After 15 years, it finally happened. On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite closed at an all-time high. The index finished the day at 5,056.06. That’s 0.15% higher than the previous all-time high of 5,048.62, which came on March 10, 2000. Back then, the Nasdaq was going for 190 times earnings. Now it’s going for 30 times earnings.

Also on Thursday, the S&P 500 briefly touched a new all-time intra-day high of 2,120.49. But the S&P 500 couldn’t hold on. In the last 40 minutes of trading, the index pulled back to close at 2,112.93. It’s now been 37 days since the S&P 500 made a new high. That’s the longest “new high” drought in nearly two years.

This issue will be all about earnings. Due to the strong dollar, Wall Street analysts slashed their earnings estimates going into this earnings season. The good news is that the impact isn’t as bad as feared. So far, 76% of companies that have reported earnings have beaten expectations. Imagine a high jumper lowering the bar to one foot off the ground, then stepping over the bar and expecting raucous applause. That’s sort of where we are.

I’m happy to report that the earnings reports for our Buy List have been quite good. All nine of Buy List stocks  have beaten Wall Street’s earnings estimates. Some like Signature Bank (SBNY) and eBay (EBAY) gapped up on the news. In this week’s CWS Market Review, I’ll run down all of our recent earnings reports. I’m raising Buy Below prices for five of our stocks. I’ll also highlight four more earnings reports we have coming next week.

Eight Buy List Earnings Reports

On Tuesday morning, Signature Bank (SBNY) reported Q1 earnings of $1.64 per share. That’s a very impressive number, five cents more than Wall Street had been expecting. Traders loved the news. Shares SBNY spiked 6% in Tuesday’s trading, and hit a new all-time high on Wednesday.

I like this bank a lot. Signature’s CEO, Joseph J. DePaolo, said, “2015 is off to an outstanding start as we again set records in both earnings and loan growth while also delivering very strong deposit growth.” Deposit growth is up 31.2% in the last year.

Signature is a great little bank that’s not so little anymore. Thanks to the excellent earnings report, I’m raising my Buy Below on Signature by $7. Signature Bank is a buy up to $140 per share.

Last week, I told you that I thought Stryker (SYK) was being conservative with its guidance, and I expected a modest earnings beat. That’s exactly what happened. On Tuesday, Stryker reported earnings of $1.11 per share. That beat estimates by three cents per share.

The orthopedic company also raised the low end of its full-year forecast by five cents. Stryker now expects full-year earnings to range between $4.95 and $5.10 per share.

“We are pleased with our first quarter results, with another strong quarter of nearly 6% organic sales growth and disciplined expense management,” said Kevin A. Lobo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We expect this momentum, which is balanced across segments and regions, to continue and are raising the low end of full-year sales and earnings guidance.”

I suspect that more Baby Boomers are gradually falling apart, blowing out their knees and hips, so that’s good news for us. For this year, Stryker said they expect constant-currency sales growth of 6% to 7%. They see Q2 earnings coming in between $1.15 and $1.20 per share. That’s in line with Wall Street’s consensus of $1.17 per share, but I expect the consensus will creep higher. Stryker should have little trouble hitting $5 per share this year.

Shares of SYK jumped nearly 2% on Wednesday and kept rallying into Thursday as well. The stock has gained exactly $5 total in the last five sessions, and it appears to have broken out of its trading range. I’m going to bump up my Buy Below price, but I’m keeping it fairly tight. Stryker is now a buy up to $101 per share.

Wabtec (WAB) did our favorite two-step, “the beat-and-raise shuffle.” On Wednesday, the company reported Q1 earnings of 99 cents per share, which was four cents better than estimates. The company also raised its full-year guidance from $4.05 to $4.10 per share.

Raymond T. Betler, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer, said: “With a strong first quarter, we’re off to a good start for the year. We will continue to face challenges during the year, including global economic uncertainty and foreign currency-exchange headwinds, but we expect to benefit from our strong backlog, and from ongoing investment in freight-rail and passenger-transit projects around the world. We’re also pleased with our long-term growth prospects, which are driven by our diversified business model, balanced strategies and rigorous application of the Wabtec Performance System.”

In last week’s issue, I said a strong earnings report could push WAB over $100 per share, and that’s what happened. WAB even broke $105 before coming back down to $98.27 per share at Thursday’s close. This has been our second-best performing stock YTD. I’m raising my Buy Below on Wabtec to $103 per share.

Now for Qualcomm (QCOM), our most troublesome stock. On Wednesday, the company had another solid earnings report, but guidance was lousy. For the March quarter, which is the company’s fiscal Q2, Qualcomm earned $1.40 per share. That was seven cents better than expectations. Quarterly revenue came in at $6.89 billion, which was better than the Street’s expectations of $6.83 billion.

The problem was guidance. Wall Street had been expecting earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $6.5 billion. Not even close. Qualcomm said fiscal Q3 earnings should range between 85 cents and $1 per share, while revenue should range between $5.4 billion and $6.2 billion. That’s a big miss.

The good news for Qualcomm is that the issue with the Chinese government is now behind them. But they may have more investigations to face in the United States and in South Korea. Qualcomm is also dealing with increasing pressure as companies like Samsung and Apple make their own chips for their devices.

Qualcomm is our worst performer of the year (-8.1%). I think the activist pressure from Jana Partners is making an impact. The stock dropped on Thursday, but by less than 1%. Don’t give up on Qualcomm. There’s a lot of potential here. I’m keeping my Buy Below at $72 per share.

In last week’s CWS Market Review, I wrote:

Shares of eBay (EBAY) have been weak recently, and I think they’re a good value here. The online auction house gave weak guidance for Q1: 66 to 71 cents per share. I think that’s too low, and I expect a solid earnings beat.

Sometimes my own brilliance surprises even me. For Q1, eBay earned 77 cents per share, which topped estimates by seven cents per share. The stock jumped 3.8% on Thursday.

Unfortunately, this call wasn’t due to my brilliance. It’s been pretty obvious how well eBay’s business has been going.

“We had a strong first quarter, with eBay and PayPal off to a good start for the full year,” said eBay Inc. President and CEO John Donahoe. “I feel very good about the performance of our teams at eBay and PayPal. Each business is executing well with greater focus and operating discipline as we prepare to separate eBay and PayPal into independent publicly traded companies. We are moving forward with clarity and speed, with a smooth separation expected in the third quarter. We are deeply committed to setting up eBay and PayPal to succeed and to deliver sustainable value to our shareholders.”

Now for guidance. For Q2, eBay sees earnings ranging between 71 and 73 cents per share. For the whole year, they forecast earnings between $3.05 and $3.15 per share. Those are good numbers and very doable. I’m raising my Buy Below on eBay to $62 per share.

On Thursday morning, Snap-on (SNA) reported Q1 earnings of $1.87 per share. That was five cents better than estimates. Revenues rose 5.1% to $827.8 million, which was below consensus of $834.42 million. Despite that, I was particularly impressed with their organic sales growth of 10%. That’s very good, especially for a tool company.

Nick Pinchuk, Snap-on’s chairman and CEO, said, “We believe these results confirm Snap-on’s unique capabilities in providing valued productivity solutions to a growing range of professional customers performing critical tasks in workplaces of consequence. Additionally, we achieved a 120-basis-point improvement in operating margin before financial services, further demonstrating our ability to realize ongoing benefits from our Snap-on Value Creation Processes.“

Hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones is well known for tripling his money on Black Monday in 1987. 

Mr. Tudor is now warning of an even more dangerous bubble than October 1987 thanks to Federal Reserve money printing and a ‘mania’ among stock market bulls, and predicts an imminent stock market disaster.

This 60-minute documentary explains how he does what he does, and how he views a decline as a move just as profitable as an advance. 

Paul Tudor Jones II, is the founder of Tudor Investment Corporation, a private asset management company and hedge fund. Wikipedia

Born: September 28, 1954 (age 60), Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Children: Chrissy Jones, Dorothy Jones, Caroline Jones

Education: University of Virginia, Presbyterian Day School

Produced by McIver Wealth Management Consulting Group

Ethan Dang, Portfolio Manager with McIver Wealth Management of Richardson GMP in Vancouver.

www.McIverWealth.com

Last week, I told you that I couldn’t even count the number of analysts who mistakenly believe Europe’s financial crisis is over.

Today, I’m going to tell you about those who are wrong about Asia. I can’t even count the number of analysts who still predict doomsday for China.

Or, in fact, for all of Asia — based on some crazy notion that Asian economies can’t possibly thrive when Europe is such a mess and the United States is growing at a mere 2.4 percent.

Meanwhile, for well over a year now I’ve been telling you …

1. That instead, Asian economies — especially China’s — were booming.

2. That Asian stock markets would be some of the best performing markets on the planet.

3. That if you needed income, to look at Asian sovereign bond markets instead of Europe and the United States …

And that other than normal pullbacks, such as we are seeing now in Asian markets, the best long-term growth opportunities will continue to be in Asia, for many years to come.

So who’s been right? Let’s look at the facts:

A. China’s economy continues to grow at seven percent. Yes, that’s a six-year low, but it’s still 7 percent, enough to double the size of China’s economy roughly every 10 years.

