Open: New York Session | Forex, Metals, Oil, Agriculture December 25, 2020

download

Agriculture

The company has Jif peanut butter, Folgers coffee, Cafe Bustelo espresso, Smucker’s jelly and jams – and that isn’t even talking about its other products or pet food.

Currencies

China’s currency has also gained more than 6% against the dollar in 2020, boosting the dollar value of yuan-denominated shares. For now, its huge onshore markets still punch below their weight relative to their dollar values. He is also Chairman of SchiffGold, his precious metals dealer, Euro Pacific Asset Management, and Euro Pacific Bank, his brokerage firm for international clients. He is also … more Peter Schiff is the CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital, an SEC-Registered Investment Adviser and a full service broker/dealer.
less (Length 00:50:10) Peter Schiff is the CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital, an SEC-Registered Investment Adviser and a full service broker/dealer. A financial professional for more than twenty years, he joined Euro Pacific in 1996 and served as its President until December 2010, when he became CEO.

Metals

(Source: Company Presentation) Pan American Silver released its Q3 results in early November and reported quarterly gold production of 4.09~ million ounces of silver and 116,900~ ounces of gold. The massive decrease in silver production was unfortunately due to several of Pan American’s mines being impacted by COVID-19 and its heavy reliance on silver production from South America. Silver production at the two mines came in at a combined 416,000 ounces, down 1.56 million ounces in the year-ago period.
It also didn’t help that the company just came off another rough report in Q3, with silver production down materially due to COVID-19 related headwinds. This translated to a sharp decline for both metals in the quarter, with silver production hit the hardest, down 38% year-over-year (Q3 2019: 6.67 million ounces). Fortunately, the near-record gold price and strength in the silver helped the company deliver a solid quarter operationally with free-cash-flow more than doubling year-over-year.
Meanwhile, the company also raised its dividend, with the stock paying nearly 1% annually, one of the highest dividends among silver producers. However, given record gold prices and the new multi-year high for silver, operating cash flow surged in Q3, up 40% year-over-year. (Source: TC2000.com) Pan American Silver is the premier name in the silver space, and it’s quite rare that investors get a 25%-off sale for the stock. Fortunately, an ebullient market for gold and silver helped to soften the blow.

Oil

Chevron’s top and bottom lines have been impacted by low oil prices caused by depressed demand. At the same time, most likely, the oil & gas end-market was the weakest. Looking at energy/oil companies, as their stocks still haven’t rebounded?

United States

The Dow 30 and S&P 500 did not perform as well as in 2019, but the Nasdaq 100 had a solid year driven by mega-cap tech stocks. Globally, low interest rates and a financial system flush with funds have also fed investors’ enthusiasm for high-growth businesses that can flourish even in a pandemic. Spending was certainly aided by the quantitative easing program rolled out by the Fed and the fiscal stimulus packages as well. In addition, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is one of a few stocks vying for potential inclusion in the next reconstitution.
Intangibles as a percentage of market capitalization in the US markets increased between 2009 and 2020, reflecting the emergence of the FAANG tech giants. A robust IPO market also helped the Nasdaq this year. However, the recent December rebalance has seen the return of Big Tech with the inclusion of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and the increased weighting of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Upon a cursory inspection, the quarter was utterly lackluster, as both the top and bottom lines fell short of what Wall Street had expected.
Not only is the company the largest operator of SNFs in the US, but its scale and operational excellence has allowed it to gain an investment grade credit rating. Does the firm that has already four times failed to live up to expectations of Wall Street on quarterly EPS and revenue deserve such a generous multiple?

Europe

A conclusion was also reached this week for Brexit, with the announcement of a trade agreement between the UK and EU.

0