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I’ve discussed the tumult plaguing the newspaper industry several times recently and after today, I’ll let the topic rest unless something noteworthy happens. But first, I want to share a few more of your letters because they express some ideas that haven’t been voiced here before. Thanks to everyone for writing in, I appreciate you taking the time to share your insights with me and your fellow readers. To read all of the past issues I’ve written about the newspaper industry and see how others responded, go to our Web site archives. If you haven’t shared your view yet, you can do so by sending me an email or commenting on our blog.

Despite the daily focus on the worst aspects of the China tariff story, the fact is that the broad market has built a decent base (albeit loose) over the past month. Repeated tales of doom and gloom aren’t sending it any lower. Thus, I remain long-term bullish, though short-term somewhat cautious.And I continue to recommend that you maintain a portfolio full of diversified stocks that meet your investment goals. Last week’s recommendation was a hot growth stock, so this week we swing back to a conservative dividend-paying stock, one that is performing very well today.As for our current stocks, there are no changes. The last week of August changed little, but going forward, I expect a little more action, ideally to the upside. Details in the issue.

It’s one step forward and two steps back in this crummy market.
The indexes seem to stage an impressive rally at some point every week. But the S&P 500 has fallen for seven consecutive weeks, the longest such streak since 2001. It came within a whisker of a bear market (down 20% from the high on a closing basis) before the latest temporary rally on Monday.

The market has deteriorated over the past couple weeks. The S&P 500 fell into a bear market on June 13th. The combination of continuing high inflation and a more aggressive than previously expected Fed has led to widespread expectations of recession over the next year.

Recessions are bad for stocks for obvious reasons. But there is something worse than recession, looming recession. Stocks generally recover during a recession. Because the market anticipates, it tends to rebound before the economy. The worst environment for stocks tends to be prior to recession, upon expectation, to part of the way through it.

Streaming companies have completely changed the way we watch TV and movies. And these three streaming stocks are set to take charge.

One of the most interesting parts of my job is answering questions from subscribers, mostly about growth investing. The questions I get tell me an enormous amount about how investors are thinking, what they’re worrying about and how they’re handling market conditions. Here is a question I got last week, and the answer I sent back.

Legalizing marijuana would not only create a great new source of revenue, it would also bring quality control to the industry, create thousands of new legal jobs, and - best of all - stop the practice of imprisoning people who were only working to make a buck by filling the market’s demand ... which could save us many billions of dollars a year, reduce ancillary violent crime, return people to the labor force and make families whole again.

Priceline.com (PCLN) has been doing well and has the potential to go higher.

The markets have had a strong start to 2023, and while sentiment among many remains bearish, could we be seeing signs of a new bull market emerging?

Altria Group (MO) offers one of the highest yields in the S&P 500, but questions about the reliability of cash flow make it one to avoid.

Cannabis stocks have had their worst week in years following the DEA’s updated rescheduling timeline; here are the five most important takeaways for investors.

The market has been in slump for the past month-plus, as it often is this time of year. Still, there are a bunch of stocks I like right now.

From top to bottom, the Marijuana Index fell 88% from early 2018 to last month’s market low, and now the recovery has begun.

During the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen the major indexes hit the skids but most of the resilient, growth-oriented stocks hold up relatively well. This week, though, the script was flipped—the holiday-shortened week saw the major indexes gain 1% (Nasdaq) to 2% (S&P 500), but leading stocks were hit very hard Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last year, after much soul-searching, I decided to trade in my trusty 1998 Toyota Avalon in favor of a smaller, better-for-the-environment car--2009 Toyota Matrix. According to Toyota, the 1998 Avalon gets 19 miles per gallon city and 27 miles per gallon highway, not bad for such a large car. But the Matrix gets 26 miles per gallon city and 32 miles per gallon highway. At the time, there was no such thing as the Cash for Clunkers program that’s available now. My Avalon wouldn’t have been eligible anyway, as it comes in well above the 18 combined mile-per-gallon qualifying mark. Well the program, which is supposed to run from July 1 to November 1, has been such a hit that it has already run out of funding. Congress has just added an additional $2 billion to the nearly depleted $1 billion the program started with.