Personal, business, class and even international – this trend crosses all boundaries. While it is built upon the basic principles of human collaboration and friendship, this trend has been supercharged by the connective power of the Internet. I am talking about networking. Before the Internet, individuals had no choice but… Read More

Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A), is currently worth about $44 billion, according to Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people. This makes him the world’s third-richest person, behind Bill Gates and Carlos Slim. Read More

If you regularly shop at department store chain Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS), you may have spotted an unusual merchandising misstep in the spring of 2012. The retailer, which had built a longstanding reputation for solid designs, good quality and reasonable prices, started to carry less appealing merchandise that spring. Many shoppers browsed but went home empty-handed.#-ad_banner-# Just a few months later, you would have seen this problem appear on Kohl’s financial statements. In the second quarter of fiscal 2012 (ended July 30, 2012), Kohl’s unsold inventory of… Read More

If you regularly shop at department store chain Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS), you may have spotted an unusual merchandising misstep in the spring of 2012. The retailer, which had built a longstanding reputation for solid designs, good quality and reasonable prices, started to carry less appealing merchandise that spring. Many shoppers browsed but went home empty-handed.#-ad_banner-# Just a few months later, you would have seen this problem appear on Kohl’s financial statements. In the second quarter of fiscal 2012 (ended July 30, 2012), Kohl’s unsold inventory of goods stood at $3.5 billion, or 83% of that company’s quarterly sales base. Just a year earlier, that percentage stood at 73%. Investors willing to take the time to track this retailer’s inventory levels (as a percentage of sales) were the first ones to realize that Kohl’s was in trouble. By the time the next quarter’s results came out, this balance sheet ratio had swelled to a company record 107%. (What that means is that the company had more inventory than… Read More

Energy prices are on the move once again with crude oil solidly above $100 a barrel and at 18-month highs. Shares of offshore drilling company Transocean (NYSE: RIG) have been trading in a $20 range between $60 and $40 since August 2011. RIG has been a market laggard in the past year, down 2% while most stocks have pushed higher. Support at $40 has held with a… Read More

Energy prices are on the move once again with crude oil solidly above $100 a barrel and at 18-month highs. Shares of offshore drilling company Transocean (NYSE: RIG) have been trading in a $20 range between $60 and $40 since August 2011. RIG has been a market laggard in the past year, down 2% while most stocks have pushed higher. Support at $40 has held with a 52-week low of $43.65. The stock actually has stair-step support, first at $46 from the past six months, then at $44 dating back to the second half of 2012, and finally, at $40 from a double bottom made in December 2011 and June 2012. The midpoint of the two-year range sits at $50. A push above that level targets a move to the top of the channel at $60, with a longer-term price objective of $80 on a breakout… Read More

Even the best companies have their skeptics. If you’re a regular reader of StreetAuthority, you’ve probably seen me recommend chip-manufacturer Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) before. In fact, I’ve even hailed it as one of the “10 Best Stocks to Hold Forever,” as the company contains three key market-beating traits and a few future growth catalysts, which I’ll show you in a moment. #-ad_banner-#Understandably, many investors are not just skeptical of Intel’s prospects — they are outright bearish on the stock‘s future prospects. This email from one of my… Read More

Even the best companies have their skeptics. If you’re a regular reader of StreetAuthority, you’ve probably seen me recommend chip-manufacturer Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) before. In fact, I’ve even hailed it as one of the “10 Best Stocks to Hold Forever,” as the company contains three key market-beating traits and a few future growth catalysts, which I’ll show you in a moment. #-ad_banner-#Understandably, many investors are not just skeptical of Intel’s prospects — they are outright bearish on the stock‘s future prospects. This email from one of my Top 10 Stocks subscribers outlines some of that skepticism: “I am a new subscriber and novice investor. I appreciate your research, knowledge and acumen in your approach to purchasing equities, but I do have a question regarding your consistent recommendation of Intel. “Other than the tremendous amount of cash that the company hordes, how can you recommend this purchase when PC sales are down 11% worldwide? I don’t see a lot of growth… Read More

Hidden inflation is an insidious devourer of profit. Forget what the Consumer Price Index is telling us — higher costs don’t always get passed on to the consumer. Sometimes quality is reduced instead. Whether it’s the bag of potato chips that’s half-filled with air, the controversy of “pink slime,” or the shrinking amounts of cake mix in packages that used to hold more — whether we admit it or not, the inflation we’ve been worried about is already here. Read More

Hidden inflation is an insidious devourer of profit. Forget what the Consumer Price Index is telling us — higher costs don’t always get passed on to the consumer. Sometimes quality is reduced instead. Whether it’s the bag of potato chips that’s half-filled with air, the controversy of “pink slime,” or the shrinking amounts of cake mix in packages that used to hold more — whether we admit it or not, the inflation we’ve been worried about is already here. It’s the kind of environment where we see “Forever Stocks” shine. These are companies that have businesses built to last through bear markets, rising interest rates and, yes, inflation. This “Forever Stock” has an operating margin of 44%, which gives it plenty of wiggle room to withstand economic hardships. Expected earnings growth is 11.8%, and its business model has started to turn the heads of some of the biggest… Read More

