The late-1970s was witness to one of the most remarkable gold rallies in history. From a low of $100 per troy ounce in 1976, prices rose to a then-record $873 by 1980. The culprit? Double-digit rates of inflation. Read More

I have been chewing over our trading expert Mike Turner’s article this week, trying to get a handle on where the stock market can go from here. [Read Mike’s article here] Mike points out that September’s rally seemingly ignores the daunting economic hurdles we face. And his… Read More

The S&P 500 Index is the most commonly tracked investment benchmark in the United States. When you hear about a portfolio manager “beating the market,” chances are it is in reference to outperforming the S&P 500. Read More

As my colleague Mike Turner has noted, September was one for the record books. [Read Mike’s article here] And as Mike notes, it never hurts to play a little defense after such a good run. But in these markets, you’ll need to stay nimble. Coming earnings reports may just be good enough to keep the markets moving north, forestalling the moment when profit-taking dominates the action. With that in mind, let’s look at three companies that will report quarterly results in the next week or so. What they have to say about business… Read More

As my colleague Mike Turner has noted, September was one for the record books. [Read Mike’s article here] And as Mike notes, it never hurts to play a little defense after such a good run. But in these markets, you’ll need to stay nimble. Coming earnings reports may just be good enough to keep the markets moving north, forestalling the moment when profit-taking dominates the action. With that in mind, let’s look at three companies that will report quarterly results in the next week or so. What they have to say about business conditions may well set the trading tone for the rest of October and beyond. Aloca (NYSE: AA) On the first Monday in October, the Supreme Court kicks off a new term. And a few days after that, Alcoa always kicks off earnings season. For the past few years, Alcoa has set a somber tone as global demand for aluminum has been in a slump ever since Europe and the United States headed into the downturn. Yet I recently opined that a turn may be coming for Alcoa. [Read: “The Best… Read More

While companies like Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have revved up their acquisitions latesly, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) has been quiet. But this won’t last for long. The company has integrated its $7.5 billion deal for Sun Microsystems and also snagged the former CEO of HP,… Read More

You have undoubtedly heard that various components or asset classes of the market are, from time to time, manipulated. “Manipulating the market” means that by some purposeful and sometimes with nefarious intentions, a market that should move higher, moves lower… or, as in the case of September, the market moved… Read More

In recent weeks, stock market pundits have been wrestling with a curious phenomenon. Trading activity has fallen sharply, which these market-watchers presume to mean that investors have lost interest in stocks. Mom-and-pop investors have likely become more gun-shy this year. But the main culprit for lower trading volumes: Wall Street’s… Read More

Here’s the thing about sin: though ugly, it tends to roll on in any economy. This fact is a huge benefit to companies that deal in vice. When searching for investments in a slow-growth or uncertain economy, investors often look to defensive industries such as healthcare, food and utilities. After all, people still get sick and need to eat and stay warm regardless of the state of the economy. But, it’s seldom mentioned that people consistently do something else in any economy — drink and smoke. In… Read More

Here’s the thing about sin: though ugly, it tends to roll on in any economy. This fact is a huge benefit to companies that deal in vice. When searching for investments in a slow-growth or uncertain economy, investors often look to defensive industries such as healthcare, food and utilities. After all, people still get sick and need to eat and stay warm regardless of the state of the economy. But, it’s seldom mentioned that people consistently do something else in any economy — drink and smoke. In fact, vice just might be the most defensive business of all. Stocks in the cigarette and beer industries seem to keep on making profits and the stocks keep going up regardless of what the market is doing. While the S&P 500 is lower now than it was 10 years ago, Morningstar’s cigarette industry category soared at a remarkable average of more than +21% a year for the past 10 years. The Beverage-Brewer (beer) category returned an average of about +16% per year for the same period. And the outperformance is continuing. Read More

With reward comes risk. That’s the painful lesson learned by biotech investors last month. Investors in Arena Pharma (Nasdaq: ARNA), Idenix Pharma (Nasdaq: IDIX), AMAG Pharma (Nasdaq: AMAG) and Vical (Nasdaq: VICL) all saw their investments plunge by nearly a fourth– or more — thanks to bad news on the drug approval front. Of the top four losers in the Russell 2000 last month, all are in biotech — an industry for which you’ve got to have a strong stomach. Company (Ticker) Recent Price September Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Catalyst Arena Pharma (Nasdaq: ARNA) $1.54 -76% $8.00 $1.51 FDA… Read More

With reward comes risk. That’s the painful lesson learned by biotech investors last month. Investors in Arena Pharma (Nasdaq: ARNA), Idenix Pharma (Nasdaq: IDIX), AMAG Pharma (Nasdaq: AMAG) and Vical (Nasdaq: VICL) all saw their investments plunge by nearly a fourth– or more — thanks to bad news on the drug approval front. Of the top four losers in the Russell 2000 last month, all are in biotech — an industry for which you’ve got to have a strong stomach. Company (Ticker) Recent Price September Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Catalyst Arena Pharma (Nasdaq: ARNA) $1.54 -76% $8.00 $1.51 FDA spurns company’s anti-obesity drug Idenix Pharma (Nasdaq: IDIX) $3.14 -48% $6.11 $1.81 Setback in Hepatitis C trials AMAG Pharma (Nasdaq: AMAG) $17.85 -32% $52.49 $16.70 Disappointing results for anemia drug Vical (Nasdaq: VICL) $2.21 -29% $4.43 $2.20 Poor results from blood-vessel growth drug Flagstar Bancorp (NYSE: FBC) $1.86 -26% $7.85 $2.91 False start on a capital raise Genoptix (Nasdaq: GXDX) $14.39 -20% $39.00 $13.51 Pre-announced tepid Q3 results Virginia Commerce Bank (Nasdaq: VCBI) $4.81 -17% $7.69 $3.01 Being acquired by Discover Arena looks unlikely to rebound, as the FDA made it clear that Arena’s weight-loss drug offered too… Read More