When gauging market sentiment about a company, don’t bother spending hours on reading and research. Just look at its stock chart.   Right now, the market has been shunning shares of the world’s largest online travel agency, Priceline Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN). It has slumped 25% since peaking in March 2014, signifying a move into its own bear market.   Clearly, after many years of exceptional growth, Priceline has fallen out of favor.   #-ad_banner-#Several factors explain the current bearishness, including currency headwinds. Priceline generates 87% of its revenue outside the United States, with 60% coming… Read More

  When gauging market sentiment about a company, don’t bother spending hours on reading and research. Just look at its stock chart.   Right now, the market has been shunning shares of the world’s largest online travel agency, Priceline Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCLN). It has slumped 25% since peaking in March 2014, signifying a move into its own bear market.   Clearly, after many years of exceptional growth, Priceline has fallen out of favor.   #-ad_banner-#Several factors explain the current bearishness, including currency headwinds. Priceline generates 87% of its revenue outside the United States, with 60% coming from Europe alone. The company’s detractors figure the strong dollar is sure to create a big drag on profits, especially with central bank stimulus in Europe positioning the dollar for even greater gains against the euro.   Priceline bears are also concerned that global economic weakness will hinder travel-related spending by foreign consumers. And they point to Priceline’s sales and marketing outlays, arguing that these costs have risen much too quickly for the firm to maintain strong margins.   These are valid concerns.   However, I believe the market has overreacted to them and the stock is now an unusually… Read More

  My parents are aging rapidly. Whenever I would bring up the topic of long-term care insurance with my dad, he would laugh. I was his long-term care policy, he’d say.   He might be on to something.   #-ad_banner-#Aging Americans, especially baby boomers, are facing a conundrum: longer life spans thanks to advances in medicine and extremely low interest rates are changing the retirement math.   Don’t look for either situation to change any time soon. In fact, low rates may stay in place for another twenty years or so.   Can we blame low rates on a sluggish… Read More

  My parents are aging rapidly. Whenever I would bring up the topic of long-term care insurance with my dad, he would laugh. I was his long-term care policy, he’d say.   He might be on to something.   #-ad_banner-#Aging Americans, especially baby boomers, are facing a conundrum: longer life spans thanks to advances in medicine and extremely low interest rates are changing the retirement math.   Don’t look for either situation to change any time soon. In fact, low rates may stay in place for another twenty years or so.   Can we blame low rates on a sluggish economy? Not really. The Fed? Not yet.  Looks like aging populations are a driving factor.   Retirees depend on conservative, high quality, fixed income investments to supply predictable income during their retirement years. Typically that means U.S. Treasury securities, high quality bonds or investments holding those types of securities such as mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs).   The same goes for the institutions that manage those income streams, such as pension funds or insurance companies. Those entities need to lock in interest rates on a long-term basis in order to manage their long-term liabilities.   With a huge… Read More

Today I’d like to introduce you to a man that has developed and perfected a system that he says can lead investors to profits no matter what the market is doing. #-ad_banner-#With markets at new highs and worries of a correction becoming more prevalent, I can’t think of a better time to be talking about his simple, tested strategy. Meet Dr. Thomas Carr. I recently sat down with Dr. Carr for an interview in StreetAuthority Insider, a free newsletter for all active StreetAuthority premium subscribers. Today, I’d like to share it… Read More

Today I’d like to introduce you to a man that has developed and perfected a system that he says can lead investors to profits no matter what the market is doing. #-ad_banner-#With markets at new highs and worries of a correction becoming more prevalent, I can’t think of a better time to be talking about his simple, tested strategy. Meet Dr. Thomas Carr. I recently sat down with Dr. Carr for an interview in StreetAuthority Insider, a free newsletter for all active StreetAuthority premium subscribers. Today, I’d like to share it with you. These questions and answers are meant to give you a better sense of his system and why we think it’s one of the most potentially lucrative strategies we’ve come across in a long time. In short, Dr. Carr has come across what he thinks might be the “holy grail” of trading systems. By the time you finish reading this interview, we think you’ll agree. Briggs: Before we get to the details of your strategy, tell us a little about yourself. Carr: I began trading stocks on… Read More

Even where I live in Canada, glimpses of bare brown earth are starting to dapple white snow. It’s not yet time for me to plant my garden, but that moment is not far off.  #-ad_banner-#I’m not alone in my interest to grow some of my own food. Gardening ranks as one of the most popular outdoor leisure activities in North America. Additionally, the National Gardening Association reports that a well-maintained garden can help save you several hundred dollars a year in food costs. Gardening is expanding beyond backyard plots, as community gardens and even urban apartment gardens increase in popularity. Read More

Even where I live in Canada, glimpses of bare brown earth are starting to dapple white snow. It’s not yet time for me to plant my garden, but that moment is not far off.  #-ad_banner-#I’m not alone in my interest to grow some of my own food. Gardening ranks as one of the most popular outdoor leisure activities in North America. Additionally, the National Gardening Association reports that a well-maintained garden can help save you several hundred dollars a year in food costs. Gardening is expanding beyond backyard plots, as community gardens and even urban apartment gardens increase in popularity.   A key beneficiary of this increasing interest in gardening is Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG). The Ohio-based company was started in 1868 and is the world’s largest marketer of branded lawn and garden products.  Its global consumer segment, which accounts for roughly 90% of revenue, sells such products as fertilizers, grass seed, spreaders, and plant pest and disease control products. Some of its better-known brands are Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Ortho and Roundup.   It also generates revenue through its lawn care service division, which is the No. 2 player the country and provides residential and commercial lawn, tree and shrub care,… Read More

