In less than three weeks, the U.S. Federal Reserve will hold its next regularly scheduled meeting. That’s when the direction of the country’s monetary policy will be decided. As usual, the Fed’s action will be watched not only for cues about the direction of interest rates but also in terms of their reading of the economy. After all, no one has more data at their disposal than the Fed.  #-ad_banner-#First things first. Come September 17 and 18, investors will be expecting yet another interest rate cut. This won’t be coming out of the blue: Policymakers have been indicating as much… Read More

In less than three weeks, the U.S. Federal Reserve will hold its next regularly scheduled meeting. That’s when the direction of the country’s monetary policy will be decided. As usual, the Fed’s action will be watched not only for cues about the direction of interest rates but also in terms of their reading of the economy. After all, no one has more data at their disposal than the Fed.  #-ad_banner-#First things first. Come September 17 and 18, investors will be expecting yet another interest rate cut. This won’t be coming out of the blue: Policymakers have been indicating as much in recent days. After all, interest-rate policies are focused on the economy, which is slowing all over the world. The markets now expect a quarter-point cut at the September meeting.  As you well know, at the conclusion of the July 30-31 meeting, the Fed made the first rate cut in more than a decade. After the widely expected quarter-point cut, the benchmark rate now sits in a range between 2% and 2.25%. That action, however, failed to prop the U.S. stock market: The S&P 500 index declined about 2.9% in August, thanks to the newly emerged trade-related uncertainties.  Over the… Read More

Pssst. Want a good stock tip? Check with the insiders. NOT the insiders whose “tips” can get you thrown into jail, mind you…  #-ad_banner-#When most people think of insider trading, they think of an example like Martha Stewart, who famously became embroiled in an insider trading scandal involving the former ImClone Therapeutics. Stewarts’ mistake? Acting on the proverbial tip from a broker, Stewart dumped her shares of the biotech company a day before the public learned that the FDA had not approved ImClone’s experimental cancer drug.  (For his part, ImClone founder and CEO Samuel Waksal was arrested in 2002 on… Read More

Pssst. Want a good stock tip? Check with the insiders. NOT the insiders whose “tips” can get you thrown into jail, mind you…  #-ad_banner-#When most people think of insider trading, they think of an example like Martha Stewart, who famously became embroiled in an insider trading scandal involving the former ImClone Therapeutics. Stewarts’ mistake? Acting on the proverbial tip from a broker, Stewart dumped her shares of the biotech company a day before the public learned that the FDA had not approved ImClone’s experimental cancer drug.  (For his part, ImClone founder and CEO Samuel Waksal was arrested in 2002 on insider trading charges after instructing friends and family to dump ImClone shares before the FDA decision was made public. In the end, Stewart didn’t face insider trading charges but did serve five months in prison on related findings.) No, I’m referring instead to company insiders – officers, directors and holders of large blocks of stock who are required to report stock transactions involving their company to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which in turn makes those transactions public. You see, especially when it comes to insider buying, there’s evidence to suggest it can pay off for investors who… Read More

This week’s analysis of the market seems to come down to one chart.  It’s a one-minute chart of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE: DIA). This chart shows the minute-by-minute record of Friday’s market action.  As you’ll see clearly below, there’s only one factor that caused the big selloff on Friday morning – a tweet from President Trump asking whether Federal Reserve Chairman or China Chairman Xi Jinping is the bigger enemy.  In short, this marks a significant point in the market.  —Recommended Link— SECRET: Add $8,760 Extra to Any Retirement Account Finally… Read More

This week’s analysis of the market seems to come down to one chart.  It’s a one-minute chart of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE: DIA). This chart shows the minute-by-minute record of Friday’s market action.  As you’ll see clearly below, there’s only one factor that caused the big selloff on Friday morning – a tweet from President Trump asking whether Federal Reserve Chairman or China Chairman Xi Jinping is the bigger enemy.  In short, this marks a significant point in the market.  —Recommended Link— SECRET: Add $8,760 Extra to Any Retirement Account Finally revealed! This “long lost” secret turns a quick 3-minute phone call into the opportunity to collect $8,760 checks. Every payment is backed by the full authority of the U.S. Government… and over $1.75 billion will be delivered to income-seeking Americans. But your action is required TODAY while the enrollment window is open. You must click here right now to get started. By themselves, Trump tweets can’t determine the direction of the trend in the stock market. Yet, it’s entirely possible we will look back in a few months and consider this to be the… Read More

I’ve been fielding a lot of phone calls lately from friends and family members. And they are scared… #-ad_banner-#Some have asked whether they should sell their house now, before a recession hits. Others are wondering if they should postpone their house purchase. And, of course, they are all worried about their retirement accounts. The fear is not limited to my circle of acquaintances. A lot of folks are downright spooked. Whether it’s the trade war, the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates, President Trump’s tweets, or headlines about the dreaded yield curve, there’s a lot of tension and uncertainty… Read More

I’ve been fielding a lot of phone calls lately from friends and family members. And they are scared… #-ad_banner-#Some have asked whether they should sell their house now, before a recession hits. Others are wondering if they should postpone their house purchase. And, of course, they are all worried about their retirement accounts. The fear is not limited to my circle of acquaintances. A lot of folks are downright spooked. Whether it’s the trade war, the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates, President Trump’s tweets, or headlines about the dreaded yield curve, there’s a lot of tension and uncertainty surrounding the market and the economy. But I don’t share these feelings. I still see plenty of opportunity in the market. To be sure, I’m not saying that “this time is different” — the four most dangerous words in investing — as we are closer to the end than the beginning of the economic expansion. And the inversion of the yield curve has been one of the most historically reliable indicators of a recession. I’m just not sure we will witness the sort of recession that most people are fearing — a 2008-like financial crisis — and I believe that… Read More

Think fast: what’s the largest U.S. company? No, it’s not Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Despite dominating the headlines, being almost universally beloved and trading within a few points of its all-time high, Apple does not sit at atop the market-capitalization list. This honor currently belongs to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), a company whose imminent death because of the slowing PC market was predicted by more than one analyst more than once over the years. They were wrong. With a total market value that exceeds $1 trillion, MSFT is currently the king of the markets.  Like Apple, MSFT trades within a spitting distance… Read More

Think fast: what’s the largest U.S. company? No, it’s not Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Despite dominating the headlines, being almost universally beloved and trading within a few points of its all-time high, Apple does not sit at atop the market-capitalization list. This honor currently belongs to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), a company whose imminent death because of the slowing PC market was predicted by more than one analyst more than once over the years. They were wrong. With a total market value that exceeds $1 trillion, MSFT is currently the king of the markets.  Like Apple, MSFT trades within a spitting distance of the stock’s all-time high. Over the past five years, while shares of AAPL more than doubled in value, the value of MSFT more than tripled. Yes, the PC market has slowed, thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices on the consumer side and growth in the cloud on the enterprise side. And yet, Microsoft is the largest company that trades in the United States. What gives? —Recommended Link— The Incredible Dividend Map. Where Stocks Yield 67% a Year What’s the highest-yielding stock you’ve ever owned? Did it pay you 8%… 10%…… Read More

As many of you know, each month I dedicate an article to informing you about stocks that are poised to put more cash in stockholders’ pockets.  I scan the market for noteworthy special distributions on the horizon, as well as potential dividend hikes on the way over the next four to six weeks. I give special attention to outsized double-digit increases and reliable dividend-payers that have been steadily growing payouts for a decade or more.  I flag these stocks before the official announcements are made, not after, giving you a head-start. (And my High-Yield Investing readers get an even bigger… Read More

As many of you know, each month I dedicate an article to informing you about stocks that are poised to put more cash in stockholders’ pockets.  I scan the market for noteworthy special distributions on the horizon, as well as potential dividend hikes on the way over the next four to six weeks. I give special attention to outsized double-digit increases and reliable dividend-payers that have been steadily growing payouts for a decade or more.  I flag these stocks before the official announcements are made, not after, giving you a head-start. (And my High-Yield Investing readers get an even bigger lead on this information, as you hopefully understand.) If you’ve read previous articles where I’ve projected dividend raisers for the next month, then you know my track record on predicting these dividend increases is pretty good — and so are the subsequent gains posted by the stocks we’ve covered. So you’ll want to pay particular attention to this month’s candidates.  Here they are… 1. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) – What can you say about Microsoft that hasn’t already been said? Sure, the company still rakes in more cash from its ubiquitous Windows architecture and Office products in a month than most… Read More

We are a nation of drivers. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation says that the United States is home to nearly 272.5 million cars, almost a million buses and more than 12 million trucks. As drivers and investors, our attention is turning to the future of self-driving cars and on the progress and setbacks that autonomous driving research encounters. But the drive to create a fully autonomous car — and all the investor attention that these efforts enthuse — should not detract us from the progress achieved in other areas of transportation technology. One such area concerns unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)… Read More

We are a nation of drivers. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation says that the United States is home to nearly 272.5 million cars, almost a million buses and more than 12 million trucks. As drivers and investors, our attention is turning to the future of self-driving cars and on the progress and setbacks that autonomous driving research encounters. But the drive to create a fully autonomous car — and all the investor attention that these efforts enthuse — should not detract us from the progress achieved in other areas of transportation technology. One such area concerns unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — also known as drones. While drones as a group are not autonomous in the full sense of the word, these helicopters or planes have no human pilots and are controlled by onboard computers or by a pilot on the ground via remote control. —Recommended Link— Secret “Paycheck Program” Just Discovered… It’s delivering up to 30 checks each year… Checks for $29,799… $62,046… and even up to $225,326 are being raked in using this program. If you’re looking for reliable cash, you need to act right now. This is instantly valuable, so don’t miss out. … Read More