Expiring patents are usually bad news for major pharmaceutical companies, especially if the patents are for popular “blockbuster” medications generating $1 billion or more of annual revenue. When those patents expire, the patent… Read More

It’s no secret Wall Street was, for the most part, rooting for Mitt Romney to win the presidential election. After all, Republican candidates are generally viewed as more business friendly, and Romney was no exception. But even if you believe President Barack Obama’s… Read More

Cash has been piling up on corporate balance sheets since before the financial crisis and S&P 500 companies now hold combined liquid assets of nearly $1 trillion. So in a sluggish economy like this… Read More

When a stock runs up fast, it’s natural for investors to want to just close their eyes, hang on and hope it’ll go even higher. And a lot of times it does. But we all know we’re taking a chance if we play investments like that. Surging stocks are often… Read More

Some stocks do so well for so long that investors start assuming these stocks will always be superstars, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. It’s a dangerous trap to fall into, since buying on reputation alone can lead to big disappointment if a stock no longer has what it takes… Read More

I’m going to do something I thought I’d never do — recommend an airline stock. Like many investors, I’ve never liked airline stocks because they’re ridiculously volatile and notoriously easy to lose money on. Take the nation’s fifth largest airline, U.S. Airways Group (NYSE: LCC). U.S. Airways has gone bankrupt… Read More

Because the Chinese economy has expanded by leaps and bounds during the past few decades and is widely expected to keep posting solid growth for years, it may seem safe to assume China’s a great place to invest. But the world’s second-largest… Read More

Since the market crash of 2008, many investors have understandably become more conservative and have turned to safer alternatives — bonds, metals, real estate, blue-chip… Read More

Although it has been more than a year since the United States lost its top-tier “AAA” credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, the significance of the event is still a bit hard to fathom.#-ad_banner-# Think about it — for so many decades, the… Read More

If you’re a commercial real estate enthusiast, then you know the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector has been hot. Even with a simple index fund like Vanguard’s REIT Index ETF (NYSE: VNQ), you could’ve made nearly 23% annually on the sector during the past three years, including fund expenses.#-ad_banner-# Many individual REITS have done even better. General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP), a large rental property… Read More

If you’re a commercial real estate enthusiast, then you know the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector has been hot. Even with a simple index fund like Vanguard’s REIT Index ETF (NYSE: VNQ), you could’ve made nearly 23% annually on the sector during the past three years, including fund expenses.#-ad_banner-# Many individual REITS have done even better. General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP), a large rental property and shopping center owner, for instance, has delivered an astounding three-year annualized return of 64%. Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR), the nation’s second-largest owner and operator of storage facilities, has returned 51% a year for the past three years. That’s wonderful, and it’s exactly the sort of performance we all hope for. But it also means you should be extra careful about generally sky-high REIT valuations. The MSCI U.S. REIT Index, a commonly used proxy for the entire U.S. commercial real estate industry and the benchmark… Read More