Note from the editor: Before we get started today, right this minute, investors are collecting hundreds and even thousands of dollars in additional income on stocks like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) and other popular names.  These aren’t special dividends or anything like that. Instead, these investors are “stealing” the money from Wall Street’s biggest firms. Even though it may not sound 100% legal, it is — and it could allow you to collect an additional $850 a week in income. Click here to find out how. The major U.S. Read More

Note from the editor: Before we get started today, right this minute, investors are collecting hundreds and even thousands of dollars in additional income on stocks like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) and other popular names.  These aren’t special dividends or anything like that. Instead, these investors are “stealing” the money from Wall Street’s biggest firms. Even though it may not sound 100% legal, it is — and it could allow you to collect an additional $850 a week in income. Click here to find out how. The major U.S. stock indices closed in the green last week. The advance was led by the small-cap Russell 2000 and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which gained 3.5% and 2.9%, respectively, posting their best weekly closes since late December. This is a good sign, but keep in mind that these market leaders are still in negative territory for the year, underperforming the benchmark S&P 500. This suggests stocks have some work to do before the all-clear can be sounded. #-ad_banner-#All sectors of the S&P 500 finished in positive territory last week except for energy, which fell 1.3%. Technology and consumer staples led, both gaining… Read More

Here’s a random question… Do you remember the Virtual Boy? #-ad_banner-#I’d be surprised if you do. Launched by Nintendo in 1995, the Virtual Boy was meant to be a great leap forward — a portable video game console that displayed “true 3D graphics” for users. The New York Times previewed the console in 1994, saying it would “totally immerse players into their own private universe.”  Sounds pretty cool, right? Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype. Gunpei Yokoi, creator of Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld system (which sold 118 million… Read More

Here’s a random question… Do you remember the Virtual Boy? #-ad_banner-#I’d be surprised if you do. Launched by Nintendo in 1995, the Virtual Boy was meant to be a great leap forward — a portable video game console that displayed “true 3D graphics” for users. The New York Times previewed the console in 1994, saying it would “totally immerse players into their own private universe.”  Sounds pretty cool, right? Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype. Gunpei Yokoi, creator of Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld system (which sold 118 million units over its lifespan) was tasked with bringing Virtual Boy to life, so he began experimenting with the technology Nintendo had licensed to create the 3D experience. While he touted the tech as a game-changer, he also realized that it would be prohibitively expensive (in the neighborhood of $500) to feature a full color LCD display system in the console. The result was a still-expensive (for the time) $149 gaming system with a red-only 3D visual display that, to be kind, was less than fulfilling. To put it bluntly: it irritated users. Some even complained of… Read More

I’m slow to adopt things. Eleven years ago, tired of the books stacked up on the nightstand, my wife gave me an Amazon Kindle (Nasdaq: AMZN) for Christmas. It sat in the box for four months. Eventually, I came around. I haven’t purchased a hard copy book since. It took me awhile to incorporate exchange traded funds (ETF’s) into my practice. In constructing portfolios, I still use individual stocks for my equity allocations. However, I have been gravitating toward ETF’s in the fixed income space, primarily in preferred stocks.  #-ad_banner-#Preferred stocks are a hybrid security that falls into the debt… Read More

I’m slow to adopt things. Eleven years ago, tired of the books stacked up on the nightstand, my wife gave me an Amazon Kindle (Nasdaq: AMZN) for Christmas. It sat in the box for four months. Eventually, I came around. I haven’t purchased a hard copy book since. It took me awhile to incorporate exchange traded funds (ETF’s) into my practice. In constructing portfolios, I still use individual stocks for my equity allocations. However, I have been gravitating toward ETF’s in the fixed income space, primarily in preferred stocks.  #-ad_banner-#Preferred stocks are a hybrid security that falls into the debt portion of a company’s capital structure. Often, they are issued at $25 par face value per share and pay a higher dividend than the common stock. Preferreds are senior to the common stock but are junior to bonds and bank debt. There’s usually a call feature allowing the issuer to redeem the preferred shares at their $25 face value. Lastly, they’re usually exchange listed, giving them a liquid marketplace. Preferreds are popular among individual investors thanks to their availability, attractive yields and conservative profiles in comparison to a common stock. As a professional investor, the challenge I’ve found in the… Read More

