Tag Archives: More
Cramer: Lowe’s Solid Earnings – More Than a Weather Blip
Jim Cramer explains that Lowe’s is regaining share as it benefits from its restructuring and a housing recovery.
How to Trade Less and Make More
Constantly chasing market moves and switching positions from long to short is a fool’s game, says Hubert Senters, who shows how to increase profitability simply by being more efficient with your trades.
MoneyShow.com – Trading Strategies and Techniques
Market Wrap-Up for Apr.10 (BBY, CAT, FCX, COP, PFE, more)
The recent losing streak continues for the market. This is the first one we have seen in 2012 and we are carefully looking at the names we currently like to see if any recommendation changes are warranted. We will keep subscribers updated to any possible moves.
Making headlines today were shares of Best Buy (BBY), which did end the day more than 5% lower on news the company’s CEO has resigned. Best Buy has been hurt badly by the rise in online electronics sales by competitors such as Amazon.com. As we’ve maintained for a while now, investors are much better off avoiding this so-called “value” name.
Commodity-related stocks continue to act heavily, with investors moving away from names like Caterpillar (CAT) and Freeport McMoran (FCX). Meanwhile, Wall Street analyst downgrades pushed down shares of Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), ConocoPhillips (COP), and Entergy (ETR). A couple of names that avoided much of selling were Harley-Davidson (HOG) and Pfizer (PFE), with both companies getting an early boost from positive analyst commentary, but ending the day essentially flat.
Words Can Break You
Baseball fans are used to hearing crazy comments from former major league player and current Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen, but his latest rants about loving Fidel Castro and respecting his ability to hold his position of power for decades may punch his ticket right out of Miami. Athletes and celebrities tend to gravitate toward a microphone and just let words fly, many times without much through behind their words. When sensitive topics like Fidel Castro’s reign of terror in Cuba come up, it’s all too easy for Mr. Guillen to put his foot in his mouth.
In your own career, you may find yourself in a predicament where you’re asked to make your thoughts known, but sometimes you need to really step back and decide if the consequences of offering your opinion have any upside at all. In a recent “Celebrity Apprentice” episode, actor Lou Ferrigno was asked if his team had the better video production than his opponent, and he said he liked the other team’s better. Donald Trump used this “disloyalty” as the main reason he “fired” Lou Ferrigno from the team. Clearly, there will be times in life where speaking your mind can only do damage.
Class of 2012: More jobs, bigger paychecks
This year’s college graduates are being offered more jobs and fatter paychecks.
College savings advice – CNNMoney.com
Market Wrap-Up for Apr.4 (MON, IBM, MCD, THI, JOY, more)
Panicky investors reacted negatively to the Federal Reserve’s headline comments yesterday, but may have missed the part where the Fed said they’re ready to act as needed if growth slows. Don’t get me wrong, a pullback here is not a bad thing for dividend investors as we would like to see better entry points for our favorite dividend names anyhow.
Looking at today’s market movers, it was safe to say most of the names we were monitoring traded in the red for much of the day. Monsanto (MON) reported earnings this morning and closed down. Wall Street analyst downgrades helped push stocks like IBM Corp (IBM), Tim Horton’s (THI), and McDonald’s (MCD) lower. Bucking the downtrend were shares of Brown-Forman (BF-B) and Joy Global (JOY), with both stocks seeing positive comments from analyst upgrades.
Student Loan Debt: You Won’t Believe These Stats
The Washington Post recently ran a story highlighting the age demographics of Americans carrying student loan debt. It’s no surprise to see nearly two-thirds of the total debt is held by those in the 20-39 year-old age range. Where things get scary is when you see 16% plus of student debt held in the 40-49 year-old age range, 11% of debt held by those in the 50-59 year-old range, and 4% plus of debt held by Americans in their 60′s. $ 36 billion in student loan dollars are outstanding for Americans over 60! This type of personal debt can be a scary thing for people in this age group, since it’s normally the time folks planned to have little or no debt.
So, how do so many older Americans owe so much in student loans? They likely either picked a career path early in life that didn’t work out as well on the salary standpoint, or decided to go back to school to re-tool their skills in their 40′s. The hope, of course, is to invest in a career that will eventually pay enough to wipe away the loan debt relatively quickly.
Stocks Drop More Than 1%
The S&P 500 falls back below 1400 as data on the services sector falls short. Rising Spanish bond yields and the Fed’s lack of enthusiasm for QE3 also weigh.
Click to view a price quote on ^DJI.
The Apple Twitter Merger (in more than 140 charatcers)
Why Apple should use its cash hoard to buy Twitter
Barry Ritholtz
Washington Post
March 24, 2012
A Tumblr blog called “Things Apple Is Worth More Than” details, not surprisingly, an astonishing list: All of the gold at the New York Federal Reserve; the world’s entire supply of illegal drugs; the franchise value of “Star Wars”/“Star Trek”/Harry Potter/Stephen King/“Twilight” combined; the entire U.S. aircraft carrier fleet; all 32 euro-zone banks.
All of which is to say, Apple is fantastically valuable. In fact, it sports the biggest market cap of any company in the world. This enormous worth comes from two sources: Its $ 100 billion cash hoard and its highly valued stock.