The Wall Street crowd is starting to get the picture. On the cover of a recent issue of Fortune magazine: “The Death of Cash,” there was an article examining an impending transition that I’ve been talking about for some time. The magazine examined some large companies as the drivers in this new technological push, which hinges largely on the continued adoption of portable devices, like cellphones, that can be used much like a credit or… Read More

The Wall Street crowd is starting to get the picture. On the cover of a recent issue of Fortune magazine: “The Death of Cash,” there was an article examining an impending transition that I’ve been talking about for some time. The magazine examined some large companies as the drivers in this new technological push, which hinges largely on the continued adoption of portable devices, like cellphones, that can be used much like a credit or debit card. Its winners are Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) because of its Google Wallet initiative, which I was among the first to cover; eBay’s (Nasdaq: EBAY) PayPal; Visa (NYSE: V); MasterCard (NYSE: MA); Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB). Those are great companies that will lead the trend. But while everyone else is looking at the obvious “winners,” it will take some time for this macro trend to move the needle for companies as big as these. Instead, I’ve got my eye on a small company that’s at the forefront of this game-changing trend. I first told… Read More

For the past few years, there’s been an anomaly in the global oil industry. Brent crude oil, which comes from the Middle East, Africa and Europe, has been far more expensive than West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, which is drilled right here in the U.S. Both Brent and WTI are known as light, sweet crude, which means they are easily processed into gasoline, diesel and other distillates. So why had Brent been trading for up to $20 more per barrel than WTI? Blame it on geography.#-ad_banner-# Although the U.S. has tapped into a mother… Read More

For the past few years, there’s been an anomaly in the global oil industry. Brent crude oil, which comes from the Middle East, Africa and Europe, has been far more expensive than West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, which is drilled right here in the U.S. Both Brent and WTI are known as light, sweet crude, which means they are easily processed into gasoline, diesel and other distillates. So why had Brent been trading for up to $20 more per barrel than WTI? Blame it on geography.#-ad_banner-# Although the U.S. has tapped into a mother lode of oil in the past few years, much of the produced oil had nowhere to go. Storage hubs were filled to capacity as a lack of pipelines kept all of the oil from flowing to U.S. Gulf Coast, the West Coast and the East Coast, where many oil refineries are located. All that has changed. The opening of many new pipelines in recent quarters has enabled the oil to start flowing more quickly, and as refiners boost demand for WTI crude and seek less Brent crude… Read More

During the 1849 California gold rush, the yellow metal sold for between $12 and $35 an ounce. That was enough in those days to make you rich — if you could find it. But consider this: Because the Western frontier was undeveloped at the time, the price of basic goods for these intrepid miners was through the roof. Eggs cost $3 each. A bottle of whiskey cost $16. According to “The Gold Rush Chronicles,” a history of the period: “Pills were $10 each without advice, $100 with.”#-ad_banner-# You may already be familiar with the story of Levi Strauss, the German… Read More

During the 1849 California gold rush, the yellow metal sold for between $12 and $35 an ounce. That was enough in those days to make you rich — if you could find it. But consider this: Because the Western frontier was undeveloped at the time, the price of basic goods for these intrepid miners was through the roof. Eggs cost $3 each. A bottle of whiskey cost $16. According to “The Gold Rush Chronicles,” a history of the period: “Pills were $10 each without advice, $100 with.”#-ad_banner-# You may already be familiar with the story of Levi Strauss, the German immigrant who made his fortune during the gold rush — not by striking gold, but by supplying the rough-and-tumble miners with sturdy denim overalls. The origin of the term “picks and shovels” may have had its roots back in the 1850s when smart businessmen like Strauss realized they could make just as much money with a lot less risk supplying the miners with picks, shovels and other essentials. Today, we can use the same idea to our advantage by… Read More

Stock prices are definitely overbought. Overbought markets occur when prices move up sharply, and based on current charts, prices appear to be too high. This situation actually occurs fairly often. Traders might be tempted to enter a short trade expecting the gains to be at least partially reversed. But that idea has led to large losses for many traders over the years. Prices might be irrational, but as traders, we need to remember that irrational behavior is irrelevant. Economist John Maynard… Read More

Stock prices are definitely overbought. Overbought markets occur when prices move up sharply, and based on current charts, prices appear to be too high. This situation actually occurs fairly often. Traders might be tempted to enter a short trade expecting the gains to be at least partially reversed. But that idea has led to large losses for many traders over the years. Prices might be irrational, but as traders, we need to remember that irrational behavior is irrelevant. Economist John Maynard Keynes supposedly said, “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” Traders use momentum indicators like the stochastics to decide when prices are overbought. The monthly chart of SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) is shown below, and we can see that stochastics has been overbought for more than a year. Based on the stochastics indicator, we can see that… Read More