This New Year, income investors like me will likely be finding some of the richest dividend yields overseas. As a general rule of thumb, foreign stocks often have higher dividend payouts than their U.S. counterparts, and pay a much larger dividend as well. While lately there’s… Read More

Although you have probably never heard of this company, chances are you use its technology every single day. Do you watch television, or use a computer? Have you bought an iPad or iPhone? Do you use a cell phone, digital camera or a GPS navigation system in… Read More

Ironically, some of the most highly-valued stocks in the Dow appear to hold some of the highest risk. That may come as a surprise when you consider that the broader markets (as measured by the S&P 500) have risen more than 80% from their early 2009 lows. Then again, if… Read More

As we enter 2011, investing abroad has become awfully tricky. Emerging market economies have been the shining stars of the past few years, and many of their stock markets have been on a tear. As I noted a few weeks ago,  some of them have seen their markets double in… Read More

Domino’s Pizza Group (NYSE: DPZ) is the world’s largest pizza delivery chain by market cap. The pizza company operates more than 9,700 franchised and company-owned stores across the globe and appears set to grow further. Domino’s is booming internationally, especially in India, where 70 new stores were built this year. Read More

Historians will look back at December 2010 as a watershed moment. At the beginning of the month, a courageous group of bipartisan souls announced a blueprint to stem the runaway tide of red ink. A couple weeks later, Congress and President Barack Obama agreed upon extending the Bush-era tax-cut package… Read More

Precious metals are skyrocketing. An ounce of gold, selling for less than $300 a decade ago, now changes hands at more than $1,400. Investors of all types are worried that the Federal Reserve is putting us on the road to currency devaluation and soaring… Read More

A perfect storm was brewing for the coal industry in 2008: carbon-capping climate legislation looked increasingly likely to be approved, demand for electricity began to fall sharply and natural gas — which can also replace coal in many power plants — saw a sharp price drop. In addition, the incoming… Read More

I was running through my colleague Brad Briggs’ recent look back at the silver crisis of the 1970s. He described a cautionary tale about investors chasing the commodity when its price was no longer connected to any sort of fundamental value. Needless to say, the silver bubble was eventually pricked: “With prices so high, people began selling all the silver they could get their hands on. Prices plummeted 50.0% in four days,” Briggs wrote. There is another metal that’s showing all the signs of a mania: copper. I don’t expect a sudden plunge as was… Read More

I was running through my colleague Brad Briggs’ recent look back at the silver crisis of the 1970s. He described a cautionary tale about investors chasing the commodity when its price was no longer connected to any sort of fundamental value. Needless to say, the silver bubble was eventually pricked: “With prices so high, people began selling all the silver they could get their hands on. Prices plummeted 50.0% in four days,” Briggs wrote. There is another metal that’s showing all the signs of a mania: copper. I don’t expect a sudden plunge as was the case with silver 30 years ago, but the price of this metal and of its key stocks are floating on a bed of complacency. This could all end soon thanks to a couple of occurrences that are happening offstage, but that may actually be advantageous in the short term. Copper prices have been steadily rebounding for the last two years as global demand perks up. The metal has many uses in construction, from plumbing to wiring to refrigeration coils. China, with its inexorable thirst for new building construction, has been a key driver for copper. This… Read More

It’s been a roller-coaster year for stocks, but one that will ultimately end well. Barring any unforeseen events, the S&P 500 will end the year with a gain of about 15.0%. This year brought with it a myriad of opportunities for profits and losses, from the commodities boom and M&A… Read More