One of the most prominent names in perma-bear predicting, Nouriel Roubini, just advised that you buy stocks for a period of about 2 years. At that time, the professor expects a global economic depression to rock the world markets. There’s a great deal of irony in hearing “Dr. Doom” discuss riding a stock wave higher through [...] Continue Reading...
Investors may be heartened to discover that the Cyprus bailout is back on track. I am not sure how that will prevent Europeans in Italy and Spain from slowly moving their money out of beleaguered banks, but that is an issue for another day. Right now, broad-based U.S. large cap stocks are trading at record levels [...] Continue Reading...
What does it mean when we learn that consumer sentiment drops to the lowest level since 12/2011? For the bulls, it means that any setback in consumer “feelings” will be offset by the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy; that is, the Fed will not quit its bond-buying, interest rate lowering until exceptional employment prospects spur [...] Continue Reading...
In previous years, consumers spent more money when the value of their 401ks and the value of their homes were rising. That goes a long way toward explaining the performance of the third best sub-sector ETF on a rolling 5-year basis. Specifically, SPDR S&P Retail (XRT) annualized at 16.1% over the past 5 years while [...] Continue Reading...
Daily sentiment can change on a “Susan B. Anthony.” For instance, in the time that Prime Minister Mario Monti has held the reins of control in Italy, global markets have felt better about the prospect of the European Union holding itself together. At the start of Monday’s trading, in fact, stock assets around the world [...] Continue Reading...
Lately, I’ve been fielding a great many questions related to automobile companies. Had I seen the 5-year highs on car purchases? Am I aware that autos were the strongest segment in 2012 retail? And what’s the best ETF for capturing the inevitable growth? In truth, I’m not necessarily convinced that the U.S. auto sector will continue [...] Continue Reading...
Holy Home Depot, Target and eBay! The volume of e-mail offers from traditional and non-traditional retailers this Black Friday has thoroughly overwhelmed my smart phone. (It’s not a genius phone… that’s for certain.) Yet, for all the hoopla surrounding “day-after deals,” investors may want to resist the hype. Bespoke researchers have found that, since 2000, S&P 500 retail stocks [...] Continue Reading...
Many of us in the financial services industry expected the outcome of the election to be determined by Ohio alone. Perhaps surprisingly, while Ohio was close throughout the evening, there was never a need for recounting the “Buckeye State” ballots; President Obama had won the electoral votes needed without a single-state showdown. While a protracted battle [...] Continue Reading...
as we head into the final hours of campaigning, it appears that Governor romney is a slight favorite in terms of the popular vote and President obama is leading in the electoral college (which is really what counts). it is looking possible that the election results will be so close that the outcome will depend on recounts and [...] Continue Reading...
There are times when the broader U.S. market moves sideways. And in the last 5 trading sessions, in spite of rally hype, U.S. stocks have essentially parked the S&P 500 bus in neutral. In times like these, I often revisit all of my client holdings. Are there any underperformers that have not provided much in the way of diversification [...] Continue Reading...
