justice Department accused the banks of collusion in one of the largest and yet least regulated markets, noting that at one bank one trader remarked “the less competition the better.”

That lack of oversight, coupled with the pressure to squeeze profits from a relatively middling business, set the stage for this scandal, one that unfolded nearly every day for five years. The crimes described on Wednesday also painted the portrait of something more systemic: a Wall…