The past weekend’s news that China will allow its currency, the yuan, to appreciate against the dollar sent positive waves through the market for much of Monday’s trading session. Aluminum and steel stocks were up, as were domestic consumer plays in mainland China. But,… Read More

Put that cork back in the champagne bottle. As the dust has settled, it’s increasingly clear that China’s bold actions this weekend regarding its currency may be less bold than it seems. Clearly, the Chinese yuan will get stronger and the U.S. dollar will get weaker, but it will take several years — or longer — for any real positive benefits to be felt. Nevertheless, you can identify the long-term winners and losers from a stronger Chinese currency. Watching Paint Dry The Chinese government announced over the weekend… Read More

Put that cork back in the champagne bottle. As the dust has settled, it’s increasingly clear that China’s bold actions this weekend regarding its currency may be less bold than it seems. Clearly, the Chinese yuan will get stronger and the U.S. dollar will get weaker, but it will take several years — or longer — for any real positive benefits to be felt. Nevertheless, you can identify the long-term winners and losers from a stronger Chinese currency. Watching Paint Dry The Chinese government announced over the weekend that it would loosen the fixed rate at which dollars and the yuan can be exchanged, responding to increasing pressure from lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere. That led to a quick +0.4% gain in Monday trading for the yuan. And that’s all you should expect for the near-term. From time to time, the Chinese government will slightly loosen the band further, and the currency will make another quick +0.4% to +0.5% move. But we may not see more than a handful of those moves each year. Translation: it may be several years before the yuan gains +10% from… Read More

If you read about the markets — whether from papers like The Wall Street Journal, publishers like StreetAuthority, or even blogs like 247WallSt.com — I think you’ll start to notice how much press is devoted to China. It’s for good reason. China, especially… Read More

I doubt you’ve ever heard of Rockhopper Exploration. Rockhopper is a small U.K.-based oil company. But what’s unique about its business is that the company is a major player in the drilling around the Falkland Islands. You likely remember the Falkland Islands as the… Read More

My friend Chris was irate. “My broker just ripped me off!” he pouted. “Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) said in a press release they would pay $0.84 a share, but instead my broker gave me $0.714 a share.” I tried to explain to Chris that it’s not… Read More

You can’t blame investors for bagging profits on big winners. Many investors that bought into Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) back when shares traded for the price of a Big Mac have been exiting the stock recently as it looked like the fast gains had been made. But for those focused on the long-term, the recent -20% drop in the stock creates an opportunity to jump in before shares post their next round of gains. Much ink has been spilled about Ford’s impressive management team led by CEO Alan Mullaly. They… Read More

You can’t blame investors for bagging profits on big winners. Many investors that bought into Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) back when shares traded for the price of a Big Mac have been exiting the stock recently as it looked like the fast gains had been made. But for those focused on the long-term, the recent -20% drop in the stock creates an opportunity to jump in before shares post their next round of gains. Much ink has been spilled about Ford’s impressive management team led by CEO Alan Mullaly. They had exquisite timing in 2008, leveraging every asset the company had to raise cash, right before the economy contracted. Had they not done so, Ford would likely have needed to declare bankruptcy along with its beleaguered peers in Detroit. Even more remarkably, Ford didn’t skimp on product development spending even when money was tight, and is now bearing the fruits of that gutsy move. To be sure, Ford’s car and truck plans are the keys to this stock. As investors saw the strong promise of its new Focus, Fiesta and… Read More

Can you imagine anything worse than being a retailer in this recessionary environment? What if you knew there was a retailer so adept at reinventing itself while catering to the beautiful people, that it will survive the recession in very good shape? As an investor, it would certainly grab my… Read More

Stocks with scant analyst coverage often offer opportunity for individual investors to exploit market inefficiencies. The small-cap arena is usually the most fruitful place to uncover these opportunities, but every now and then a firm with a larger market capitalization will fail to get… Read More

On April 26, the Dow hit a 52-week high of 11,258.01. It lost -11.0% through June 2 and has since clawed back some ground but remains -8.5% below its late-April high point. We lived through some big swings in May. Those big moves don’t look like they will abate in the near-term: The “Fear Index,” a measure of investor sentiment based on options trading, has risen to 30 today from 22 in late April, signaling investors are increasingly edgy and uncertain. The soft economic recovery at home and troubles in… Read More

On April 26, the Dow hit a 52-week high of 11,258.01. It lost -11.0% through June 2 and has since clawed back some ground but remains -8.5% below its late-April high point. We lived through some big swings in May. Those big moves don’t look like they will abate in the near-term: The “Fear Index,” a measure of investor sentiment based on options trading, has risen to 30 today from 22 in late April, signaling investors are increasingly edgy and uncertain. The soft economic recovery at home and troubles in Greece and Spain and elsewhere aren’t helping anything, nor is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In a climate like this, when the market has the opportunity to cathartically dispel its anxiety, it will generally take it — and send prices plummeting. But despite the challenging environment, a select basket of stocks are still delivering tremendous returns. Even on the market’s worst days, some securities are actually rising in price, sometimes substantially. Great stocks can see their shares gain a lot of ground in a… Read More

After plunging steadily in recent weeks, share prices in the oil and gas exploration appear to have finally found a floor. Some stocks such as Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) sharply rose on Wednesday after falling close to their 52-week lows, while other stocks such as Diamond Offshore… Read More