The debate about dollar devaluation — its risks, its rewards — isn’t going to end anytime soon. The Fed’s intention to begin a second round of “quantitative easing (QE)“Â assures us of that. Yet investors who may feel queasy about jumping into gold at $1310 per ounce can consider other beneficiaries of a weaker dollar. In fact, [...] Continue Reading...
The PowerShares Dollar Bullish Fund (UUP) has fallen 11% since early June. For worse or for better, the U.S. dollar’s value on the world stage is the same as it was at the start of 2010. By itself, this fact isn’t all that alarming. Yet the Federal Reserve’s orchestrated maneuvers in the light of day — [...] Continue Reading...
There may be more than 1000 ETFs worth $850 billion in assets. However, when you remove leveraged “long”/”short” investments, and when you discard those with limited assets under management (i.e., less than $100 million), you pare that list down to 380 ETFs. Most of the themes for 2010 are readily recognizable in this ETF roll call. Current [...] Continue Reading...
The S&P 500 is more than 15% off its April peak. In fact, nearly all sector and industry investments have fallen more than a corrective 10% from the top. Yet there may be another approach for assessing the damage. For example, the S&P 500 index itself hasn’t been at this price level since October of 2009… more than eight months [...] Continue Reading...
What a difference a few years can make. It wasn’t that long ago that investors had written off Starbucks for dead. Fast food chains like IHOP were serving up free pancakes. And previous darlings like Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) had forfeited 70%+ of its market value. Yet recent upgrades to a number of food service giants may make PowerShares Dynamic Food [...] Continue Reading...
The first quarter was a winner for U.S. stocks. The Dow picked up 4%, the S&P 500 garnered nearly 5% and the Nasdaq scored approx 6%. Things were a bit less rosy for the global investor. The iShares Global 100 (IOO) snagged less than 1%, while Vanguard Emerging Markets (VWO) brought in less than 3%. Credit the euro’s precipitous [...] Continue Reading...
Let me reiterate for those who are new to reading my columns. I do not buy-n-hold. And I won’t be buying-n-holding the 7 ETFs in the simple portfolio below. Nevertheless, the powers-that-be at the largest financial institutions gave S&P 500 forecasts for 2010. And with that… I can’t help but join the jubilee. The least bullish had [...] Continue Reading...
The Senate recently voted in favor of a health reform bill. Is this good or bad for medical insurers? November new home sales were no better than they were in April. Does that spell doom for homebuilders or serve up new opportunity? Congress raised the deficit debt ceiling to $12.4 trillion. Can the U.S. dollar really handle [...] Continue Reading...
Some may believe that the equity markets were firing on all cylinders until Dubai World’s debt struggles became headline fodder over T-Giving. Others have suggested that investors began ratcheting back risk a week earlier (circa 11/18); that’s when a surprise drop in new home construction and unforeseen strength in the U.S. dollar rattled stock prices for 3 consecutive days. [...] Continue Reading...
Six years ago, our country debated whether we would/should fight Iraq. We already had troops fighting to maintain control of Afghanistan. I remember thinking that history favored defense stocks in similar situations. In fact, stock... Continue Reading...
