Jack Hough recently wrote an “Ahead of the Crowd” article for Barron’s on finding value in the stock market. The author cited a Merrill Lynch study that looked at core fundamental data dating back 25 years — data like book value, cash flow and earnings — to determine overpriced and under-priced sectors. My first reaction to [...] [...more]
According to EPFR Global, money poured into stock funds at a faster pace over the last week than at any time since September of 2007. For those who may not immediately recognize the date as particularly significant, October 2007 kicked off one of the most volatile and bone-jarring bear markets in U.S. history. By no means [...] [...more]
Banks in the United States received billions of government-sponsored investment dollars to cover monstrous mortgage debt losses. Similarly, banks in Europe are looking for a similar lifeline to shore up balance sheets plagued with toxic Spanish and Italian country bonds. On Friday, June 8, investors are inclined to believe that the Eurozone will come to the [...] [...more]
Dividend stocks are always on my radar screen, regardless of whether I am inclined at a given time to invest in them. Yet, for some clients, I’ve chosen a number of long-term holdings like Kimberly Clark (KMB), Pepsico (PEP) and Exelon (EXC). Nevertheless, it appears to be a foregone conclusion that favorable tax treatment of dividends will expire by the end of 2010. [...] [...more]
There’s no question that defensive sectors have led the way on a momentum basis. SPDR Select Utilities (XLU) and iShares Telecom (IYZ) amassed 8.4% and 10.5% respectively over the last 4 weeks. Yet this may have something to do with year-end yield harvesting and/or efforts to combine cash flow ETFs with growth ETFs. After all, even if the financials and energy segments have [...] [...more]
