Do earnings matter? It seems as if the market moves higher with each passing quarter, even as year-over-year earnings growth has markedly slowed in recent quarters. Simply put, it’s easy to assume that investors aren’t paying attention to quarterly updates.#-ad_banner-# But earnings do matter, of course. They’ve been just good… Read More

Stocks pulled back last week and prices could fall a little more before this pullback ends. But there are two very good indicators pointing to higher stock prices by the end of the year. Fourth Quarter Could Determine Wall Street Bonuses SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) dropped 1.06% last… Read More

The story was picked up by the major news sources a few years ago as a “cute” human interest feature. You might have seen the headlines like “How a Secretary Made and Gave Away $7 Million.” But for me, this wasn’t some light news piece. This was a story that resonated deeply with me. I didn’t know Grace Groner, from Lake Forest, Ill. From the stories, she was a woman who lived frugally. Her passing was of interest because her three shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) grew into more than 100,000… Read More

The story was picked up by the major news sources a few years ago as a “cute” human interest feature. You might have seen the headlines like “How a Secretary Made and Gave Away $7 Million.” But for me, this wasn’t some light news piece. This was a story that resonated deeply with me. I didn’t know Grace Groner, from Lake Forest, Ill. From the stories, she was a woman who lived frugally. Her passing was of interest because her three shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) grew into more than 100,000 shares through decades of dividend reinvestment. In total, her estate became worth roughly $7 million. #-ad_banner-#And while I didn’t know Grace Groner, I did know Lillian Calistri. The last time I saw Aunt Lillian was in 1990. I remember that a nephew had the misfortune of addressing her as “Lillian.” She promptly looked us all in the eye and said, “You will continue to call me Aunt Lillian.” We were all over 25 years old at the time, but in Lillian’s world, adulthood was no excuse for bad manners. Aunt Lillian taught home… Read More

In 1965, Paul McCartney wrote a song for the Beatles album “Help!” Since then this song has been rerecorded by other artists more than 2,200 times, more than any other song in history. As the story goes, when he sat down at the piano to write the tune, he had… Read More

Everyone knows the old Wall Street adage: A bull market makes every investor a genius.  While the stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride in the daily picture, looking back over the past two years reveals a powerful uptrend in the major U.S. stock indices. This… Read More

September is nearly in the record books, and as it turned out, a month that began replete with potential headwinds for equities turned out to be a very good one so far for the bulls. The S&P 500 index is up 3.8% month to date, a move that I doubt… Read More

The story was picked up by the major news sources a few years ago as a “cute” human interest feature. You might have seen the headlines like “How a Secretary Made and Gave Away $7 Million.” But for me, this wasn’t some light news piece. This was… Read More

Everyone knows the old Wall Street adage: A bull market makes every investor a genius.  While the stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride in the daily picture, looking back over the past two years reveals a powerful uptrend in the major U.S. stock indices. This… Read More

When you’re looking for key emerging trends, it’s always a smart idea to scrutinize the bi-monthly short-seller data.#-ad_banner-# When the short interest is rising among many stocks in any particular industry or sector, it should really get your attention. It’s a possible sign that the entire group is bound for… Read More