Opinions

People always ask me about gold bullion. They want to know if it’s the right time to get back into gold bullion as an investment. While many other advisors are advocating a wholesale abandonment of gold bullion, I believe the time to buy is close. Finding the proper entry point

When a stock market sector is hot, it always pays to look for spin-off trades. These are investments related to the underlying strength in a particular industry and stock market sector. Housing, construction, and new home builder stocks have been soaring for quite some time now. And many businesses related

I can’t say this often enough: the eurozone debt crisis is here to stay for a long time. The key stock indices might have given investors false hope, but we are still standing at square one of any economic recovery. Greece, which was at the epicenter of the eurozone debt

On the surface, today’s jobs market report looks good… 195,000 jobs were created in the U.S. economy during the month of June, with the “official” unemployment rate for the month sitting at 7.6%, unchanged from May. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 5, 2013.) But look a little closer and

There is still a solid resilience to the stock market; and it’s based on global monetary stimulus combined with a sprinkling of economic news that institutional investors like. The willingness that institutional investors have to be buyers is still quite remarkable. But then again, with bond yields creeping up, there

The Chinese economy is showing traits that you should be watching. The country is experiencing an economic slowdown unlike any it has ever seen before. The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for China has been contracting for two consecutive months. In June, the indicator, which provides an overview of manufacturing

Investors beware: the bond market is treading in very rough waters. The sell-off we have seen of U.S. bonds might just lead to more troubles ahead for the bond market. Just take a look at the chart below. Thirty-year U.S. bonds look to be in a freefall. They have declined

It’s obvious to anyone who follows the market that the precious metals have dropped by a significant amount this year. At this point, many new investors who have been on the sidelines and were thinking about precious metals as a possible investment opportunity are wondering if this is the right

I’m the first to admit that the economy is faring much better than it was a few years ago—back when America entered into the Great Recession. Manufacturing is continuing to grow in the United States, and even though that’s at a slow pace, pundits seem impressed with the growth. But

In spite of all the doom and gloom reactions that immediately followed the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to announce a possible scaling back of the central bank’s bond-buying program by the year’s end, the stock market rallied for three straight days with triple-digit gains by the Dow Jones Industrial Average

A report from the National Institute of Retirement Security (NIRS) found that American households have a shortfall of anywhere between $6.8 trillion to $14.0 trillion when it comes to their retirement savings. Looking at their assets only in their retirement accounts, 92% of working households in the U.S. economy don’t

Gold bullion prices are taking a hard hit. Headlines are blaring with negativity, and bears continue to say the precious metal is useless. Dear reader, they may have done a good job driving the gold bullion prices lower, but they haven’t changed my opinion on gold one bit. I continue

It’s impossible to get more basic or old economy than Chef Boyardee. The brand is owned by ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG), which is one of North America’s largest packaged-food enterprises. The company’s brands are found in 97% of American households, and it has a large commercial foods segment. ConAgra just

Someone asked me the other day to recommend a diversified exchange-traded fund (ETF). I thought about it and really couldn’t think of one. There are some good diversified ETFs out there, but why only limit yourself to an ETF and not a stock? Now as many of you know, I

There are lots of benchmark stocks, but NIKE, Inc. (NKE) is an incredibly important one in retail. It’s actually quite surprising that such a mature brand can continue to do as well as it does. Not only is the company succeeding operationally, but it continues to be an excellent stock

In the first quarter of 2013, companies on the S&P 500 repurchased $97.8 billion worth of their own shares. That represents an increase of 4.3% from the previous quarter (fourth quarter of 2012), and a 17.2% hike from the same period a year ago. Over the trailing 12 months, the

The seesaw action in both the bond and stock markets is emblematic of this overly monetized world. With all the cash sloshing around, and the huge cash balances swelling at big U.S. corporations, the solution to economic mediocrity is clear: get corporations to spend on new business operations. But so

While the mainstream economists were quick to believe that the U.S. economy is growing as the key stock indices suggest, I stood by my opinion that it isn’t. After the first estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for the U.S. economy came out, a wave of optimism struck and stock

We all know that interest rates are eventually heading higher. It might be in 2014, but more likely not until 2015, when the unemployment rate can decline to 6.5% as the Federal Reserve believes. But one thing for sure is that interest rates are headed higher. (Read “Small-Cap Stocks the

Sales of new homes in May were recorded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 476,000. That was 29% higher over the same period a year ago and an improvement of 2.1% over the previous month. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, June 25, 2013.) The S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices in