It’s a good time to be part of the proverbial 1%, that’s for sure. A Pew Research Center report shows that the wealth gap between America’s middle- and upper-income families is the widest ever recorded. In fact, the median wealth of America’s most affluent families is nearly seven times that of their…
U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as crude oil prices continued their descent. The S&P (SPX) closed out a third straight year of double-digit gains. For the year, the Dow ended up 7.5 percent, notching its sixth straight annual gain while the Nasdaq rose 13.4 percent. The best-performing S&P component in 2014 was Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) up…
“Every brick we can make has already been sold up to three months in advance – the UK brickmakers can’t supply demand at the moment,” exclaims the CEO of one of Britain’s largest brickmakers. With the UK’s housing bubble spreading from London, The Telegraph reports that stocks of bricks have reached the lowest levels on record as homebuilders rush to…
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…
