Monday, July 8, 2013

The Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS)

The Gap, Inc. operates as an apparel retail company. It offers apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, children, and babies under the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, Athleta, and Intermix brands. The company operates through two segments, Stores and Direct. Its products include maternity apparel; loungewear, sleepwear, intimates, and active apparel for women; and handbags, shoes, jewelry, personal care products, and eyewear for men and women; women's apparel, footwear, and accessories for sports and fitness activities, including crossover apparel and casualwear; and luxury and contemporary apparel and accessories. The company also has franchise agreements with unaffiliated franchisees to operate stores in Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa under the Gap and Banana Republic brands. In addition, it sells products that are designed and manufactured by branded third parties under the Piperlime and Intermix brands, as well as collections in partnership with designers and other third-party merchandise under the Gap brand.
To review Gap's stock, please take a look at the 1-year chart of GPS (The Gap, Inc) below with my added notations:
1-year chart of GPS (The Gap, Inc) GPS has been on a nice rally since December, but has since paused in a sideways trading range. For the last (2) months the stock has formed a $42.50 resistance (navy) and a $40 support (blue). At some point the stock will have to either break its support or break up through its resistance. A break above $42.50 would also be a new 52-week high.
The Tale of the Tape: GPS has created two levels to watch: $40 and $42.50. The possible long positions on the stock would be either on a pullback to $40, or on a breakout above $42.50. The ideal short opportunity would be on a break below $40.
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11 Signs That Italy Is Descending Into A Full-Blown Economic Depression

When you get into too much debt, really bad things start to happen.  Sadly, that is exactly what is happening to Italy right now.  Harsh austerity measures are causing the Italian economy to slow down even more than it was previously.  And yet even with all of the austerity measures, the Italian government just continues to rack up even more debt.  This is the exact same path that we watched Greece go down.  Austerity causes government revenues to drop which causes deficit reduction targets to be missed which causes even more austerity measures to become necessary.  But if Italy collapses economically, it is going to be a far bigger deal than what happened in Greece.  Italy is the ninth largest economy on the entire planet.  Actually, Italy used to be number eight, but now Russia has passed it.  If Italy continues to stumble, India and Canada will soon pass it as well.  It really is a tragedy to watch what is happening in Italy, because it really is a wonderful place.  When I was a child, my father was in the navy, and I got the opportunity to live there for a while.  It is a land of great weather, great food and great soccer.  The people are friendly and the culture is absolutely fascinating.  But now the nation is falling apart.  The following are 11 signs that Italy is descending into a full-blown economic depression…

#1 The unemployment rate in Italy has risen to 12.2 percent.  That is the highest that it has been in more than 35 years.  (more)

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This Week in Money with Guests: Gerald Celente, Eric Coffin – July 6, 2013



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5 Stocks to Profit From the Housing Recovery: HD, LOW, BBBY, RH, SHW

Housing has rebounded in a big way.

Sales of new, single-family homes surged from April to May at the highest rate since July 2008 and by 29% over the previous year, while existing home sales reached the highest level since November 2009.

And home prices posted their biggest annual increase in more than seven years in May and are expected to continue rising, CoreLogic said Tuesday.

How can you profit from the housing market recovery?

By buying the homebuilders’ stocks? Sure, but after impressive gains, homebuilder stocks may have peaked for the short term. (more)

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Investment 101: Shorting Stock



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US Weekly Economic Calendar

time (et) report period Actual CONSENSUS
forecast
previous
MONDAY, JULY 8
3 pm Consumer credit May   -- $11 bln
TUESDAY, JULY 9
7;30 am NFIB small business index June   -- 94.4
10 am Job openings May   -- 3.8 mln
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10
10 am Wholesale inventories May   -- 0.2%
2 pm FOMC minutes  
-- --
THURSDAY, JULY 11
8:30 am Weekly jobless claims 7-6
348,000  343,000
8:30 am Import price index June   0.1% -0.6%
2 pm Federal budget June   -- -$60 bln
FRIDAY, JULY 12
8:30 am Producer price index June   0.5% 0.5%
8:30 am Core PPI June   0.1% 0.1%
9:55 am Consumer sentiment July   84.8 84.1
 
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