President Barack Obama is visiting Cuba this week, making him the first sitting President to visit the country in nearly a century. The last President to visit was Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Relations for the United States and Cuba have been strained for more than 50 years, going back to the Cold War and including the trade embargo imposed by John F. Kennedy in 1962.   #-ad_banner-#But a lot has happened over the past few years, and Obama continues to make more headway than any other President when it comes to mending the relationship.  In late 2014, he announced a… Read More

President Barack Obama is visiting Cuba this week, making him the first sitting President to visit the country in nearly a century. The last President to visit was Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Relations for the United States and Cuba have been strained for more than 50 years, going back to the Cold War and including the trade embargo imposed by John F. Kennedy in 1962.   #-ad_banner-#But a lot has happened over the past few years, and Obama continues to make more headway than any other President when it comes to mending the relationship.  In late 2014, he announced a restoration of diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba. Then in mid-2015, the two countries reported their respective embassies in Washington D.C. and Havana, Cuba.  A strengthening of relations would mean that Cuba as a country is now open for business, which would be great news for U.S. companies, as well as Cuba.  A Prime Spot For Travel One of the best ways to profit on a strengthening relationship with Cuba will be with tourism.  Cuba’s impressive beaches hold a lot of potential as a vacation destination, and it also holds appeal for business travel as the Caribbean’s… Read More

Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father, statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He was also a brilliant inventor — creating bifocals, the lightning rod and the odometer. #-ad_banner-#But his greatest invention has been shrouded in mystery for more than 250 years…  It involves controlling one of the most important resources known to man: energy. In 1749, through a revolutionary experiment, Franklin created a device that could capture and harness energy. Then, 150 years later, Thomas Edison picked up where Franklin left off. Since then, many others have carried forward this work. But… Read More

Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father, statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He was also a brilliant inventor — creating bifocals, the lightning rod and the odometer. #-ad_banner-#But his greatest invention has been shrouded in mystery for more than 250 years…  It involves controlling one of the most important resources known to man: energy. In 1749, through a revolutionary experiment, Franklin created a device that could capture and harness energy. Then, 150 years later, Thomas Edison picked up where Franklin left off. Since then, many others have carried forward this work. But a few months ago, a band of scientists — backed by an eccentric billionaire — took Franklin’s dream to new heights. They finally broke through — and now it has the potential to make early investors a fortune. From Franklin, Tesla, Edison — And Now Musk We’ve all heard the first part of the folk tale… Ben Franklin was convinced that lightning bolts contain energy, and he wanted to prove it. So during a thunderstorm, he flew a kite with a metal key attached, hoping the kite would get hit. Read More

I remember watching the movie Gung Ho in 1986 and wondering along with the rest of the country if Japan was going to buy the red, white and blue in its entirety. The movie was about a Japanese acquisition of a Pennsylvania auto factory, but at the time it seemed the land of the rising sun was buying up just about every other sector as well.  It was most evident in real estate, with massive buying of commercial properties on the West Coast. According to the LA Times, Japanese buyers poured nearly $17 billion into U.S. property at the peak… Read More

I remember watching the movie Gung Ho in 1986 and wondering along with the rest of the country if Japan was going to buy the red, white and blue in its entirety. The movie was about a Japanese acquisition of a Pennsylvania auto factory, but at the time it seemed the land of the rising sun was buying up just about every other sector as well.  It was most evident in real estate, with massive buying of commercial properties on the West Coast. According to the LA Times, Japanese buyers poured nearly $17 billion into U.S. property at the peak in 1988 and owned almost half (45%) of the premium downtown office space in Los Angeles by the early 1990s. #-ad_banner-#The real estate frenzy helped the FTSE NAREIT U.S. Real Estate Index jump an annualized 15.6% over the decade through 1989, sending prices and investor sentiment higher. The index is up less than half that at an annualized pace of 7.4% over the decade through 2015 but that may be about to change.  New buyers have emerged from the east and it’s starting to look like the 1980s all over again. Commercial Real Estate Has A New Deep-Pocket Buyer… Read More

