The US service sector firms grew at the weakest pace since June, evidence that consumers and businesses are more cautious heading into year end.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its service index fell to 53.9% in November, a decrease from its 55.4% October reading. This marks the 47th consecutive month of growth. A reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its service index rose to 55.4 percent in October, 1 percentage point higher than the 54.4 percent registered in September. This marks the 46th consecutive month of growth. A reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding. The Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index increased to 59.7 percent, which is 4.6 percentage points higher than the 55.1 percent reported in September, reflecting growth for the 51st consecutive month. The only negative in the report saw the New Orders Index decline 2.8 percentage points to 56.8 percent.
Welcome to our Asset Protection 101 series. With exception to diversification, the industry doesn't like to talk about asset protection because it goes against conventional thinking and the way that most advisors operate. However, one size doesn't fit all clients so we will take on these topics in this series.
Buy and hold refers to an investment strategy in which investors hold on to their stocks for a long period of time regardless of fluctuations in the market. One of the main benefits of a buy and hold strategy is the easiness of the process. It is no surprise that Wall Street pushed this message as they no longer had to make the tough decision to actually protect client assets before a bear market. Lucky for them, the market had a huge secular bull market from the mid-1970's to 2000 as interest rates declined from the mid-teens to single digits and the stock market had an epic run in the 90's culminating in the Internet bubble.
Starbucks is making waves as it opened its first Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bar on Madison Ave in New York City last week. Should investors take notice? A most resounding yes! Starbucks has transformed the way Americans drink coffee and you have to listen closely when CEO Howard Shultz states, “We'll do for tea what we've done for coffee.”
On Wednesday, Core Laboratories reported record 3rd quarter results as new technology helped set all-time quarterly highs for EPS, net income and revenue. Its business continues to kerchunk, kerchunk, kerchunk. What makes Core Lab a great service company? It targets the more stable, less volatile production and production enhancement component of the oil companies’ budget. This makes results less cyclical and much more predicable than most energy investments. The proof is in the pudding. Over the last 10 years, sales growth has averaged 10% per annum while earnings have grown by over 35% per annum.
On the heels of my recent post “What Are Kerchunker Companies? 5 Reasons Why You Should Like Them,” please watch this recent CNBC interview of Mike Smerklo, Chairman and CEO of ServiceSource. Many high tech companies are realizing what IBM did 20 years ago. The information technology industry can rapidly become commoditized so IBM determined that the company needed to shift its portfolio to a more balanced mix of high-value offerings. That meant a transition away from products (hardware) and growing its services and software businesses. Today, the cloud is enabling companies to offer Software as a Service (SaaS) which often boasts better customer retention and more recurring revenue.