Sometimes, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets do more harm than good… About a month ago, Kellogg (K) announced a plan to split itself into three independent, publicly traded companies. These three businesses will cover breakfast cereals, snack foods, and plant-based foods. When companies announce plans like that, most Wall Street analysts turn to Excel… First, they plug …
High-yield bonds are called “junk” for good reason… They suffer from huge credit risk. That’s a big problem in a market environment like the one we’re in right now. And folks who don’t yet realize it will likely learn this lesson soon. After all… Mr. Recession is a great teacher. But junk bonds have another …
“Junk” bonds look very tempting right now… The trailing-12-month yield for the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG) is about 4.8%. And HYG’s “30-day SEC yield” is around 7.8%. The so-called “30-day SEC yield” is a standardized way of looking at bond returns… The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced the metric in …
Advertising companies have a dirty secret… I first wrote about this secret during the 1990-1991 recession. I was covering media stocks at the time… In short, many investors believed media and advertising stocks were a great defensive play. Not so, I warned… Falling revenue leads to cuts in all sorts of expenses, including advertising. That …
I’ve got a problem… Like everyone else, I’m hunting for the stocks most likely to cope with the current bear market. And frankly, I’m getting some good suggestions from the Power Gauge… Specifically, I’m turning to the “Power Bar” ratio. It breaks down the number of favorably ranked and unfavorably ranked stocks within exchange-traded funds …
When it comes to mythical beings, Mr. Market can be surprisingly human. You see, like all of us, Mr. Market is prone to emotional swings and knee-jerk reactions. And as a result… he makes mistakes. One of those mistakes happened during the retail wipeout earlier this year… On May 18, Target (TGT) reported a bad …
When a recession hits, being “good” isn’t good enough… Good dividend-seeking investors focus on strong companies. They want to park their money in businesses that can avoid cutting dividends, even when profits fall. Many such opportunities exist. The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund (VIG) is filled with them. But VIG’s yield is only 1.95%. That’s …
In a Recession, You Have to Be Better Than ‘Good’ Read More »
This company sounds like exactly what the world needs to solve our supply-chain woes… It calls itself a “technology platform that uses a massive network, leading technology, operational excellence and product expertise to power movement from point A to point B.” That type of platform seems like it could help unload the waiting ships in …
Walk into the closest grocery store and look around… What do you see? If it’s anything like the store by my house, your answer is likely “a lot of empty shelves.” The frozen pizza selection is about half the size it used to be. That would be shocking if I were a frozen pizza connoisseur. …
Cash is king… That phrase dates back to a different time in the markets. It comes from before investors started falling in love with cash-burning, “basement-dwelling kid” companies. Back then, investors focused more on managing risk. They didn’t just assume growth-promising, money-losing companies would eventually figure things out. Cash really was king in those days. …