I would bet few investors really understand what’s behind the success of technology behemoth, Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). The rags to riches story of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak building the first Apple computer in a garage is widely known. And of course, it’s products like the iPod, iPhone and Macbook that first come to mind when you think of the company’s biggest hits. #-ad_banner-#But today I want to share with you the secret that’s led Apple to become the world’s largest company by market capitalization and helped its share price skyrocket more than 9,700% since 2001. … Read More

I would bet few investors really understand what’s behind the success of technology behemoth, Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). The rags to riches story of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak building the first Apple computer in a garage is widely known. And of course, it’s products like the iPod, iPhone and Macbook that first come to mind when you think of the company’s biggest hits. #-ad_banner-#But today I want to share with you the secret that’s led Apple to become the world’s largest company by market capitalization and helped its share price skyrocket more than 9,700% since 2001.  You see, it’s not the company’s revolutionary products that drive its success… The key to understanding the company’s success can be seen in a simple pattern. Once you identify this pattern, the catalyst to future growth for Apple — and the way investors can make money from the company today — will be apparent. After Apple sold the first iPod in October 2001, it was not received well by critics, consumers and investors. Just look at this chart showing Apple’s share price in the 18 months following the iPod launch:… Read More

I constantly scour the market for stocks on the cusp of major bullish trend changes, but over the past few months, there has been little opportunity thanks to the market correction. When the headwinds blow that hard, few ships can sail. But with stocks rebounding sharply off their February lows and the broader market S&P 500 in the black for the first time this year, my Alpha Trader system is once again lighting up with fresh buy signals. #-ad_banner-# For those of you who aren’t familiar, I use a quantitative system to rank 6,000 publicly traded U.S. stocks… Read More

I constantly scour the market for stocks on the cusp of major bullish trend changes, but over the past few months, there has been little opportunity thanks to the market correction. When the headwinds blow that hard, few ships can sail. But with stocks rebounding sharply off their February lows and the broader market S&P 500 in the black for the first time this year, my Alpha Trader system is once again lighting up with fresh buy signals. #-ad_banner-# For those of you who aren’t familiar, I use a quantitative system to rank 6,000 publicly traded U.S. stocks based on a proprietary indicator known as the Alpha Score. This indicator combines an equity’s relative strength and a key fundamental metric favored by investment luminaries such as Don Yacktman, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Every stock has an Alpha Score, and it can range from 0 (worst) to 200 (best). I only consider buying stocks in the top 30th percentile, but typically their scores put them in the top 15th, 10th, or even top 5th percentile. These are the stocks most likely to jump double or triple digits in less than a year’s… Read More

The stock market closed modestly higher last week for its fifth consecutive weekly gain, once again led by the defensive Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 2.3%. Although any positive weekly close is good, it’s important to note that the tech-heavy Nasdaq nand small-cap Russell 2000 showed the smallest gains and are the only major U.S. indices still in negative territory for 2016. #-ad_banner-# Since these indices typically lead in a healthy and sustainable market advance, I will continue to view the broader market rally with some skepticism until they start doing so. Every sector of the… Read More

The stock market closed modestly higher last week for its fifth consecutive weekly gain, once again led by the defensive Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 2.3%. Although any positive weekly close is good, it’s important to note that the tech-heavy Nasdaq nand small-cap Russell 2000 showed the smallest gains and are the only major U.S. indices still in negative territory for 2016. #-ad_banner-# Since these indices typically lead in a healthy and sustainable market advance, I will continue to view the broader market rally with some skepticism until they start doing so. Every sector of the S&P 500 finished in positive territory last week except for health care, which lost 2.6%.  In the March 7 Market Outlook, I pointed out that the biggest sector-related outflows over the previous one-week and one-month periods, according to Asbury Research’s proprietary metric, came from health care. This fueled the sector’s recent relative underperformance. As the table below shows, investors have continued to pull assets from health care for better perceived opportunities in other sectors. For instance, energy received the biggest inflows in the past one-week and one-month periods.   Health care has been the weakest sector… Read More