As I discussed yesterday, the U.S. economy continues to show surprising signs of strength and resilience. Job growth, consumer spending and manufacturing production are on the rise six years into a recovery. And for the markets, it’s significant that confidence in the U.S. economy seems to be rebounding from the gloomy mood early this year. What does this mean for your portfolio? #-ad_banner-#In general, the overall U.S. stock markets should perform well when the economy is growing and inflation and interest rates are historically low. But the devil is in the details. Defensive stocks, like electric utilities and blue chip… Read More

As I discussed yesterday, the U.S. economy continues to show surprising signs of strength and resilience. Job growth, consumer spending and manufacturing production are on the rise six years into a recovery. And for the markets, it’s significant that confidence in the U.S. economy seems to be rebounding from the gloomy mood early this year. What does this mean for your portfolio? #-ad_banner-#In general, the overall U.S. stock markets should perform well when the economy is growing and inflation and interest rates are historically low. But the devil is in the details. Defensive stocks, like electric utilities and blue chip stocks with above-average dividend yields, tend to underperform in such a climate. Yet global investors remain anxious about China, Europe and other economies outside our shores — so safe haven stocks may do just fine. Still, the best performers should be those in areas that thrive when Americans are employed and have extra money in their pockets. And some specific industries could benefit from trends impacting them regardless of the wider economic scenario. Here are the sectors most likely to outperform over the next 12 months: Consumer Discretionary: By definition, companies in the consumer discretionary space sell goods and services… Read More

I have some exciting news to share with StreetAuthority readers… As a StreetAuthority veteran, I can personally attest that we’re always looking to make improvements to our product line-up. Whether it’s tweaking the mission of one of our newsletters, fine-tuning our portfolios or merely making cosmetic changes to the layout of the issues, we’ve strived to always think of ways to upgrade the experience for our loyal premium subscribers. #-ad_banner-#So after careful deliberation over the past few months, we’ve decided to make a big change… Starting with the April issue, our Top 10 Stocks premium newsletter will be incorporated into… Read More

I have some exciting news to share with StreetAuthority readers… As a StreetAuthority veteran, I can personally attest that we’re always looking to make improvements to our product line-up. Whether it’s tweaking the mission of one of our newsletters, fine-tuning our portfolios or merely making cosmetic changes to the layout of the issues, we’ve strived to always think of ways to upgrade the experience for our loyal premium subscribers. #-ad_banner-#So after careful deliberation over the past few months, we’ve decided to make a big change… Starting with the April issue, our Top 10 Stocks premium newsletter will be incorporated into an exciting new premium advisory authored by two of StreetAuthority’s finest analysts: Amy Calistri and Jimmy Butts. This new premium newsletter offering is called Top Stock Advisor. It will bring our premium readers the same investments that prompted many of them to join Top 10 Stocks in the first place — but it will also offer much, much more.  In short, this new advisory will feature investments designed to function as core holdings for any investor’s portfolio. It will feature companies with a fantastic record of rising dividend payments, and they’ll have the ability to consistently outperform the market without… Read More

The water crisis in Flint, Mich., started nearly two years ago but recently reached a boiling point with massive protests and national media coverage. Corrosion in underground lead service pipes and poor water quality have been blamed for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that killed at least 10 people. The city has issued multiple warnings over the past year, while lawsuits are piling up for everything from civil rights violations to property damage and health risks. One lawsuit even requires all the lead water lines to be replaced at no cost to customers.  While it’s unclear how much the crisis… Read More

The water crisis in Flint, Mich., started nearly two years ago but recently reached a boiling point with massive protests and national media coverage. Corrosion in underground lead service pipes and poor water quality have been blamed for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that killed at least 10 people. The city has issued multiple warnings over the past year, while lawsuits are piling up for everything from civil rights violations to property damage and health risks. One lawsuit even requires all the lead water lines to be replaced at no cost to customers.  While it’s unclear how much the crisis will cost Flint, it highlights a serious issue across the entire country — one that could cost water utilities hundreds of billions in infrastructure repair. Water Utility Problems Go Far Beyond Flint Flint’s water problems began in April 2014, when the city decided to switch its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money. The change was noticeable and residents immediately started complaining about discolored and foul-smelling drinking water. But it wasn’t until late last year that the issue caught national media attention and uncovered a problem that extended far beyond Flint. Read More

It takes a licking but keeps on ticking: the U.S. economy shows no signs of altering the slow-but-steady economic growth path it’s been on for years now. More important, the healthy job-growth trend we’ve seen for two years remains in place. That’s true in spite of potential trainwrecks in Europe and Asia. Investors seem to agree on this interpretation of the data, which is why markets are behaving much differently now than they did in January. Let’s examine what the indicators are telling us — and in part two of this article later this week, I’ll tell you what it… Read More

It takes a licking but keeps on ticking: the U.S. economy shows no signs of altering the slow-but-steady economic growth path it’s been on for years now. More important, the healthy job-growth trend we’ve seen for two years remains in place. That’s true in spite of potential trainwrecks in Europe and Asia. Investors seem to agree on this interpretation of the data, which is why markets are behaving much differently now than they did in January. Let’s examine what the indicators are telling us — and in part two of this article later this week, I’ll tell you what it means for our portfolios. #-ad_banner-#​The U.S. Economy: The economy has been growing slowly but steadily for many years, but in the past year job growth picked up — a sign that employers have enough confidence in demand for their goods and services that they’re willing to increase capacity even if it means higher expenses. The U.S. economy has created at least 200,000 jobs in 21 of the 24 months since March 2014 — nothing like the gains we saw in the 1990s, but far better than the early years of the recovery. Job growth isn’t only in low-wage service sectors… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a market most investors completely ignore. We call it the Retirement Income Cash-Haul — or RICH — System. Put simply, it’s an award-winning, 10-minute-a-week income system that can give you $386 or more every week from the best companies in the world — without touching stocks. #-ad_banner-#I’ve been recommending trades using this system for three years now. And so far, the results have been astounding. I’ve closed 124 trades and each and every one has been a winner. On average, the RICH System has… Read More

One of the best income strategies in the world involves a market most investors completely ignore. We call it the Retirement Income Cash-Haul — or RICH — System. Put simply, it’s an award-winning, 10-minute-a-week income system that can give you $386 or more every week from the best companies in the world — without touching stocks. #-ad_banner-#I’ve been recommending trades using this system for three years now. And so far, the results have been astounding. I’ve closed 124 trades and each and every one has been a winner. On average, the RICH System has delivered annualized returns of 48% per trade. This approach is different. We don’t buy and hold… we don’t day trade… and we don’t invest in things like index or mutual funds.br /> In fact, we typically don’t buy or sell stocks at all. Instead, this approach allows you to collect a payment upfront… and make money even if a stock remains flat or drops as much as 10%-15%. I’ve received hundreds of emails and letters from thankful investors like these:       “I’m generating about $1,000 a month for… Read More

It’s been a long decade for Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO). The search and tech company has seen its stock rise just 10% over the past 10 years.  This comes after years of battling activist investors, a carousel of CEOs, and a declining business. The saving grace has been Alibaba (Nasdaq: BABA), where Yahoo has a 15% stake in the company. The success of Alibaba has helped overshadow Yahoo’s own problems.  #-ad_banner-#However, a perfect storm has been brewing at Yahoo. The company announced plans to spin-off its stake in Alibaba in early 2015. Yahoo invested in Alibaba back in 2005 and was… Read More

It’s been a long decade for Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO). The search and tech company has seen its stock rise just 10% over the past 10 years.  This comes after years of battling activist investors, a carousel of CEOs, and a declining business. The saving grace has been Alibaba (Nasdaq: BABA), where Yahoo has a 15% stake in the company. The success of Alibaba has helped overshadow Yahoo’s own problems.  #-ad_banner-#However, a perfect storm has been brewing at Yahoo. The company announced plans to spin-off its stake in Alibaba in early 2015. Yahoo invested in Alibaba back in 2005 and was finally looking to unlock value from the appreciation. However, Yahoo abandoned the plan, because the spinoff won’t be tax-free as initially anticipated — and the tax bill would be sizable given the growth in Alibaba. Instead, Yahoo decided to try and spinoff its own core business, including the search business and websites such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Finance, which would still be a taxable transaction. Then, just last month, Yahoo also said it’s willing to sell the core business. There are now tensions over the future of the company and whether Marissa Mayer is the best CEO for the… Read More