The era of cost-cutting is over. This means it’s going to get harder for companies to show radical profit gains. Indeed, the pace of upside surprises in the first quarter of 2011 has modestly lagged previous quarters, according to Zacks.com. Yet some companies continue… Read More

Companies rightly see research and development (R&D) spending as a key measure of whether a product line is fresh and capable of capturing impressive pricing and margins. When that figure is low, it’s a sure sign a company is relying on older, possibly antiquated products to carry the day. And… Read More

If you follow the foreign exchange markets, you are probably aware of the Canadian dollar’s rise against its U.S. counterpart. Canada’s currency has now eclipsed the value of the U.S. dollar — it now takes roughly $1.05 U.S. dollar to buy one Canadian “loonie.” The rising… Read More

#-ad_banner-#Coffee chains like Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) get the lion’s share of press when it comes to the $7 billion fresh coffee market. And up until now, the company has focused primarily on the chain’s retail side of the coffee business. What investors haven’t realized is that 86% of coffee drinkers… Read More

Big Oil is accustomed to a high return on investment (ROI). It makes some sense. After all, it costs millions to drill a conventional oil well and hundreds of millions to drill offshore, with no guarantees. With that in mind, it would be foolish… Read More

For many decades, it was pretty easy to analyze bank stocks. You simply needed look at their balance sheets and where we stood in the economic cycle. In tougher economic times, banks stocks typically traded right down to tangible book value, as that was… Read More

In a rising market, bad news for a company can be shrugged off as investors focus on the positives. But in recent weeks, investors have been less forgiving, meting out punishment to any company that delivers bad news. Let’s take a look at all of the companies that have lost… Read More

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to trade stocks alongside corporate insiders? There is a way you can do this — and it is perfectly legal. Information about insider share purchases and sales is readily available to anyone who wants to view it. That’s because corporate officers,… Read More

As the past couple years have shown, U.S. equities are once again a prime source of attractive returns. But they’re not the only — or necessarily the best — source. Like many market watchers, I believe the highest long-term returns are to be had in developing countries… Read More

I recently watched the classic man-eating fish movie “Jaws” and the latest action in the precious metals space reminded me of the tagline for the film, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…” Is it safe to swim in the water?… Read More