A year ago, high-yield bonds were outcasts. The financial world braced for Armageddon, and investors fled riskier high-yield bonds in droves in anticipation of widespread defaults. Yield spreads — in this case, the difference between yields on high-yield bonds and yields on “AAA”-rated corporate bonds — soared to a record… Read More

It took a talking duck to make one of the largest insurance companies rise from obscurity to one of the most recognized names in the business. Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) provides health insurance for 40 million people worldwide and has received numerous awards for being the best-managed… Read More

One thing more than any other makes searching for value difficult these days: Loans. The best way to search for discounted companies is to set up a screen that looks at net asset value — assets minus liabilities. (To see… Read More

Next week the market will be focused on the nation’s banks, as the top U.S. financial institutions report their quarterly earnings. Their earnings parade actually started today, with a quarterly report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM),… Read More

Big Pharma needs some big ideas. If it can’t find them — and turn them into the next blockbuster drugs — then it will be in Big Trouble. The clock is always ticking for the nation’s drug makers. That’s because drug patents last only 20 years. The… Read More

The phrase “failure of imagination” has returned to the lexicon. It may turn out to be an appropriate catchphrase for the just-ended 2000s. It also applies to a few situations on Wall Street, where investors seem unable to wrap their arms around the idea that things won’t… Read More

It’s become an annual tradition among the research staff of Market Advisor — StreetAuthority’s longest-running publication.   Every December, through phone calls, emails, and meetings — heck, everything short of smoke signals — the office is abuzz with chatter.   You see, December is when… Read More

The economy, at long last, has begun to recover. That’s not to say things are rosy. Unemployment is still 10%, and some suggest this means the nation’s recovery may be marked by less consumption and higher personal savings than in… Read More

Remember when big banks paid big dividends? Before the financial crisis Citigroup (NYSE: C) paid a quarterly dividend of $0.54; last quarter’s dividend was $0.01. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) paid a per-share $0.64 quarterly dividend as recently as late 2008; December’s quarterly dividend… Read More

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and I suppose that’s just as true in the financial world as anywhere else. For most, the Fed‘s unprecedented string of stimulative rate cuts couldn’t have been better timed. Read More