Tech Stocks Have Become the Darlings of Investors, But Beware Dotcom 2.0
Investors aren’t really any different than any other human being. They, like many others, enjoy new, shiny things. In a field in which you constantly have to reassess your investment aims, your investment performance, and your investment portfolio, there is always strong pressure to shake things up, invest in new and different assets, and try something that’s groundbreaking. Tech stocks...
Federal Debt Problem Continues to Worsen: That’s Bad News for the Future
You would think that with a national debt over $21 trillion and continuing to climb every day that the federal government would get serious about cutting back on spending sometime, but oh no. More and more we hear from Washington that the government isn’t spending enough. We need to spend more to to defend against the threat from North...
Latest Jobs Report Not Exactly Awe-Inspiring
The July jobs report that was just published is another sign of the underwhelming continued growth of the economy. While economists predicted a gain of 193,000 jobs, the actual number was only 157,000, a pretty large miss. And while much of that was chalked up to a one-time hit from the closure of bankrupt toy retailer Toys R Us,...
The 3 Key Things to Keep in Mind When Investing
If you want to live a comfortable retirement, pay for your children’s college tuition, buy a vacation house, or enjoy any of the other creature comforts that many people today have come to expect, you have to invest your money. Chances are that you’re not going to work till you die, so you can’t expect to fund your lifestyle...
Continued Tariff Wars Will Harm the Economy and Investors
The continued tariff war between the United States and the rest of the world shows no signs of abating anytime soon. Coca-Cola has announced price increases on its products due to US tariffs on aluminum imports raising the price of aluminum cans. Harley Davidson and BMW have both announced shifts of production from the US to factories in Asia...
Do Continuing Woes in the Housing Market Mean a Correction Is Coming?
Many investors remember the panic in financial markets that occurred in late 2008 as it appeared that financial markets were about to collapse. And they remember the role that mortgage-backed securities played in those fears, as securities that had been AAA-rated were found to be anything but. However, the collapse of the housing market didn’t take everyone by surprise,...
Are Gold and Stocks Really Negatively Correlated?
In investment circles it’s common to hear that stocks and gold are negatively correlated. That is to say, gold’s price increases when stock prices decrease, and vice versa. That’s why you’ll often hear the recommendation to sell stocks and invest in gold when stocks are doing poorly, and to sell gold and buy stocks when stock markets are doing...
President Trump’s Comments on Interest Rates Don’t Bode Well for the Economy
President Trump recently took on the Federal Reserve’s conduct of monetary policy, although not in a good way. Rather than criticizing the Fed for keeping interest rates too low for too long, he criticized the Fed for raising interest rates, complaining that in so doing the Fed has taken away America’s competitive edge against China and is erasing all...
What Will the Federal Reserve Do Next?
Last week’s hearing with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell doesn’t inspire confidence that the Fed knows what it is doing. Much attention has been focused recently on the yield curve, the spread between 2-year and 10-year Treasury securities, which has become increasingly narrow in recent weeks. The spread is becoming so close, in fact, that it risks inversion, with...
Periodic Versus Lump Sum Investing: The Importance of Timing
It’s time once again to discuss the importance of timing when it comes to investing. Timing plays a role in investing success whether we like it or not, and it affects investing strategies. Because of that, your investing strategy may need to change depending on whether you’ve got a lump sum of money to invest or whether you intend...