Here’s a bit of good news: states have been able to collect roughly +2.5% more in taxes in the first half of 2010 compared with a year earlier. Then again, most states are staring down the barrel of massive budget deficits for 2011 and 2012, and a few percentage points… Read More

Years ago, my dad and I were driving across his farm in his vintage Land Rover, which looks almost exactly like the one John Wayne used in the movie Hatari! The heavy-duty off-road tires were having a hard slog through the mud. Dad had cut across a… Read More

More than 200 stocks hit new 52-week highs on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday as the market powers ever higher. Toiling on the sidelines of this surge is former highflyer Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), which has the dubious distinction of being one of just a handful of names hitting 52-week lows these days. The question for investors: is the Queen of domestic design becoming irrelevant, or simply the victim of bad-timing? To be sure, it’s no fun being a magazine publisher these days. High-profile titles such as Newsweek are seemingly… Read More

More than 200 stocks hit new 52-week highs on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday as the market powers ever higher. Toiling on the sidelines of this surge is former highflyer Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), which has the dubious distinction of being one of just a handful of names hitting 52-week lows these days. The question for investors: is the Queen of domestic design becoming irrelevant, or simply the victim of bad-timing? To be sure, it’s no fun being a magazine publisher these days. High-profile titles such as Newsweek are seemingly near death, while other esteemed titles such as The Atlantic are forced to cut the number of issues they publish each year. Yet Martha Stewart Living’s publishing business looks quite healthy — at least in terms of circulation. The company’s flagship Martha Stewart Living actually recently increased the amount of circulating copies its guarantees to advertisers to 2.025 million, while lesser titles such as Everyday Food (1 million) and Whole Living (650,000) are also posting rate base increases. Trouble is, the weak economy has been pressuring ad rates. So these titles… Read More

What’s one of the hottest micro-cap stocks of the last three months? I’ll give you a clue: it’s a mining company that’s stock tripled in value since mid-August. But instead of mining gold, silver or platinum, this company digs something else entirely different out of the earth. Read More

Just like most of the rest of the stock market, September was a surprisingly strong month for small caps. And October started out with a bang, but ended in a whimper. Together, however, it was an impressive two-month rise in stocks with market capitalizations under $2 billion,… Read More

As the Director of Income Research behind High-Yield International, it’s my duty to find the best income investments all over the world. And what I’m finding is that few places can compare to the yields and growth we’re seeing in South America right now.   One country I’ve… Read More

There seems to be no end to the commodities bull-run. The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, which tracks 19 heavily-traded commodities, posted a nice gain of +4.8% in October. Keep in mind that came after a sizzling +8.5% pop in September. All in all, the gains were broad-based… Read More

Like every investor, I try to read voraciously to get an edge. I’m always on the lookout for investment angles that haven’t gotten much press but could eventually turn into a market-moving event. So my ears perked up last week when I saw that hedge fund traders have… Read More

You may think stocks are still attractively priced after the recent rebound — but that doesn’t matter. Instead, it’s more important what your peers think and do. Because if you’re buying while they’re selling, you’ll lose. And right now, many of your peers have a solid excuse for selling: year-end profits. The S&P 500 has risen nearly +15% since early September, and many individual stocks are up +40% or even +50% from the summer swoon. With a hike in the capital gains tax expected next year, many investors will look to secure profits now instead of later. Read More

You may think stocks are still attractively priced after the recent rebound — but that doesn’t matter. Instead, it’s more important what your peers think and do. Because if you’re buying while they’re selling, you’ll lose. And right now, many of your peers have a solid excuse for selling: year-end profits. The S&P 500 has risen nearly +15% since early September, and many individual stocks are up +40% or even +50% from the summer swoon. With a hike in the capital gains tax expected next year, many investors will look to secure profits now instead of later. As my colleague Ryan Fuhrmann noted back in September, the capital gains tax rate will rise from 15% to 20% in 2011. Investors can avoid capital gains by generating offsetting capital losses, but after the market’s massive 20-month surge, there are fewer losers to be culled from investors’ portfolios. #-ad_banner-#If investors start to tiptoe toward the exits, it could quickly morph into a larger move. Just like we’re seeing in the current rally where success begets success, failure also begets failure. The market seems to be locked into mini-cycles characterized by broadening rallies (March… Read More

A surging stock market has brought a smile to the face of investment bankers. They’ve suddenly found a much more receptive environment for new initial public offerings (IPOs), with 16 deals of at least $100 million being pulled off in October — the best month for IPOs this year. And… Read More