What a great way to usher in the new Congress: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 100 points Wednesday. Most of the action was in the oil patch as heavy selling in (formerly) hot names on NASDAQ continued. The press conferences were compelling. President Obama threw a (self) pity party and crowned himself de facto winner of people that didn’t vote. Mitch McConnell was a little more presidential hinting at working across the aisle… with Ted Cruz.
Now it’s time for Congress to get down to business. In the meantime, is it too late for America to become the economic envy of the world again?
Earlier in the week, another research firm that ranked economies around the world saw America land in an unflattering spot. The Legutum Prosperity Index ranked America number ten using eight categories of which four were dubious things like social responsibly.
Still, four categories were legitimate: economy, entrepreneurship, governance and education.
| Countries | Economy | Entrepreneurship | Governance | Education |
| Norway | 3 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 3 | 1 | 21 |
| New Zealand | 15 | 18 | 2 | 7 |
| Denmark | 18 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Canada | 5 | 17 | 8 | 2 |
| Sweden | 4 | 1 | 4 | 16 |
| Australia | 12 | 13 | 9 | 1 |
| Finland | 26 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Netherlands | 25 | 10 | 11 | 4 |
| United States | 17 | 11 | 12 | 11 |
I think America is, by far, still the most dynamic and exciting place in the world to live and to start a business, but it’s nothing like it used to be, and there-in lays the challenge. As I pointed out yesterday, Americans voted for pro-business and pro-capitalism on Tuesday and are buying into the notion that their neighbors should make more money via higher minimum wages.
Americans have to believe the same tide lifts all ships and the “fair” argument is a smokescreen for bog Government and less prosperity.
In GOP Court
“Now We Can Get Congress Going” is the title of the op-ed co-authored by John Boehner and Mitch McConnell in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The key focus of the article was on bills in the pipeline including:
- Keystone
- The Hire More Heroes Act
- Restoring the traditional 40 hour workweek
- Further tweaks to the Affordable Care Act
- Support for charter schools
- Protecting and expanding the energy boom
There were also all the other typical talking points from reforming the tax code and taking on the national debt that I’m sure most readers greeted with a yawn. America is pumped, but cautious and skeptical.
In ECB Court
US equity futures were listless until Mario Draghi hinted at opening the floodgates and reflating the European Central Bank (ECB) balance sheet. When he said:
“We last month started purchasing covered bonds under our new program. We will also soon start to purchase asset-backed securities. The program will last for at least two years.”
I am not big on the notion that the only thing that moves stocks are central bankers printing money, however, it helps a lot, even if at the end of the day it’s all about earnings, market share, margins and execution.
I’m not chasing this move out the gate. There were lots of earnings, and most were “good” (DATA was great!), but the market still seems on edge which ahead of jobs day is natural. Below is a chart of some of the companies that reported earnings last night and this morning:
| Company | Ticker | EPS (Actual) | EPS (Est) | Rev (Actual $M) | Rev (Est $M) |
| CenturyLink | CTL | 0.63 | 0.62 | $4,514.00 | $4,504.02 |
| Continental Resources* | CLR | 0.81 | 0.81 | $1,160.00 | $1,163.30 |
| DryShips* | DRYS | 0.07 | 0.05 | $601.95 | $513.07 |
| Middleby* | MIDD | 1.05 | 0.86 | $404.29 | $411.42 |
| Prudential | PRU | 2.20 | 2.41 | $11,766.00 | $11,395.36 |
| Qualcomm* | QCOM | 1.26 | 1.32 | $6,692.00 | $7,037.39 |
| Silver Spring Networks | SSNI | -0.14 | -0.19 | $70.90 | $66.99 |
| SolarCity | SCTY | 0.19 | -1.07 | $58.30 | $60.37 |
| Symantec | SYMC | 0.48 | 0.43 | $1,617.00 | $1,624.70 |
| Tableau Software* | DATA | 0.06 | -0.06 | $104.50 | $94.34 |
| Tesla Motors | TSLA | 0.02 | 0.00 | $932.30 | $893.81 |
| WebMD Health* | WBMD | 0.23 | 0.24 | $143.49 | $143.30 |
| Whole Foods | WFM | 0.35 | 0.32 | $3,256.00 | $3,257.97 |
| Zillow* | Z | 0.15 | 0.08 | $88.60 | $88.04 |
| Advanced Auto Parts* | AAP | 1.89 | 1.88 | $2,290.00 | $2,285.63 |
| AOL | AOL | 0.52 | 0.52 | $626.80 | $622.59 |
| AstraZeneca | AZN | 1.05 | 1.04 | $6,542.00 | $6,439.83 |
| DirecTV | DTV | 1.33 | 1.31 | $8,374.00 | $8,301.32 |
| Generac | GNRC | 0.83 | 1.00 | $352.30 | $408.23 |
| Melco Crown Enter.* | MPEL | 0.24 | 0.29 | $1,120.00 | $1,134.40 |
| Molson Coors* | TAP | 1.46 | 1.48 | $1,168.00 | $1,168.49 |
| Orbitz | OWW | 0.08 | 0.14 | $253.10 | $253.02 |
| Parker Drilling* | PKD | 0.10 | 0.11 | $242.00 | $251.65 |
| Wendy's | WEN | 0.08 | 0.09 | $512.48 | $514.59 |
* = Open WSS Idea
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