Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market… Read More

Earnings are supporting higher stock prices, and new records for the S&P 500 seem within reach. S&P 500 2,000? SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the week virtually unchanged. Friday’s close of $169.11 was only 6 cents below the previous week’s close, a difference of 0.04%. It was a relatively dull week with the difference from the low to the high being only 1.38%. Since the bull market began in 2009, the average weekly range of SPY has been 3.38%. Earnings continued to come in above expectations, and quarterly earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are on track to reach an all-time high. Analysts are optimistic that this trend in earnings should continue for at least the next year, expecting earnings per share (EPS) for the stocks that make up the S&P 500… Read More

The changes at Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) appear to be paying off. The departure of founder and CEO Andrew Mason in February marked an emotional low point. The stock has doubled since then, and it is now up nearly… Read More

Did you miss out on the recent hot IPOs for Noodles & Co. (Nasdaq: NDLS), Fairway Group Holdings (NYSE: FWM) and Stemline Therapeutics (Nasdaq: STML)?#-ad_banner-# Well, the hits keep on coming. Phillips 66 Partners (Nasdaq: PSXP), which was one of the looming initial public offerings that I profiled last week, surged a hefty 30% in its first day of trading. If you missed out on these fast starters, fret not. Many other recent IPOs haven’t fared nearly as well from their initial… Read More

Did you miss out on the recent hot IPOs for Noodles & Co. (Nasdaq: NDLS), Fairway Group Holdings (NYSE: FWM) and Stemline Therapeutics (Nasdaq: STML)?#-ad_banner-# Well, the hits keep on coming. Phillips 66 Partners (Nasdaq: PSXP), which was one of the looming initial public offerings that I profiled last week, surged a hefty 30% in its first day of trading. If you missed out on these fast starters, fret not. Many other recent IPOs haven’t fared nearly as well from their initial IPO price as these big gainers. IPOs sometimes need to simmer for a bit as investors only belatedly get around to checking them out.  Here’s a quick look at what the hot money may have initially missed but far-sighted investors may soon start snapping up. 1. Esperion Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ESPR) Thanks to the blockbuster success of Lipitor and other statins, the cholesterol-fighting market has always been seen as a great prize for drug companies. Billions in sales await any drug… Read More

Even as Europe struggles to avoid further meltdowns, the economic pulse across the English Channel is starting to quicken. A steady drumbeat of positive economic reports has led to expectations that much better days lie ahead in 2014 and 2015 for the U.K. economy. Meanwhile, British stock prices, which have failed to keep pace with their U.S. counterparts, are starting to emerge as timely bargains. Green Shoots Back in 2010 and 2011, U.S. economists started to notice signs of… Read More

Even as Europe struggles to avoid further meltdowns, the economic pulse across the English Channel is starting to quicken. A steady drumbeat of positive economic reports has led to expectations that much better days lie ahead in 2014 and 2015 for the U.K. economy. Meanwhile, British stock prices, which have failed to keep pace with their U.S. counterparts, are starting to emerge as timely bargains. Green Shoots Back in 2010 and 2011, U.S. economists started to notice signs of life among both manufacturers and consumers, citing a rising tide of “green shoots” that popped up from the soil. That early evidence of a moderate recovery in the U.S. eventually led to robust share price gains across all U.S. asset classes. Fast-forward to 2013, and the same playbook appears to be emerging in the U.K. For example: After shrinking 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2012, the U.K. economy grew 0.3% sequentially in the first quarter of 2013, and grew a further 0.6% in the second quarter. Read More

If you’ve paid close attention to the markets here lately, it may seem like many companies — as well as investors — have caught “dividend fever.” And for good reason. With interest rates near record lows and companies sitting on record amounts of cash, it’s been prime season for dividends. Times are good, and companies are feeling generous. Companies have been hiking their payouts at a steady pace in recent years and show no… Read More

If you’ve paid close attention to the markets here lately, it may seem like many companies — as well as investors — have caught “dividend fever.” And for good reason. With interest rates near record lows and companies sitting on record amounts of cash, it’s been prime season for dividends. Times are good, and companies are feeling generous. Companies have been hiking their payouts at a steady pace in recent years and show no sign of letting up. In fact, FactSet Research analyzed the broad spectrum of publicly traded U.S. stocks and found that companies paid out nearly $1.1 trillion in dividends in 2012. That’s roughly 20% higher than a year earlier. The prospects for 2013 are looking even better. According to a recent report by Standard & Poor’s, companies are on track for a record year for dividend payments. Companies boosted dividend payments by 12% in the first quarter alone… Read More

A recent fit of virtuous (if misguided) housecleaning ended up costing me $600, but what I learned in the process could provide you with a chance to get in on a secondary play of a recovering sector. It started when I decided to clean under the refrigerator for the first time in quite a while. I took my time sweeping up the accumulated gunk, vacuuming the coils and disinfecting the unit from top to bottom. But when I plugged the fridge back in, the outside began warming up and the inside stopped being cold. Some 24 hours and a half-dozen… Read More

A recent fit of virtuous (if misguided) housecleaning ended up costing me $600, but what I learned in the process could provide you with a chance to get in on a secondary play of a recovering sector. It started when I decided to clean under the refrigerator for the first time in quite a while. I took my time sweeping up the accumulated gunk, vacuuming the coils and disinfecting the unit from top to bottom. But when I plugged the fridge back in, the outside began warming up and the inside stopped being cold. Some 24 hours and a half-dozen Web searches later, I realized my mistake. To get under the unit, I tilted it and rested it on a chair while I cleaned. I’m not strong enough to hold the fridge up with one hand and sweep with the other, but tilting it had burned out the compressor, which moves the refrigerant through all those now-clean metal coils. Whoops. I decided it was time to buy a new fridge. Shopping for a new unit took me to several home improvement stores — and to my surprise, they were all jammed. Appliances, tools, paint and lumber — every section was… Read More

To paraphrase the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, the tenure of a corporate executive can be “nasty, brutish and short.” Indeed, many CEOs and chief financial officers last just a few years on the job before the board decides that fresh blood is needed. Most of the time, such a transition appears to be orderly, but when an abrupt change is made, you should almost always move quickly to sell shares. There’s a very good chance that you’ll be able to buy back shares at a much better price down the road, for reasons… Read More

To paraphrase the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, the tenure of a corporate executive can be “nasty, brutish and short.” Indeed, many CEOs and chief financial officers last just a few years on the job before the board decides that fresh blood is needed. Most of the time, such a transition appears to be orderly, but when an abrupt change is made, you should almost always move quickly to sell shares. There’s a very good chance that you’ll be able to buy back shares at a much better price down the road, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. Scandal In The Grocery Aisle After a series of stumbles, including a botched deal to buy Pringles potato crisps and allegations of price-fixing of in the walnut market, several executives at Diamond Foods (Nasdaq: DMND) were abruptly terminated in February 2012. Shares suddenly collapsed by two-thirds from prices seen just a few months earlier, leading some investors to start to bottom-feed this stock in search of value. Such buying turned out to be premature, as Diamond Foods’ problems only deepened from there,… Read More

Billionaire investor. Philanthropist. Political provocateur.  His legendary investing acumen, vast net worth and political activism have made George Soros a feared and respected power broker worldwide.  Soros is driven by an… Read More