Last week, we found out what Apple is going to do with some of that cash: It is going to pay a dividend and buy back stock. But that won’t make much of a difference. Apple’s revenue and profit are growing so quickly that this $ 2.65 per quarter (about 1.77 percent) dividend will barely dent its cash pile. (Apple’s stock is even more valuable.)
The upcoming $ 100 billion Facebook IPO made me wonder whether Apple needs to get more creative about some of the new competition coming along. No, I am not suggesting it should buy Facebook. (Mark Zuckerberg’s path will not likely run through Cupertino.)
But the dividend/stock buyback started me thinking about all the other things Apple could do. That huge pile of dough and rapidly appreciating currency (AAPL stock) is a powerful combination. It opens up an incredible range of options.
Market Wrap-Up for Mar.29 (BBY, MOS, AXP, WFM, CAT, CLF, more)
Economic concerns in Europe and uncertainty as to whether the U.S. economy has turned a corner had the markets seeing red for much of the day until some late-day buying, led by several commodity plays kicked in.
Best Buy (BBY) came out with bad news about guidance as well as an announcement they will be shuttering 50 stores. BBY is a stock we continue to steer clear of, even as the company is portrayed as a value gem among some of Wall Street’s bargain shoppers. Fertilizer play Mosaic (MOS) was also lower following the company’s earnings report. Elsewhere, negative Wall Street analyst calls hurt shares of Whole Foods (WFM), PNC Financial (PNC), and American Express (AXP). Again, it’s been a strong quarter for many names, so a bit of profit taking is certainly expected from traders. Back to the rebound names, Peabody Energy (BTU), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), and Caterpillar (CAT) all saw buyers take a taste following the recent selling.
America’s Love Affair With Cars
I was just reading an interesting nugget out of credit information company TransUnion, which studied the payment patterns of 4 million Americans with at least one car loan, one credit card, and a home mortgage.
Among individuals who were late on any of those payments last year, 39 percent were delinquent on the mortgage while current on the car loan and credit cards, and 17 percent were late on credit cards while current on the other two.
In Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko’s book The Millionaire Next Door, the authors wrote about how little emphasis “under the radar” millionaires placed on driving new cars. I have the same mindset and my preference is to put my money to work while enjoying other goodies. It’s a personal choice of course, but pricey monthly car payments should be toward the bottom of anyone’s list, if the goal is to build wealth. If you have already reached a level of success where money is not as big a concern, then by all means indulge. Hoarding money forever doesn’t make much sense either!
How to Get More with Less Indicators
Using multiple indicators just increases the odds for mixed signals, says Anne-Marie Baiynd, who advocates a process called "synthesis," which is designed to maximize indicator effectiveness.
MoneyShow.com – Trading Strategies and Techniques
Market Wrap-Up for Mar.26 (QCOM, HON, COH, JPM, MA, more)
Today we enter the final week in what has been one of the best quarters for the markets in nearly a decade. So, it’s no surprise to see Wall Street analysts pounding home a big batch of upgrades as the week begins. In fact, I can’t remember a single day in the past few months that included this much positive analyst commentary.
Some of those positive calls helped lift shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) (read more here), Honeywell (HON) (more here), Ross Stores (ROST), and Coach (COH). There are a few downgrades as well pushing a couple of names lower despite the early up action. Baker Hughes (BHI), which is coming off some earnings concerns, and Safeway (SWY) (more here) were the target of those cautionary notes. Getting back to the gainers, the financial sector continues to be a first quarter highlight, with more gains today from the likes of Mastercard (MA), J.P. Morgan (JPM), and Blackrock (BLK).
We’re also heading into the last week for tax preparation. I hope investors are taking advantage of every tax break possible. Let’s look at some potential money-saving ideas to consider.
Retirement Account Deadlines Approaching
One of the best long-term retirement strategies an investor can use is investing in dividend-paying stocks within their Roth IRAs. Roth IRA Distributions, including capital gains, interest, and DIVIDENDS are tax-free if you are at least age 59 1/2 years old, and the account has been established for longer than five tax years. Dividends paid into a Roth account are never taxed, even when withdrawn. This special treatment differs from dividends accumulated in a Traditional IRA, which would be taxed during withdrawals. The best part of a Traditional IRA is the tax credit is counted the year you do it. Some accountants prefer clients to take this road, knowing it can ease one’s tax burden for the particular year a traditional IRA is funded. Do remember, though, that withdrawals taken from an IRA account before age 59 1/2, including income from dividends, is subject to a 10 percent penalty tax in addition to ordinary income taxation. Always consult with a tax specialist before making any moves that may incur tax consequences. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with purchasing dividend stocks within a Traditional IRA either, but Roth IRAs are particularly attractive to dividend investors looking to maximize their future retirement withdrawals.
For those of you who are self-employed, you have the benefit of building a retirement nest egg very quickly with a SEP-IRA. If you’re self-employed, you can contribute 25% of your earned income or $ 50,000, whichever is less, to a SEP plan for 2012. Think of all the high-quality dividend stocks you can be putting to work for yourself — that’s the true essence of making your money work for you! Again, talk to your tax professional and see how you can take advantage of this type of account.