B. The average GDP growth rate of southeast Asian economies for 2014 was a very healthy 4.7 percent. Meanwhile …

C. China’s stock market — Shanghai A share market — was up a whopping 53.05 percent in 2014, and is up 30.37 percent, year-to-date!

At the same time, virtually all Asian stock markets have handily beat the S&P 500.

So then, what’s next for Asia?

As I just mentioned, other than occasional short-term pullbacks, one of which is unfolding now, Asia’s future remains very bright indeed.

Look, as far as I’m concerned, if there’s one thing you need to focus on to understand Asia and to get it right

— despite all the pundits out there who keep calling for Asia’s collapse — it’s this:

Asia is home to 4 BILLION PEOPLE. That’s roughly 60 percent of the world’s population.

Or put another way, three out of every five people in the world are Asian.

And they are leapfrogging from either the late 19th century or early 20th to the 21st century, in one fell swoop.

Can 4 billion people coming from feudal, socialist, or outright communist countries be stopped from wanting more for themselves? For their children? For their grandchildren?

I don’t think so. It’s a force that will drive Asia’s growth for many years, even decades, to come.

It’s a force where domestic consumption is now beginning to outpace the region’s reliance on export economic growth, meaning overall growth in Asia will now enter the next phase, even more turbo-charged than the previous one.

It’s a force where the epicenter of the boom, China, has nearly 4 TRILLION DOLLARS in reserve to deploy to help the country — and the region — grow even more.

It’s a force where 57 countries from all over the world are joining the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) — because they all recognize that Asia is where it’s at.

All but the United States, where our President foolishly tried to block other countries from participating in the AIIB.

The rise of Asia is so historic, the ground beneath your feet is shaking, yet most don’t even know it.

In terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), China is already the largest economy in the world. In terms of regularly calculated GDP, China’s economy will be the largest in the world in less than 10 years.

And guess what? That estimate doesn’t even take into consideration China’s new Silk Road, which will turbocharge economic growth not only in rural western China …

But throughout all of Asia as well.

In fact, as I pen this column, China’s President Xi Jinping is in Pakistan signing a $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — a 1,865 mile network of roads, railways and pipelines between the two countries.

My view: Asia should be at least one-third of your portfolio, if not more.

Best wishes and stay safe,

Larry

P.S. Why would anybody in his right mind give away investment guides and tools worth $26.9 million? I’m doing it because I am alarmed by the terrifying new developments I see taking place around the world today. And I am ready, willing and able to give you everything you need to help protect and multiply your wealth in 2015 — absolutely FREE.

– See more at: http://www.swingtradingdaily.com/2015/04/22/asia-still-rising/#sthash.SpwFvwPE.dpuf

One of the defining traits of financial bubbles is the willingness of traders and investors to interpret pretty much everything as a buy signal. Rising corporate earnings mean growth, while falling profits mean easier money on the way. War means more revenues for defense contractors and easy money for everyone else. Blizzards means consumer spending will rebound in the Spring. Inflation means higher asset prices for speculators while deflation means, once again, easier money for everyone. When people are this optimistic they find the silver lining in every black cloud and happily to buy the dips with borrowed money.

A timely example is Greece’s threat to leave the Eurozone, default on its debt and go back to using drachmas. This could be seen as either the beginning of a chain reaction that destroys the eurozone and the rest of the world as we know it, or as an excuse for vastly easier money. So far — in a sign that the bubble is still expanding — each new twist (like last weekend’s announcement of de facto capital controls) has been accompanied by European Central Bank reassurances and market acceptance of those promises. 

Another case in point is China’s twin weekend announcements that two major companies defaulted on their debt while the government eased bank reserve requirements. The pessimistic take on such things happening simultaneously would be that China’s financial sector is in crisis and the government is desperately and probably impotently trying to stop the bleeding. But the European and US markets saw only the liquidity side of the story and bid up risk assets pretty much across the board.

When we change our minds
But in the life cycle of every bubble there comes an emotional phase change. Dark clouds start to obscure their silver linings and new highs get harder and harder to achieve. Think home prices rising beyond middle-class affordability in 2007 or tech stocks hitting 50-times sales in 1999. Only unambiguously good news can keep the bubble going, and because few events are that pure, the crowd gets nervous and the spin gets negative. Faster growth means tighter money; a weak dollar means inflation while a strong one means falling corporate profits. War means instability, extreme weather means lower near-term growth. So sell the rallies and hide out in cash.

The world isn’t quite at this point — or maybe it is. The following chart (from Bloomberg) shows the impact of Greece’s impending loan deadline on a measure of risk in peripheral eurozone bond markets. Greece is the blue line; the black and red are Italy and Spain.

There’s no way to know until after the fact if the dark night of the market’s soul has begun. But when it comes, that’s how its first stage will look.