While the price-to-earnings ratios on Wall Street are starting to get a bit ridiculous, high-dividend stocks have yet to lose their luster. Institutional investors, empowered by record low cost of borrowing, are snapping up every company imaginable. As long as PEs stay under 25, then the cost of carry is afforded by corporate earnings.
The economy is showing greenshoots, or so says Ben Bernanke, commodities are exploding and many of the world’s central banks are starting to push rates higher. This is your last chance to refinance your mortgage, so if you’re going to do it, do it absolutely right now.
So green investments aren’t at all risk-free, everyone knows that. But they’re not as safe now as they were before the nuclear disaster in Japan. With plenty of controversy surrounding nuclear’s future, it’s probably a good time to start thinking about how to play the green energy wave.
While few investors can pick stocks that beat the market, almost everyone can beat the risk-free returns. In this day and age, with computers scouring the markets with electronic eyes faster than that of humans, it makes a lot of sense to start targeting an ideal asset allocation instead of market-beating returns.
So it seems as though the disaster is almost over in Japan…er, not really, maybe Libya just took over the headlines. Regardless, it’s probably time to start thinking about how the world has been pricing in disaster, and whether fearful investors sold the Nikkei too low. The index, basically the Dow Jones of the Japanese stock markets, is still nearly 1,500 points, or roughly 15%, from where it began prior to the series of natural disasters.
Every day it seems I see a new headline about medical marijuana and the on-going political discussion going on in the United States. While last decade’s battleground was the West Coast, particularly California, the new battleground is right in the center of the country: Colorado. But I want to know how I can get in on this new goldmine with Medical Marijuana stocks.
The hottest thing since sliced bread may soon be coming to a stock market near you: Groupon. The company, which is attributed with the title of the fastest-growing company in history, may be due for an IPO. As for how to value a future Groupon IPO, no one really knows.
Amazon took a beating in the latter part of the week after earnings missed estimates. Amazon (AMZN) investors are worried about how the company will keep up its ROE with sizeable investments into low-yielding assets. Read more…
I love Google Trends. You can see what people are searching for, when they’re searching for it, and even see how a difference in geography and locale affects searching trends. You can also see the tends of the news surrounding a certain keyword or keyterm.
I could not have been more timely posting my critical review of the connection between General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and the Obama Administration.
Now just one day after that blog post, we’re left with some insane news: GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt will head a new board intended to replace the Economic Recovery Advisory Board currently lead by the best Fed banker in history, Paul Volcker.
I’m not going to do it…not going to do it. I won’t turn this blog to politics. Okay, maybe I might. It was just announced that General Electric has signed an agreement with China to provide for the delivery of engines in a multi-billion contract. This trade agreement, just like any other, is obviously a positive thing for the world economy, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t political, either.
If you’ve set eyes on any piece of financial media, you’ve probably heard all about refund participation loans, or RALs. These short-term loans are made to tax filers in anticipation of an IRS refund, an effective bridge loan against a future check. Good deal, right? Well, they are a little expensive.
Apple Inc. (APPL) is taking a nosedive today on news that Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence. While this isn’t particularly good news, it isn’t that bad, either. Read more…
The Bank of China, one of many Chinese government owned banking entities, will now allow United States citizens to open accounts…in Renminbi.
The decision to allow international ownership of Chinese banking accounts is interesting, to say the least. For one, it follows very closely to a recent decision by the Chinese central bank to allow appreciation of 5% of the yuan’s value against the dollar. Such appreciation is significant, since the yuan rose by only 3.2% in 2010. Read more…
There are tons of funds, tons and tons of funds. If we believe the investing landscape to be representative of investor demands, then it should be clear that we’re obsessed with pooling our money together.
It should also be be pretty obvious to most everyone why we love our mutual funds and ETFs. They’re easy to buy, simple to hold, and someone else is responsible for our performance.
The average investor need only talk to their human resources department once per year, grab relevant documentation for their tax deferred retirement account, make a few changes (or none at all) and call the process retirement planning.
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A combination of cheap credit and volatile markets is paving the way for rampant investment in virtually everything, from stocks to futures. This trade, part of a play on negative real interest rates, is one of the biggest effects from quantitative easing. Read more…
So I’ve been going on and on, and on, about this company called Netflix. Well, there may be even a better opportunity in GameFly, a copycat Netflix for video game rental. Read more…
The Wall Street Journal reported that at least three companies, AOL, Silver Lake, and Blackstone are all considering a play on Yahoo to take it private. The company, which was first offered $33 a share some two years ago by Microsoft is in a prime position for a sale. At the time, CEO Jerry Yang turned down several hostile offers by Microsoft, only to watch the stock slide precipitously by more than 60% in the weeks that followed. Read more…
I’ve been pouring through some analyst estimates of companies that are right on the fringe of profitability. Normally, I want to know about these stocks because they are highly leveraged. A company earning 1 cent per share can increase revenue by only a fraction and double or triple its earnings. That’s a good stock to own, but Sirius, one of the best known of those on my list, is still one awful company. Read more…
Silver does particularly well in the fall, at least in four out of the past five years. Excluding the deflation fears that surfaced in 2008 and during the Financial Crisis panic, silver has proven to do very well in the last four months of the year. Read more…
Just as I suspected in an earlier post (BP Stock) BP will put aside only one year’s income to pay for the damage in the Gulf.
Despite a colossal oil spill that has the world glued to their televisions, British Petroleum stock looks like an excellent buy at this price. Now down 33% from its recent peak, more than twice the decline of Exxon Mobil during the same time, I’d be a net buyer on BP’s devalued stock. Read more…
There’s no way around it, Netflix (NFLX) is dominating in the new movie rental space. The company, which started as a rental service via mail, is now working its way into downloadable and streaming content, something that only improves upon the current business model. Read more…
Stock options are for the big boys. Some use them to hedge, some use them for exotic bets, and some just use stock options as a way to rev up their portfolio’s performance. But no matter how stock options are used, you better take notice. There is possibly no better indicator than that of stock options activity. Read more…
The economic recovery remains young, as its only been a few months where the GDP has settled in positive territory. But as the rest of the world livens up, and trade begins again, higher oil prices could be the rain to our economic parade. Read more…
