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 …
A new, worrying narrative is popping up in the financial media… In short, many so-called experts have started recommending “bottom fishing.” Bottom-fishing is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the practice of buying supposedly cheap and beaten-up companies in hopes that they’ll turn around and lead you to profits. But of course, it doesn’t always …
The ‘Most Expensive Sport in Investing’ Is Too Popular Right Now Read More »
Gazprom took an extraordinary step last week… In short, the majority state-owned Russian energy company said it would use “force majeure” to stop natural gas flows to Germany. The term “force majeure” is in most contracts under the name of an “Act of God” clause. And if executed, it relieves the party of its contract …
Russia Is Playing a Dangerous Game With Natural Gas Read More »
Apple (AAPL) is making moves behind the scenes to prepare for a downturn… In short, Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the tech giant plans to freeze hiring in some divisions. Apple intends to be cautious on spending through next year as well. And the thing is, Apple isn’t alone… In recent weeks, many companies …
We’re dealing with high inflation here in the U.S. much like we did in the 1970s. So naturally, in response, folks are jumping to another common 1970s term… Stagflation. You’ve probably seen this topic on the news at some point this year. It’s a mainstream media favorite. But here’s the deal… It’s nothing more than …
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 …
If you’re a chart junkie like I am, you might’ve noticed a significant bounce recently… In short, government bonds rallied off their mid-June lows. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT) is up roughly 7% from its June 14 low. That’s a big move for a long-duration exchange-traded fund (“ETF”). Shorter-duration government-bond ETFs like …
“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 …
Folks, the market is in a very precarious situation right now… The S&P 500 Index, our broad measure for stocks, is frothy with volatility. And the market has endured a series of rallies and crashes since the beginning of this year. Don’t let this back-and-forth environment bait you into taking unusual risk. I’ve learned an …
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 …
