There are many investing maxims, but my favorite one will always be “love stocks when they’re hated.” That usually refers to bear markets being great buying opportunities, as we saw in early 2009 when the market finally began to turn around. Yet, the… Read More
Results
The unfolding events in Japan are distressing and saddening. We all hope that the social, environmental and economic impact of the recent earthquake will prove to be not as bad as is currently feared. In times like this, one can become a bit squeamish talking about investing. The sheer notion… Read More
Large pharmaceutical companies are facing a crisis. The industry spent a record $65 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2009, but approval rates for new drugs have fallen 44% during the past decade and continue to drop. Also in 2009, drugs launched in the previous five years accounted for… Read More
It was in an e-mail I received from one of my Daily Paycheck subscribers the other day. I thought it was a great suggestion. “Would you please consider displaying yield in the portfolios as both ‘current yield‘ and ‘… Read More
I got to know one company on my current watch list very well one summer, while working in the mail room of my father’s law firm. This was the mid 1980s. E-mail wasn’t even a Jetson’s fantasy. The computers that were around at the time were as big as a… Read More
This has been quite a winter. From Arab states falling to Twitter revolutions, to U.S. states finally owning up to their own fiscal shortfalls, to natural disasters in New Zealand, Australia and now Japan, stock markets around the world have been swinging up and down in manic… Read More
As impressive as the stock market looked when it is was rising ever higher in 2009 and 2010, recent trading action has been even more impressive. Sure, the S&P 500 has gone nowhere for the past six weeks, but it has hung in there despite a series of shocks that… Read More
When oil prices surged through 2007 and into 2008, many airlines ran for the hills, taking many planes out of service, cancelling orders for new planes and gearing up to conserve cash in case oil prices failed to fall back down. Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer,… Read More
After an extended period of 50%-plus annual growth, China recently surpassed the United States as the largest car market in the world. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as only 2% of the Chinese population owns cars. In other words, the market has vast potential to grow significantly… Read More
Virtually every blue-chip company has been focusing on a key issue for the past two years: Costs. Trimming expenses wherever possible was an absolute necessity during the scariest phases of the economic downturn. Those cost cuts, in turn, powered a remarkable expansion in profit margins and enabled many companies… Read More