Opinions

There is some resilience to this stock market, and it’s evidenced by the strength in many important indices. The Dow Jones Transportation Average is a very important index, even if you don’t own—or aren’t interested in owning—any component companies. The reason for its importance is that it has a track

In today’s U.S. economy, we have a very small portion of the population earning most of the total income generated by the economy, while the majority of people suffer, as their incomes have failed to rise at the pace of the rich. According to a study by the Paris School

There is something going on right now in the copper market that should alarm you. Over the past week, the price of copper has plunged, recently hitting a four-year low. Why should this matter? Most investors and analysts are placing bets that economic growth is about to re-accelerate globally. Never

With a long-term portfolio, the goal is to earn a constant rate of return over a long period. Sadly, even with this in mind, investors end up making decisions that jeopardize their long-term objectives. They make mistakes, but luckily, the effects of these mistakes can be easily controlled, saving their

Among blue chips, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) remains one of the most attractive enterprises for long-term investors. As a benchmark stock within the entire equity universe and a conglomerate itself of healthcare businesses, it’s reasonable to expect a stock like this to provide a normalized annual return of approximately 10%

As key stock indices like the S&P 500 make new highs, bullishness increases almost daily, and stock advisors are saying buy more. I am not surprised by this. All of these irrationalities tell us something very important: the bear is doing a great job of luring investors back into stocks

This month marks the fifth year of the rally in stocks that started in March of 2009. Back then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded as low as 6,400 and uncertainty was severe. In the midst of all this, a buying opportunity of a lifetime was born. I told my

Lots of companies are reporting their earnings results at this time, and there is some resilience to the numbers.  A hard winter definitely is apparent in corporate earnings and economic data. Spring can’t come soon enough. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (KKD) has been fighting to bring its business back from

Investors have again begun flirting with the junior mining sector. Will it lead to a love affair or is it just a tryst? Derek Macpherson, a mining analyst with M Partners, believes it is still too early to be taking on high-risk, high-leverage names. In this interview with The Gold

There’s a significant amount of pessimism towards the Chinese economy these days, and the reasons behind this are very understandable. The economic data suggests the country is headed toward an economic slowdown. In 2013, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.7%—barely better than the previous year and the estimates

There is a recent statistic that is quite shocking: the total amount of debt globally is now over $100 trillion, a jump of 40% over the last six years.  According to the Bank for International Settlements, which is run by 60 central banks, since the financial crisis, the majority of

When it comes to gold bullion prices, despite their mere 10% climb since the beginning of 2012, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see gold bullion prices increase even further. With this, companies producing or looking for the precious metal are still presenting a great buying opportunity. Let me

The optimism on the key stock indices is increasing as the fundamentals that suggest the rally will go on continue to deteriorate. Investors beware; this disparity doesn’t end well. The possible upside gains look to be very small, and the downside risks are increasing. To me, it feels like we

Everyone is blaming the poor economic numbers we have been seeing on the misery of the horrific winter.  Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested that the winter was to be partly blamed for the somewhat lousy economic readings in December through to February. With the fierce winter, people are hesitant

Since 2009, the U.S. stock market has become one of the hottest plays. Investors have poured in money and have reaped the rewards. In the last five years, many stocks have doubled or more. Looking at all this, one must really question if the stock market can go at this

Understanding the economic slowdown in the Chinese economy is very important because not only does it impact American companies doing business there, but what happens in the Chinese economy—now the second-largest economy in the world—affects the global economy. While media outlets tell us the Chinese economy will grow by about

It’s amazing how the stock market can easily reverse course from bad to good and vice versa. When the threat of Russia invading Crimea picked up, the stock market retrenched; but it didn’t last long, as the subsequent withdrawal of Russian troops led to a stock market in the following

A good amount of speculative fervor has come out of this market so far this year, but there’s still quite a bit of valuation froth around. Across the board, 3D-printer stocks have come back. 3D Systems Corporation (DDD) still boasts a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 150. Tesla Motors,

This past Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 175,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in the month of February. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 7, 2014.) The way the media reported it… “Friday’s jobs market report caught the market by surprise,” was what most media outlets

There’s a big push on buying green stocks, a move that has the ability to make investors feel good and make money at the same time. Here, we are talking about alternative energy stocks and companies that have mandated that their impact on the environment be one of their core