T. Boone Pickens is the quintessential Texas oilman: outspoken, complex and savvy. During the course of his career, he initiated headline-grabbing takeovers in the energy sector and amassed a fortune of about $3 billion. Pickens began his career as a “wildcatter,” drilling in areas not known to contain oil, and eventually… Read More

As the Japanese economy developed in the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) made major headway into the hearts and minds of local consumers. But a similar trend may not emerge in China. Western nations… Read More

Every year, about a quarter million cases of liver cancer are diagnosed in the United States; around the world the number is estimated to exceed two million. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate of liver cancer is just 10.8%. This is one of the most fatal… Read More

It looks as if we’ve dodged a bullet, and the U.S. economy will be able to avoid another deep slump. But tepid growth may be the best we can hope for in the foreseeable future. Yet beyond our borders, growth should prove more dynamic,… Read More

The objective: buy low, sell high. Sounds easy enough. But old Wall Street pros would say, “not so fast.” A stock trading at or near its 52-week low has not necessarily hit bottom — nor is it necessarily a bargain. What investors might think of as a… Read More

Markets don’t like uncertainty, and a big chunk of it was removed Sunday after Congress passed landmark health care legislation that will extend benefits to 32 million uninsured Americans. As the dust settled the day after America “answered the call of history,” as President Obama put it,… Read More

My systems are telling me that stocks will likely move higher into mid-April, so potentially we’ve got a few weeks to make some money in an upwardly trending market. Helping the rally in stocks in April will be what I believe could be… Read More

You probably know the name Bill Miller. Aside from Warren Buffett, he might be the closest thing the investment world has to a rock star. Every year, millions of investors set out with one goal in mind: to outperform the S&P 500. Miller’s Legg Mason Value Trust… Read More

During the past few years, companies have sought to cut all non-essential expenses. Office equipment was among the many items that saw a sharp slowdown in demand. But like all other hard goods, copiers and the like tend to wear out over time. So as the… Read More

Tech stocks are notoriously stingy dividend payers. Typically, these companies use earnings to fuel growth and to keep up with the competition, not to pay shareholders. In fact, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index yields just 0.8%… Read More