(New York)

Investors turned heavily towards income-producing stocks prior to Trump’s presidency. With yields so low, they offered income which was very hard to find elsewhere. More recently, though, high yielding stocks have been losing out as rates move higher. This has caused an exodus from some areas, such as telecoms, which have lost 16% over the last 18 months. However, one important thing to bear in mind as one watches yields fall on stocks is that this is often caused by rising prices. For instance, yields have fallen in six S&P 500 sectors over the last 18 months, but the market has returned 25% in that time frame—a nice pay off for losing some yield.

FINSUM: The key point of this very basic article is to remember that falling yields in equity can mean that the sector is doing very well.

(New York)

There has been a lot of media attention over the last year about the rise of faith-based and politics-based investing. New ETFs and advisors are currently cropping up to cater to investors who would like to invest based on these principles. However, Barry Ritholtz thinks the concepts may not be a good mix. The author looks at the returns of a popular biblical-based fund and finds that its performance lags broader indices significantly. Ritholtz argues that investors need to check their emotions at the door when investing, which is why this kind of philosophical investing may not create good returns. Ritzholtz says “Do your civic duty on Election Day and vote, go to church on Sundays, but always bring a cool unemotional detachment to investing on Mondays”.

FINSUM: The fees on these types of funds also tend to be much higher, which means that you are losing on both ends. That said, the peace of mind people get from investing in things they feel morally comfortable with may be greater than the expense.

(New York)

Only those watching the bond market closely would have noticed it, but a huge Treasury meltdown may have started yesterday. One month US Treasury bills saw yields jump an eye-popping 10 basis points in an instant. The incident followed one of the worst Treasury Bill auctions in a decade, where there was little demand from investors. The two possible answers for the terrible auction are the unusual date (it was moved because of the Fourth of July), or that China has indeed slowed or cut off its purchases of US debt.

FINSUM: The US better hope this bad auction was just a fluke of the calendar. That view is supported by the fact that longer-term Treasury auctions at the same time were much closer to normal.

(Washington)

The bad news just keeps on coming for the tech industry. Already this morning there is a lot of negative press about Google allowing third party developers to actually read users’ Gmail accounts, and now comes the news that the SEC has opened an investigation into Facebook for its data breaches. The SEC is looking at Facebook’s disclosures of the breach, and in particular, Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony. Facebook says it is fully complying with all the current investigations it is facing.

FINSUM: This development might be particularly troublesome for the stock because investors are most familiar with the SEC. Hard to see what might develop here.

(Washington)

We have not covered the Trump probe saga in a while, and with good reason—there has been little news. However, that may be about to change. ABC News has run an interview which seems to suggest that Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, may be about to turn on the president as he prioritizes his own family. “I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone’s defence strategy … My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will ... I put family and country first”. He says he is not the villain in this story and does not want to be depicted that way.

FINSUM: Maybe he is about to turn on Trump, but no one knows what cards he may or may not be holding.