The year 2014 opened up like a Chinese box for the U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs), each revealing a new surprise. Thanks to the treasury yields and interest rates movement, the REIT industry had a profitable 2014. In fact, the U.S. REIT stocks made a solid turnaround this year, following the underperformance to…
World currencies lost a lot of value in 2014. If you lived outside the United States, you would have done much better holding gold rather than local cash this past year. Check out this chart from The Market Oracle: Eventually the Federal Reserve will be unable to artificially prop-up the U.S. dollar. When that happens,…
Watch how easy it is boil successful investing down into four words, BUY LOW, SELL HIGH. If you can repeatedly buy low and sell high, well it’s impossible to ever lose. Let us give you our pledge… for those who have the discipline to follow the principles we put forth today… well, you’ll be empowered to buy low and sell high for…
It appears the glorious trend of declining initial jobless claims has run its course. For the last 5 months, initial claims have oscillated around the crucial-to-the-narrative 300k level – breaking the constant downtrend of the last 4-5 years. Today’s 298k print, up 17k from last week, is the same level seen in the 3rd week of…
Though the year 2014 did not bring spectacular year-to-date (YTD) gains for the S&P (SPX), the benchmark index lately shook off all its deterrents and posted the strongest two-day gain in three years following the Fed’s more patient stance on the rate hike issue. Overall, the year was moderate for the broader market indices with…
Running length 00:02:40 We’ve made progress this year — raising the minimum wage in dozens of states and cities, providing equal marriage rights in a majority of states, limiting carbon emissions. But there’s far more to do. The economy looks like it’s improving but most Americans are still stuck in recession, and almost all the…
The US dollar has ended this year on a high note not seen in some time, not since the time of the financial crisis and collapse in 2008. Dollar strength, at least in this index, is largely a reciprocal function of weakness in the euro, and to a lesser extent the yen, the pound, and…
Warren Buffett’s classic aphorism “You only see who’s swimming naked when the tide goes out” is being tossed around more frequently these days, as the world gets yet another deflation scare. David Stockman just published a great piece on this topic, which should be read in its entirety. In the meantime here’s a summary of…
Recognizing ‘fair value’ is the key to investing success. In Sonoco Products’ case, investors should send its shares packing. Many investors gravitate towards time-tested dividend growth stocks without understanding the value, or lack of value, that they may offer at various points in time. Specialty packaging firm Sonoco Products (SON) meets the consistent dividend grower criteria but…
