Opinions

Optimism. Momentum. Buoyancy. Call it what you will, a positive current is running through the gold space. Macquarie Capital Markets’ Canadian Mining Equity Research Team Head Michael Gray deconstructs some of the factors contributing to that newfound energy. Calling out merger & acquisition activity as a nascent trend, he shares

The current drama surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been riveting and indicative of how the superlative growth in travel in the airline sector has encompassed Asia along with the world. For years now, since the recession hit in 2008, I have been increasingly bullish on the airline sector across

One of the most important investing lessons I have learned over time is to be careful when the price of an asset goes up significantly in a very short period of time—it usually doesn’t end well. Prices increasing very quickly tell me that speculators are entering and they are buying

The current stock market sentiment is bullish and based on the charts, there are indications that the market wants to go higher, especially technology and small-cap stocks.  The S&P 500 is eyeing another record-high and it may just reach it by the time you read this.  While stock market investor

Ever since Janet Yellen, the new Chair of the Federal Reserve, made her first speech reiterating a stay-the-course policy regarding monetary policy, stocks got a whole new lease on their financial life.  This market is holding up extremely well, and the action proves that institutional investors will bid stocks if

According to FactSet, between January 1 and mid-March of this year, 195 of the S&P 500 companies have used the word “weather” in some manner in their conference calls. This is 81% higher than the same period a year ago, when 108 of the S&P 500 companies used the term

Investors are asking one question these days: should you be buying emerging market stocks or will they decline further?  In the long run, I am bullish on the emerging markets. The reason for this is very simple: the emerging market economies have a significant amount of room to grow. For

If you own some of the large-cap blue chip stocks on the Dow, it has not been a great year so far. Now, some of you may have thought that after the strong year for technology and small-cap stocks in 2013, the stock market may have been ready to pause

When many investors think of blue chip stocks, a common name that pops up is McDonalds Corporation (NYSE/MCD).  A blue chip stock is traditionally a well-established company generating stable corporate earnings and usually paying out an attractive dividend yield. McDonald’s certainly hits the bull’s-eye on these blue chip metrics, which

The verdict is in… The Federal Reserve will taper further. In its statement, the Federal Reserve said, “Beginning in April, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $25 billion per month rather than $30 billion per month, and will add to its

Almost daily, there’s a new piece of information coming out about the Chinese economy that suggests economic conditions there are worsening. We see China’s manufacturing sector is contracting and there’s a credit crunch in the making. The Wall Street Journal ran a story last Friday on the state of the

The stock market continues to want to go higher despite the lack of any major new catalyst and the renewed tensions in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Yet despite the bullish sentiment at this time, the gains have been much more difficult to come by, as I had predicted at

It’s been a very choppy start to the year for stocks and with no real trend to latch onto, the news of the day is the catalyst for the trading action. There is still a positive undercurrent in the equity market, and it’s evidenced, in part, by particular strength in

As many people know, one of the hottest areas in the market right now is technology stocks. Investor sentiment has continued piling into this sector—with good reason in some cases.  The danger for investors is when investor sentiment becomes too bullish—technology stocks might be entering this territory.  The latest of

Since the beginning of the year, gold bullion has gained a significant amount of attention. The precious metal has increased about 14% in value and has become one of the best-performing asset classes. Key stock indices, on the other hand, are down. With this rise in gold bullion prices, we

The U.S. national debt has skyrocketed from $9.2 trillion in the beginning of 2008 to $17.3 trillion today. This represents an increase of more than 88% in just a matter of a few years. (Source: Treasury Direct web site, last accessed March 11, 2014.) The national debt of the U.S.

New York City is a colossal urban jungle, but what strikes me is the surging housing market rental prices in not only Manhattan, but also the strong price appreciation in the borough of Brooklyn. Average home prices peaked around $550,000 in early 2006, prior to a steady decline since then.

Retail is a tough business to be in and always difficult as an investor. Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) took off after the company beat Wall Street consensus and increased its quarterly dividend by six percent on the back of 4.3 million repurchased shares in fiscal 2013. The stock moved 10% higher

“I think the stock market is getting into the overbought territory. Gold is due for a pullback. To be honest, I don’t see many opportunities out there other than bitcoins.” These were the words of wisdom from my good old friend Mr. Speculator. While most have forgotten about the virtual

Since the beginning of the year, we have been seeing economic data that suggests consumer spending in the U.S. economy is in trouble—we have seen menial growth, if not negative growth. If this trend continues, it could be very dangerous, since consumer spending is an important factor for calculating the