  Consumer spending in emerging markets has been growing at three times the rate of the growth seen in developed economies, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co.   #-ad_banner-#That trend has compelled many U.S. companies to steadily expand their sales footprint in these economies. The net result:  foreign sales at companies in the S&P 500 rose to more than 50% of sales today, from 30% of total sales in 2000.   But the outperforming U.S. economy and the strong dollar has thrown a wrench in those plans. Foreign earnings have hit U.S. companies as international markets lag and weaker… Read More

  Consumer spending in emerging markets has been growing at three times the rate of the growth seen in developed economies, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co.   #-ad_banner-#That trend has compelled many U.S. companies to steadily expand their sales footprint in these economies. The net result:  foreign sales at companies in the S&P 500 rose to more than 50% of sales today, from 30% of total sales in 2000.   But the outperforming U.S. economy and the strong dollar has thrown a wrench in those plans. Foreign earnings have hit U.S. companies as international markets lag and weaker currencies get translated into fewer dollars every quarter.   The Procter & Gamble Company’s (NYSE: PG) CFO Jon Moeller pointed to foreign exchange as the primary challenge facing the company and the reason it missed earnings expectations by 6% in the most recent fourth quarter. The company books two-thirds of its sales from outside the United States.  Foreign exchange could reduce 2015 sales by as much as 5% at P&G and lead to a 12% hit to earnings.   Shares of Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE) slid after the company reported a 3.5% decline in earnings in 2014, thanks to a… Read More

$40? $50? $60? Nobody really knows where the price of oil will stabilize in coming quarters. #-ad_banner-#And the eventual upturn? Supply destruction is taking place right now, which will eventually push oil prices back above $80, but that process may take several years to play out. Against such a backdrop, it’s quite tricky to peg a current fair value for the companies that produce oil and gas. They’ll be solid values when oil starts to rebound, but could also be dead money if oil prices stay in the current range for many quarters to come. One area that does hold… Read More

$40? $50? $60? Nobody really knows where the price of oil will stabilize in coming quarters. #-ad_banner-#And the eventual upturn? Supply destruction is taking place right now, which will eventually push oil prices back above $80, but that process may take several years to play out. Against such a backdrop, it’s quite tricky to peg a current fair value for the companies that produce oil and gas. They’ll be solid values when oil starts to rebound, but could also be dead money if oil prices stay in the current range for many quarters to come. One area that does hold the potential for a solid and rapid rebound is the companies that provide services to the energy producers. The simple reason: some of them are now trading far below tangible book value. If they retain sufficiently strong balance sheets and generate at least break-even cash flow in 2015, then stable energy prices should remove the current panicky atmosphere enough for these stocks to be valued at least in line with their net assets. Here are three energy services providers that look vastly oversold and are starting to attract value investors. McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE:… Read More

For those that don’t know, in addition to being the Chief Strategist behind StreetAuthority’s Stock of the Month newsletter, I’m also an avid poker player. #-ad_banner-#I first picked up poker about a decade ago, well before it was all over television. But I wasn’t after the big jackpot like most of the people who’ve taken up the game. I simply thought poker could make me a better investor. Poker has a lot in common with investing — and no, I’m not talking about luck. In poker, you get only one move at a time. Read More

For those that don’t know, in addition to being the Chief Strategist behind StreetAuthority’s Stock of the Month newsletter, I’m also an avid poker player. #-ad_banner-#I first picked up poker about a decade ago, well before it was all over television. But I wasn’t after the big jackpot like most of the people who’ve taken up the game. I simply thought poker could make me a better investor. Poker has a lot in common with investing — and no, I’m not talking about luck. In poker, you get only one move at a time. You don’t get the luxury of making your moves in a vacuum or without consideration for the dynamics other players bring to the game. It also takes patience and foresight to win consistently. And sometimes, it’s not about winning, but simply knowing when to cut your losses. When put in those terms, it’s easy to see how playing poker can make you a better investor. It’s easy to spot an inexperienced player at a poker table. He’ll be the guy who plays nearly every hand. He’s probably grown up watching televised poker, where folded… Read More

One of my favorite investing tactics is to target stocks that are fundamentally solid but get hit hard when investors overact to news stories. Russia’s ban on U.S. chicken and oversupply concerns helped knock the United States’ third-largest poultry processor 25% off its summer highs. #-ad_banner-#​I recommended a bullish options play on Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM) in late June that quickly netted us 42% profits as the stock hit a 52-week high in mid-July. Shortly after, Vladimir Putin imposed a one-year embargo on U.S. agricultural products, including chicken, in response to Western economic sanctions stemming from… Read More

One of my favorite investing tactics is to target stocks that are fundamentally solid but get hit hard when investors overact to news stories. Russia’s ban on U.S. chicken and oversupply concerns helped knock the United States’ third-largest poultry processor 25% off its summer highs. #-ad_banner-#​I recommended a bullish options play on Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM) in late June that quickly netted us 42% profits as the stock hit a 52-week high in mid-July. Shortly after, Vladimir Putin imposed a one-year embargo on U.S. agricultural products, including chicken, in response to Western economic sanctions stemming from the Ukrainian conflict. The news sent shockwaves through the American poultry industry. But its effects are being felt to a much greater extent in Russia, where I hear they are turning to crocodile meat to get their protein.  While Russia accounted for nearly 40% of U.S. chicken exports in the 1990s, that number has dropped to just 7% recently, according to the National Chicken Council.  With a number of bullish tailwinds, I think the sell-off in SAFM represents a chance to pocket another big profit over the next few months. What’s especially striking about the stock’s decline is that shares… Read More