The Year in Bond Funds by Morningstar Investment Research “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” –- Niels Bohr. Coming into 2014, prognosticators had the fixed-income markets all figured out. Many posited that it would be a rough year for U.S. Treasuries and other rate-sensitive bonds as the Fed unwound its bond-buying program. Meanwhile,…
Since 2010, the best scoring names in our weekly mid cap report have outpaced the S&P 400 by a median 371 bps in the following year. The best performers from our list from 1 year ago are TQNT up 236%, SWKS up 174%, and ILMN up 71%. The top mid cap sector is utilities. The…
In a few brief minutes, Professor Bob Shiller calmly and eloquently crushed the hopes and dreams of CNBC’s cheerleading muppetry as they desperately tried to spin today’s house price data as great news. Exuberant at gains in San Francisco and Miami, the anchor is stunned (briefly) when Shiller dares to say “things are getting too bubbly,” and…
Happy New Year! What a year it’s been, too. We added 2.7M jobs this year and that’s good because we also added 2.7M people to our population so, essentially, we didn’t lose any ground. As more and more people left the labor force (retired, discouraged)however, official unemployment fell from 7% to 5.8%. We still have…
When drawing up a financial plan, the first step that you need to take is setting goals. As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” So before you begin planning your financial future, decide what your ultimate objectives are. Building STRATegic goals Once you…
There is no denying that 2014 has been a great year for corporate earnings thus far. Companies within the S&P 500 saw profits grow 7.5% in the first quarter, 11.4% in the second quarter, and 11.6% in the third quarter. Early expectations for the fourth quarter foreshadow another healthy earnings season with growth estimated to…
Click on picture to enlarge When it comes to “financial train wrecks” in 2014, the TR Commodity Index has had one. The index has lost 20% of its value since the first of May. I shared with members in May that billions of free thinking people around the world may have created one of the…
This Cool Video was posted by Euronews. It is about 2.5 minutes long. The basic premise is that the Syriza coalition in Greece is acting like a good opposition party, not too different than the current Prime Minister Samaras who was critical of the previous Socialist government and the austerity agreement negotiated with the official creditors, when he…
The stock whisper of the day is: (GDX). Video Length: 00:03:03
Everyone must have heard that the Russian central bank has raised interest rates once again. Chairman of the Russian central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, announced that her organization would step in again if the ruble continued to cause trouble. Her words did become reality. Interest rates in Russia have been raised from 10.5 to 17 percent,…
