GE

General Electric Company

Dow Jones

Dow Jones Industrial Average Continues to Fall as China Shows Signs of Economic Weakness

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped sharply Monday after the People's Bank of China (PBOC) took drastic action to reduce the amount of cash its financial institutions need to hold as reserves.

Such action is designed to spur lending as the country continues to battle the United States over trade.

This is the fourth time that China has slashed what is known as the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) in 2018.

China's Shanghai Composite was off 3.7%.

Trading Strategies

What I Need to See from General Electric's New CEO

On my desk in my office here at Money Map Press is a yellowed newspaper clipping from mid-November 1997 – a Page 1A story featuring my byline.

I've kept this clipping for all these years because it was the last big "scoop" that I got for Gannett Newspapers in Rochester – right before I left for a job here in Baltimore.

I'd been covering the corporate flailing of the once-great Eastman Kodak for nearly five years – a journalistic vision quest that took me from Upstate New York to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Japan, and even China.

The story that I broke that November was about a soon-to-be-announced corporate "restructuring" – a $1 billion, 10,000-layoff cost-cutting plan that Kodak was planning to share with Wall Streeters at a New York "event" the following Tuesday.

I didn't realize it at the time, but what I'd really written… was Kodak's epitaph.

The company's prospects had seemed much better four years earlier, after a huge shake-up at the top.

I still remember that brighter moment, when I was seated in the executive offices on the top floor of Kodak Tower in Rochester, N.Y.

Across the conference table from me was George M.C. Fisher, Kodak's just-appointed CEO and a vaunted "fix it" guy who was the first-ever outsider to lead the company.

I was there to interview Fisher. The topic on the table: the film giant's possible turnaround.

I was sitting in the room with a very shrewd executive, brought in from "outside" to right the ship...

stocks

General Electric's New CEO Is a Canary in a Coal Mine for GE Stock

On Monday (Oct. 1), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) announced that company CEO John Flannery would be stepping down, ending his brief, yearlong tenure at the helm of one of America's most recognizable brands.

Excitement over Flannery's replacement, former Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR) CEO Larry Culp, pushed GE's ailing stock up as much as 15%, indicating that investors have confidence in Culp's ability to stem the company's historic decline...

Trading Strategies

What This Scottish Goliath Told Me About Calling Market Tops (and Throwing Telephone Poles)

I've just returned from an amazing trip to Scotland with my lovely, talented wife and two great friends. We stayed in a lovely little Strathspey village called Aberlour – population just 970.

The best part: The regional Highland Games were held there during our brief stay. I sent pictures to my Stealth Profits Trader readers – along with an update on some 62 and 93% gainers and other positions that are heading higher right now.

You might know these games date back more than 1,000 years, so they're packed with traditions, including bagpipe and drum corps competitions (majestic) and multiple dancing events (graceful). There are footraces and long jumps where men and women run and jump to the screaming encouragement of the local spectators.

But the great crowd-pleasing allure of the games lies in the strength events, competitions where mountain-sized men in kilts battle it out to see who can throw extremely large objects with the highest accuracy: Heavy stones, massive hammers, and telephone pole-sized logs all fly through the air.

Well, the strength events saw a "ringer" this year. He was a man from outside the region, who easily won the shot put, hammer throw, and heavy weight throws – for both distance and height.

This mammoth of a man was at least 75 pounds heavier than (and twice as thick as) any of the other competitors.

Because of this, it was easy and logical to assume that he would also win the most famous of Highland Game events – the caber toss.

If you've never seen one, "the caber" is a 19-foot, 6-inch tall log that weighs 175 pounds.

Contestants balance the caber vertically in their clasped hands with the narrower end down and then run forward. They finish by tossing the log end over end, hoping to get the smaller end to flip over the thicker end and – this is key – land in a 12 o'clock position in front of them.

The ringer, this he-man of a human being, was first up.

He easily balanced the caber, but as he started running, he lumbered and laboriously made his toss.

Oh, he "turned the caber" alright – he got the smaller end in his hand to rotate over the top of the larger end in the air – but the caber landed at about 10 o'clock.

He might not have realized it, but that cost him the points he needed to win the event. Here's what happened next.

A younger and leaner contestant took his mark. He had more trouble holding the monstrous log. But as he started his run, he was so much lighter on his feet – graceful, even.

After his smooth run, the smaller contestant had more control over his caber, and he made his toss with a nearly perfect 12 o'clock landing.

And so it was that the logical choice, the one that looked best on paper, didn't end up being the one that performed best in reality.

And so it often is when you're trying to get a read on whether the entire stock market is about to choke and fade - or break through to new highs...

Dow Jones

Dow Jones Today Drops Over 120 Points as President Trump Threatens to Impose New Tariffs

The Dow Jones today fell 122 points in premarket trading after President Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on all $505 billion in goods sent from China.

The statement comes a day after Trump's negative comments about the Federal Reserve.

Trump broke precedent by criticizing the central bank over its recent rate hikes.

He said in an interview with CNBC that he is "not thrilled" about the Fed's commitment to tightening monetary policy.