Search

This is, almost certainly, our last update before the Fed starts slashing interest rates for the first time this year. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, there is now a 100% chance Jerome Powell and company will cut rates by some amount on September 17; 90% think it will be by 25 basis points, another 10% think it will be by 50 basis points, much like last September.

Rumors of the global economy’s imminent demise have been greatly exaggerated – at least so far. Indeed, the IMF estimates that worldwide GDP will expand by more than 3% both this year and next, which is in line with the normal GDP growth rate since the Great Recession. And yet, certain stocks are being treated like it’s 2009 out there. That includes this month’s addition to our Growth & Income Portfolio. It’s a big-cap, big-name company whose shares are nearly 30% off their highs, but the firm is on track for its best year in terms of sales and earnings outside of a Covid-era anomaly. It’s a company that flourishes when the global economy is healthy. And the stock is on sale, having not fully recovered from the spring tariff worries.

Details inside.

It’s been a rough few years for the housing sector.

Ever since the Fed raised interest rates to multi-decade highs in 2022/2023, both housing starts and existing home sales have fallen off a cliff in the U.S. Housing starts peaked at 1.82 million in April 2022; they dipped as low as 1.28 million this May, a 30% dropoff. Existing home sales have fallen even further, from a 6.6-million-unit peak in January 2021 to a 3.9-million-unit nadir this June – a 41% haircut.

For today’s Dividend Edition of Investment of the Week, I wanted to introduce investing with dividend reinvestment plans, or DRIPs. We have two Dick Davis Digest contributors who focus exclusively on investing with DRIPs, and others who recommend them occasionally. So DRIPs appear in the Digests fairly regularly, and I...

One company that has caught my eye recently is Gafisa (GFA), a Brazilian company that’s trying to bring North American-style housing developments to Brazil. Brazil’s population is more than 70% larger than that of Mexico, but its housing market is about half of that in Mexico. But as prosperity works its way through the Brazilian economy, more and more people will be able to afford homes, and Gafisa is bringing the efficiency of modern building methods to the building process.

These healthcare stocks are hitting new highs as they and the rest of the world search for a cure for COVID-19. Call them coronavirus stocks.

Lithium is a growth industry, but with Albemarle Corp (ALB) you get a lithium stock that offers growth, dividends and value.

They’re at Sotheby’s Auction House and selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but what are NFTs and why should you care?

In an effort to keep the Profit Booster portfolio as diversified as possible, today we are adding an emerging broker play that is coming off a strong quarter, and just last night announced a large buyback.

The U.S.-China trade war is dominating the investment landscape. But if you avoid certain big-name multinational stocks, it shouldn’t impact your portfolio.

Value stocks have outperformed the market of late, with the Vanguard Value Index Fund (VTV) up 2.9% in the last month vs. a 2.3% return in the S&P 500. Granted, that’s minuscule outperformance, but it’s a sign that investors are starting to look for value with the major indexes at or near all-time highs for the last couple months.

The market has finally started to show some cracks the last couple days, but the bull market remains very much intact. Last week’s 25-basis-point Fed rate cut was expected, but should nonetheless act as a tailwind – or at least a floor raiser – in the coming months, especially as Jerome Powell and company signaled that they plan to cut twice more before year’s end. And yet, there’s no getting around the fact that stocks, as a whole, are overvalued, with the S&P 500 trading at 23.8x forward earnings – its highest point since late February.

GameStop (GME) became a household name to investors long after it was a household name to young gamers who liked to play Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and EA Sports video games. In January 2021, the struggling and widely shorted stock experienced an almost unprecedented resurgence thanks to a Reddit message board-fueled short squeeze orchestrated by someone named Keith Gill, under his more public alias Roaring Kitty.

What a difference two months make!

On April 8, the Nasdaq had plummeted to bear market territory after touching all-time highs just six weeks earlier, and the S&P 500 was on the cusp of joining it. Small caps were faring even worse. Volatility had spiked to multi-year highs. And everyone was certain a recession or high inflation – or both – were imminent.

The reason was tariffs. “Liberation Day,” a week earlier, on which President Donald Trump had imposed sky-high tariffs on more than 100 U.S. trading partners from all over the world, had sent stocks plummeting as economists clutched their pearls and warned of imminent collapse.

The plain truth is that the War on Drugs (a term first used by President Richard Nixon in 1969) has been a failure. In short, we should legalize it, regulate it and tax it.

When it comes to your financial health, saving more money can be just as important as earning more money. If you’ve been considering buying an electric vehicle, making improvements to your home, or just replacing a window, the Inflation Reduction Act unleashed a slew of federal rebates that will put more money back in your pocket. This month we’ll focus on how to take advantage of those programs, plus, we’ll explore a wide range of discounts available to seniors, students, travelers, and more.

2021 is off to a good start thanks to strong earnings and continued investor enthusiasm for big technology companies and a new administration. The backstop from governments and central banks, as well as the consensus among investors that a strong economic recovery is coming this year, has for now pushed volatility out of the market.

The Explorer portfolio had a good week and today we add another SPAC merging with an established, fast-growing financial payments firm based in the United Kingdom.

After a rough start to the year, renewable energy stocks are suddenly surging again. Here are three in particular that I like.

“Investors steadily increased purchases of variable annuities with guaranteed benefits in recent years. These annuities clearly are striking the interest of a substantial number of investors. But they’re complicated, and I doubt most of the buyers fully understand them or know how to compare them to alternatives. There are several...

In today’s Stock Market Crash Course, majority opinion says that the market will experience a short correction before testing pre-crash highs this Spring. But in a contrarian exercise, I look at what the other side is saying. Includes views from The Stock Traders Almanac, Cabot Options Trader, Technical Disciplines and...