Opinions

The verdict is in… The Federal Reserve will taper further. In its statement, the Federal Reserve said, “Beginning in April, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $25 billion per month rather than $30 billion per month, and will add to its

Almost daily, there’s a new piece of information coming out about the Chinese economy that suggests economic conditions there are worsening. We see China’s manufacturing sector is contracting and there’s a credit crunch in the making. The Wall Street Journal ran a story last Friday on the state of the

The stock market continues to want to go higher despite the lack of any major new catalyst and the renewed tensions in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Yet despite the bullish sentiment at this time, the gains have been much more difficult to come by, as I had predicted at

It’s been a very choppy start to the year for stocks and with no real trend to latch onto, the news of the day is the catalyst for the trading action. There is still a positive undercurrent in the equity market, and it’s evidenced, in part, by particular strength in

As many people know, one of the hottest areas in the market right now is technology stocks. Investor sentiment has continued piling into this sector—with good reason in some cases.  The danger for investors is when investor sentiment becomes too bullish—technology stocks might be entering this territory.  The latest of

Since the beginning of the year, gold bullion has gained a significant amount of attention. The precious metal has increased about 14% in value and has become one of the best-performing asset classes. Key stock indices, on the other hand, are down. With this rise in gold bullion prices, we

The U.S. national debt has skyrocketed from $9.2 trillion in the beginning of 2008 to $17.3 trillion today. This represents an increase of more than 88% in just a matter of a few years. (Source: Treasury Direct web site, last accessed March 11, 2014.) The national debt of the U.S.

New York City is a colossal urban jungle, but what strikes me is the surging housing market rental prices in not only Manhattan, but also the strong price appreciation in the borough of Brooklyn. Average home prices peaked around $550,000 in early 2006, prior to a steady decline since then.

Retail is a tough business to be in and always difficult as an investor. Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM) took off after the company beat Wall Street consensus and increased its quarterly dividend by six percent on the back of 4.3 million repurchased shares in fiscal 2013. The stock moved 10% higher

“I think the stock market is getting into the overbought territory. Gold is due for a pullback. To be honest, I don’t see many opportunities out there other than bitcoins.” These were the words of wisdom from my good old friend Mr. Speculator. While most have forgotten about the virtual

Since the beginning of the year, we have been seeing economic data that suggests consumer spending in the U.S. economy is in trouble—we have seen menial growth, if not negative growth. If this trend continues, it could be very dangerous, since consumer spending is an important factor for calculating the

There is some resilience to this stock market, and it’s evidenced by the strength in many important indices. The Dow Jones Transportation Average is a very important index, even if you don’t own—or aren’t interested in owning—any component companies. The reason for its importance is that it has a track

In today’s U.S. economy, we have a very small portion of the population earning most of the total income generated by the economy, while the majority of people suffer, as their incomes have failed to rise at the pace of the rich. According to a study by the Paris School

There is something going on right now in the copper market that should alarm you. Over the past week, the price of copper has plunged, recently hitting a four-year low. Why should this matter? Most investors and analysts are placing bets that economic growth is about to re-accelerate globally. Never

With a long-term portfolio, the goal is to earn a constant rate of return over a long period. Sadly, even with this in mind, investors end up making decisions that jeopardize their long-term objectives. They make mistakes, but luckily, the effects of these mistakes can be easily controlled, saving their

Among blue chips, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) remains one of the most attractive enterprises for long-term investors. As a benchmark stock within the entire equity universe and a conglomerate itself of healthcare businesses, it’s reasonable to expect a stock like this to provide a normalized annual return of approximately 10%

As key stock indices like the S&P 500 make new highs, bullishness increases almost daily, and stock advisors are saying buy more. I am not surprised by this. All of these irrationalities tell us something very important: the bear is doing a great job of luring investors back into stocks

This month marks the fifth year of the rally in stocks that started in March of 2009. Back then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded as low as 6,400 and uncertainty was severe. In the midst of all this, a buying opportunity of a lifetime was born. I told my

Lots of companies are reporting their earnings results at this time, and there is some resilience to the numbers.  A hard winter definitely is apparent in corporate earnings and economic data. Spring can’t come soon enough. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (KKD) has been fighting to bring its business back from

Investors have again begun flirting with the junior mining sector. Will it lead to a love affair or is it just a tryst? Derek Macpherson, a mining analyst with M Partners, believes it is still too early to be taking on high-risk, high-leverage names. In this interview with The Gold