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Earnings on tap: AMZN, Alphabet, and UA

What we're watching this week

After three weeks of gains, the U.S. stock market is poised to open modestly lower in premarket trading this morning.

Investors and traders are now focused on the wave of important earnings coming this week.

Here are the three key earnings that we’ll be watching this week:

Amazon (AMZN)

Amazon will report its Q3 results on Thursday. Analysts are expecting a net loss of $0.13 EPS with revenue…

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Quotes: Janet Yellen

“Our approach during this phase must be particular dependent on information from incoming data.”

“The Fed has, and must have, a commitment to price stability.”

“People stop buying things and that’s how you turn a slowdown into a recession.”

“While admirers of capitalism, we also to a certain extent believe it has limitations that require government intervention in markets to make them work.”

“The…

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Fun Facts: Google

“Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, met in 1995 at Stanford when Sergey was assigned to show Larry around campus.”

“On September 15 1997, Google.com was registered as a domain and filed for incorporation on September 4, 1998 in California.”

“Google’s home page is kept simple not only because the founders didn’t know HTML at the time but also because they didn’t want to exceed 28 words.”

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3 Things Investors Are Watching Today

3 Things Investors Are Watching Today

Stock futures are gaining about 1% in premarket and it looks like Wall Street is set to open higher again today.

Here are the top 3 things investors are watching today:

1. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for July (10 am EDT).

2. Apple’s product event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco (1 pm EDT).

3. Earnings to Watch – Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Barnes…

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Quotes: Happiness

“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be” – Abraham Lincoln.

“Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get” – Dale Carnegie.

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go” – Oscar Wilde.

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony” – Mahatma Gandhi.

“The Constitution only gives people the right to…

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3.3% Productivity Increase with Labor Cost Falling 1.4%

3.3% Productivity Increase with Labor Cost Falling 1.4%

The latest 2015 data from the U.S. Labor Department showed 2nd quarter productivity (nonfarm) increasing 3.3% with unit labor costs falling 1.4% (seasonally adjusted annual rates).

Output gained 4.7%, mainly due to the increase in the amount of goods and services produced by American workers.

And while many had hoped for stronger numbers since GDP recently rose to 3.7%, the latest results…

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Quotes: Paul Tudor Jones

Quotes: Paul Tudor Jones

“Failure was a key element to my life’s journey.”

“Intellectual capital will always trump financial capital.”

“Trading gives you an incredibly intense feeling of what life is all about.”

“I’m always thinking of losing money as opposed to making money. Don’t focus on making money, focus on protecting what you have.” 

“After awhile size means nothing. It gets back to whether you’re making 100% rate…

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Earnings to Watch This Week - HD, CRM, FL

Earnings to Watch This Week – HD, CRM, FL

This week, we’re focusing on 3 key earnings that’ll provide further details into the housing, cloud, and retail sectors.

The Home Depot (HD):

HD is scheduled to report their earnings before the market opens on Tuesday. According to Thomson Reuters, analysts are expecting $1.71 EPS with $24.7 billion in revenue.

For the past two years, HD has reported positive growth, improving EPS by 21%…

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Quotes: Bob Iger

“We really believe that Walt Disney is a very able company with great depth and a great set of franchises.” 

“I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world.”

“The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation.”

“The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo.”

“We’re seeing a great shift in how consumers spend money, and our…

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The Force Awakens with Disney in 2015

The Force Awakens with Disney in 2015

So far, 2015 has been a great year for Disney (DIS) and the company’s stock has risen a whopping 29% YTD.

Having climbed roughly 10% in just three months from blockbusters, such as Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and Inside Out, the company seems to be firing on all cylinders under the leadership of Bob Iger. 

And this doesn’t even include the highly-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakensmovi…

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Google Set to Report Earnings Today

Google Set to Report Earnings Today

Google Inc. will report second-quarter earnings today after the market closes.

Wall St. will be watching closely to see if the company is gaining traction with mobile traffic, along with how its new CFO (Ruth Porat) is managing expenses to combat decelerating revenue.

Analysts are expecting Google to report adjusted EPS of $6.70, which is a 10.2% increase from $6.08 a year earlier.

As for…

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Fun Facts: Amazon

“Founder, Jeff Bezos, started the company in his garage and originally incorporated it as Cadabra but quickly changed the name since it sounded too similar to cadaver (corpse).”

“The name Amazon was chosen not only because Bezos wanted to be at the top of search results (alphabetical order in those days) but also because like the river, he planned to make his store the largest in the world.”

“The

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Fun Facts: Apple

“Apple Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.”

“The iPhone photographs from Apple always has a time-stamp of 9:41 am – a tribute to when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.”

“The original Apple logo had a picture of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under the infamous apple tree.”

“Since Steve Jobs was a fruitarian who worked in an apple orchard in high school, he…

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eBook: Curtis Faith

Way of the Turtle, by Curtis M. Faith.

  //

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Fun Facts: Vitamins

“Your body needs vitamins for a variety of reasons, such as growth, digestion, and even nerve function.”

“The two categories of vitamins are water-soluble vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins: water-soluble vitamins are easily absorbed by the body and the kidney removes the vitamins that are not needed; fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed into the body with the use of bile acids, which are fluids used…

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Fun Facts: Internet

“A single Google query uses 1,000 computers in 0.2 seconds to retrieve an answer.”

“In 1971, Ray Tomlinson sent himself the first email and Gary Thuerk sent the first spam email in an effort to sell computers on May 3, 1978 using ARPAnet.”

“On average, every query has to travel 1,500miles to a data center and back to return the answer to the user and roughly 20% of queries that get asked everyday…

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Investing Like a Pro is Easier & Cheaper Than You Think

Investing Like a Pro is Easier & Cheaper Than You Think

One of my friends recently stumbled upon a lump sum windfall that he wanted to invest in the stock market. His criteria was relatively simple – to invest like a pro while minimizing expenses. 

Like many others, he wanted to build a long-term portfolio mimicking that of a successful fund but without paying all the fees, such as the expense ratios typically associated with most funds. On top of…

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