Circle your calendars for March 28. That’s when investors will start to talk about the biggest growth opportunity for smartphones in the months and years ahead. On that day, China Unicom (NYSE: CHU), China Telecom (NYSE: CHA) and China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) plan to roll out a… Read More

Not long after I wrote about this big health care firm in December 2010, this stock began a nice hot streak. It’s now up 31% in the past 12 months, compared with a 14% gain for the S&P 500 during the same time. This is undoubtedly a… Read More

I can’t think of a stock that’s more hated. I’ve written about this company several times before. I’ve personally owned it for years. But just about every time I mention it, I end up receiving nasty emails admonishing the fact that I would cover… let alone recommend…… Read More

When gold was first discovered at Sutter’s Mill in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in 1848, thousands of people dropped everything and headed west with dreams of striking it rich. Within a year, San Francisco was transformed from a sleepy outpost with a few dozen… Read More

Warren Buffett is the world’s most successful investor. He’s worth $44 billion and is the third-richest person on earth. The investments made by his firm, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), gained 513,055% from 1964 to the end of 2011. The S&P 500, including dividends, gained 6,397% over the… Read More

On Jan. 26, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a report showing the United States had about 482 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of recoverable natural gas reserves in shale formations (not counting conventional basins).   That’s a big number by any measure — enough to fuel U.S. Read More

During the early 1970s, an Oregon track coach by the name of Bill Bowerman changed the world in his kitchen. Trying to develop a new running shoe that would help his athlete’s grip the surface of the track, Bowerman poured liquid… Read More

Many investors have been surprised by the steady advances in the stock market since it bottomed out three years ago. They shouldn’t have been. History predicted it would happen. Exiting a major economic slowdown, companies cut costs… Read More

In the week of March 12, the Federal Reserve gave the nation’s major banks their third so-called “stress test” to determine whether they would survive another collapse of the financial system like the one suffered in 2008. Overall, the group passed the test, with 15 of the 19 undergoing… Read More