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

A recent article in The Economist caught my eye, and a particular statistic I found interesting was that until 1800, China and India accounted for about half of the global economy. The Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s shifted the balance of power to… Read More

All eyes will be on Ben Bernanke this Wednesday as the Federal Reserve finally spells out the details of its much-anticipated second round of Quantitative Easing, known as “QE2.” [For more on QE2 and how it works, read this InvestingAnswers.com article] The Fed‘s efforts to stimulate the economy through bond buybacks have led investors to already open the champagne. As I noted recently, the S&P 500 has already appreciated by more than $1 trillion simply in anticipation of any presumed benefits. But in recent days, economists… Read More

All eyes will be on Ben Bernanke this Wednesday as the Federal Reserve finally spells out the details of its much-anticipated second round of Quantitative Easing, known as “QE2.” [For more on QE2 and how it works, read this InvestingAnswers.com article] The Fed‘s efforts to stimulate the economy through bond buybacks have led investors to already open the champagne. As I noted recently, the S&P 500 has already appreciated by more than $1 trillion simply in anticipation of any presumed benefits. But in recent days, economists are beginning to doubt whether Mr. Bernanke is going to bring out the large cannons, or simply a set of pea-shooters. More specifically, will QE2 be large enough to get the economy going, buying back up to $1 trillion in bonds, or will the Fed believe that a few hundred billion dollars will be sufficient? #-ad_banner-#A pair of fresh economic data points point to the latter. Last week, we saw a moderate drop in weekly jobless claims that makes it clear that unemployment is at least not getting worse at this point. And then on Monday… Read More

An historic Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is being held this week. The results of that meeting could have a significant impact on what the market does for the month of November and beyond. We get the results of… Read More

Investors hear a lot of talk about index funds and diversifying risk. And on its face, diversification seems like a reasonable strategy for long-term investing. I disagree. As a matter of… Read More