Dividend Investing Weekly Newsletters
Negative Overnight Rates Signal More Global Stimulus On the Way
A little over a week ago, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi made headlines by reiterating his organization’s commitment to reinvigorating the euro zone by whatever means necessary. He said euro-zone rates would “remain at present or lower levels for an extended period” and there would be “no limits” on action to reflate the […]
Putting Together a Plan that’s Simple to Understand
We need to face the many complexities of a market beset by central government financial engineering, crashing commodity prices, a pending wave of junk bond defaults, slowing growth in China and a recession in Brazil and other emerging markets. We also need to weigh the risks of the visceral politics of a presidential election year […]
The Fed Might Just Be One and Done
Even though the past week’s economic calendar was light, the few data points released showed that despite a healthier consumer, the economic recovery remains uneven. Pending Home Sales for November were down by 0.9% versus a forecast for a rise of 0.5%. Weekly Jobless Claims for the week ending Dec. 26 were 287,000, above the […]
Putting the Junk Bond Credit Crunch into Perspective
The year in investing for 2015 will best be remembered by the collapse in the commodities markets and the widespread impact it had on developed world markets, emerging markets and the future of growth in China, as well as the boon to the American consumer, but mostly the demise of the junk bond market and […]
Market Momentum a Slave to Oil
Based on the elevated level of volatility, there is a very high correlation between the direction of the major averages and that of oil prices. Only on a couple trading days of the past month has the market gained when oil prices have fallen. It’s counterintuitive that cheap energy prices would be bad for stock […]
An Alternative Way for Investors to Generate Yield
Very little has changed from my early monthly outlook. Two weeks into December, we are entering a full-blown media circus highlighted by an ill-timed Paris summit on climate change, a terrorist attack on San Bernardino, California, now linked to ISIS, and a wild debate about the wherewithal of Donald Trump’s expanding lead in the GOP […]
When Reputation Far Precedes Reality
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi offered some bold public statements in October following a string of soft economic data points that coincided with the 40% sell-off in China’s CSI 300 Index. Publicly stating he and his fellow ECB members “would do whatever it takes” earned him the catchy titles of “Super Mario” and […]
Selling The Rumor, Buying The News
Heading into the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting slated for Dec. 15-16, investor consensus is building in favor of seeing the Fed raise the Fed Funds Rate by 25 basis points, the first increase in six years. While some pundits argue that this is the beginning of a new interest rate cycle, several […]
Pipeline Business Oligarchy Benefits Income-Oriented Investors
Finding businesses that are the front-runners in industries with very high barriers to entry gets my investment juices up. For those types of businesses where right-of-way permits are a major obstacle, it makes perfect sense to embrace an investment theme where the biggest players only get bigger because of embedded distribution systems that allow the […]
Wreckage in Retail Sector Raises Yellow Flag for Fed
In just the past week, the bond futures market was pricing in a 70% chance of a Fed rate hike at the upcoming December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. That was before the bottom fell out again in the oil sector, China PMI came in down for the 44th straight month and the retail […]
