There are few things that can light a fire under a stock like an earnings surprise. When a company chimes in with a big earnings surprise, analysts and portfolio managers update their models, forecasts are increased and… Read More

We can say this about Wall Street strategists: They are usually wrong before they are right. Back in February, I noted that many of the top market forecasters were calling for a challenging market.  Many of them thought… Read More

A pretty remarkable shift in sentiment happened in the stock market last month and few may have noticed. The short positions among the most heavily shorted stocks on the stock market shrank by a major amount.  Consider the drop in these short interest… Read More

The U.S. consumer has been in a funk for several years now. European consumers feel even more pinched. Even the go-go economies of China and Brazil are seeing the signs of weakening consumer sentiment. Still, credit card giants Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE:… Read More

When Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) announced plans to file for bankruptcy, investors should not have been surprised. After all, shares had fallen from $20 to $2 in the past year, signaling potential financial distress in the days and weeks ahead. In fact, expectations that… Read More

I live in hurricane country and have personally witnessed my share of Category 3s, as well as a handful of tropical storms. One main point safety officials stress is concerning the eye of the storm. Although it brings a relative period of calm, depending on how big the eye of… Read More

At the start of 2012, investors were assessing whether it was wiser to focus on the deep value that many stocks offered, or the incipient signs of a global economic slowdown that would cap any upside for stocks. They focused on the former in the first quarter, giving stocks a… Read More

Do quarterly results even matter? Investors had been anticipating a fairly tough set of reports prior to the most recent earnings season, but they bid up stocks throughout March anyway. When those reports rolled in across April and early May, the numbers (and… Read More

Time to party like it’s…2007? No thanks.  Just five years ago, the phrase “subprime” started to creep into the U.S. consumer lexicon. And not long after, the phrase “subprime mess” became a household name.   #-ad_banner-#In case your memory needs refreshing, the subprime… Read More

After a steady six-month surge, the stock markets are reversing course. The S&P 500 is off roughly 5% since early April, and signs are emerging that there may be plenty more downside on the way.  The problems for Greece — and Europe — keep mounting. The continent’s major economies have… Read More