It’s one of the most frustrating things an investor can experience: Thanks to some supposed global calamity in the making, the stock market enters a period of insane volatility. Each tiny bit of news is parsed by the financial media, and then the major indices swing wildly — sometimes even in direct conflict with the “goodness” or “badness” of the news itself.  After a few months of this — and more than a few sleepless nights — you check your computer screen to find the stocks in your portfolio are right back where they were before. #-ad_banner-#It’s times like this… Read More

It’s one of the most frustrating things an investor can experience: Thanks to some supposed global calamity in the making, the stock market enters a period of insane volatility. Each tiny bit of news is parsed by the financial media, and then the major indices swing wildly — sometimes even in direct conflict with the “goodness” or “badness” of the news itself.  After a few months of this — and more than a few sleepless nights — you check your computer screen to find the stocks in your portfolio are right back where they were before. #-ad_banner-#It’s times like this that can lead an investor to ask:  “Is all of this worry even worth it?” If you can identify with that feeling, then believe me when I tell you I understand. We’ve all been there. But what if I told you that you didn’t have to settle for this? It just so happens that these times of great market volatility are prime-time for one of the safest, most reliable ways around to earn extra income. And what’s more, you don’t even necessarily have to be “right” about the stocks you pick… I personally can’t think of a better strategy for… Read More

With each economic report, it seems more certain that the U.S. economy is not teetering on the precipice but rather continuing to grow moderately, with a positive impact on consumer spending and corporate earnings. Not surprisingly, U.S. stock market volatility has decreased and investors are again comfortable taking on a little more risk in the form of smaller growth stocks. Here are two up-and-coming technology stocks to consider now: Proofpoint (Nasdaq: PFPT) is a small but fast-growing cybersecurity provider, a leader in the burgeoning “security as a service” industry, which provides cloud-based protection against hacking, phishing, malware and spam. Proofpoint’s… Read More

With each economic report, it seems more certain that the U.S. economy is not teetering on the precipice but rather continuing to grow moderately, with a positive impact on consumer spending and corporate earnings. Not surprisingly, U.S. stock market volatility has decreased and investors are again comfortable taking on a little more risk in the form of smaller growth stocks. Here are two up-and-coming technology stocks to consider now: Proofpoint (Nasdaq: PFPT) is a small but fast-growing cybersecurity provider, a leader in the burgeoning “security as a service” industry, which provides cloud-based protection against hacking, phishing, malware and spam. Proofpoint’s products protect messages, social media and data for enterprises and consumers. Improved security of sensitive information has been a huge priority of government and corporate organizations for years. It’s increasingly a concern for individuals as well — especially given the proliferation of so-called “ransomware” programs that shut down personal computers until an expensive repair software is purchased (from the scammer that sent the virus in the first place). #-ad_banner-#​Proofpoint’s innovative technologies, which include next-generation email security solutions, use encryption and other secure storage technologies to stymie outside attacks; their services include preventative threat intelligence and quick-response solutions to stop new… Read More

On September 15, 2008, the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States declared bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers had been in operation for 158 years and had survived world wars and the Great Depression. But the storied bank couldn’t make it through the depths of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. And after Lehman fell, people wondered how many more financial institutions would crumble. #-ad_banner-#One week later, legendary investor Warren Buffett announced that he would invest $5 billion into Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), virtually saving the firm. A week later, Buffett invested $3 billion in General Electric (NYSE: GE), signaling to… Read More

On September 15, 2008, the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States declared bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers had been in operation for 158 years and had survived world wars and the Great Depression. But the storied bank couldn’t make it through the depths of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. And after Lehman fell, people wondered how many more financial institutions would crumble. #-ad_banner-#One week later, legendary investor Warren Buffett announced that he would invest $5 billion into Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), virtually saving the firm. A week later, Buffett invested $3 billion in General Electric (NYSE: GE), signaling to the market that he had faith in the resilience of the American economy.  Buffett is a nice and generous man. But he doesn’t invest out of charity. He expects to make a profit — and he’s good at it. From 1965 through 2015, Buffett has increased the per share book value of his company Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) by 798,981% — a compounded annual gain of 19.2%. Buffett Has Faith In The Future… But He’s Also Prepared For The Worst Buffet continues to have faith in the American economy. In his recent letter to Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders, he wrote… Read More