PC maker Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) kick-started the era of affordable personal computers — and made many people very wealthy along the way. Its rise was meteoric. Its stock price shot from about $1 in early 1998 to… Read More

In any industry, the only way to avoid price wars is to offer a superior product or service. Customers will pay full price only if they think your offering is… Read More

It takes money to make money. That’s the easy conclusion to draw when looking at the actions of the nation’s top hedge fund managers. Many of them have amassed their wealth by putting tens of millions into play on any given investment as they identify 50% or even 100% potential gains.#-ad_banner-# Take corporate raider Carl Icahn. He can buy a huge chunk of… Read More

It takes money to make money. That’s the easy conclusion to draw when looking at the actions of the nation’s top hedge fund managers. Many of them have amassed their wealth by putting tens of millions into play on any given investment as they identify 50% or even 100% potential gains.#-ad_banner-# Take corporate raider Carl Icahn. He can buy a huge chunk of a company and then rattle some cages until the company is forced to make value-unlocking moves such as an asset sale or a big stock buyback. Or look at George Soros. He earned more than 1 billion British pounds in 1992 simply by wagering that the pound would soon lose value. Yet a number of other hedge fund billionaires have earned their fortune the… Read More

Six hundred fifty million dollars is a lot of money — even for Bill Gates.  That’s how much his investment firm has invested in what might be considered the best way to play China. It’s not a software firm or even a computer hardware firm. It’s mining giant Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT). Gates started building a position in Caterpillar before the financial crisis, but he became a very aggressive buyer once the crisis hit and… Read More

Six hundred fifty million dollars is a lot of money — even for Bill Gates.  That’s how much his investment firm has invested in what might be considered the best way to play China. It’s not a software firm or even a computer hardware firm. It’s mining giant Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT). Gates started building a position in Caterpillar before the financial crisis, but he became a very aggressive buyer once the crisis hit and shares had fallen by half. Yet remarkably, Gates has kept on buying, even as shares steadily rebounded to previous peaks. But now that Caterpillar has come under pressure on concerns that China is slowing, is Gates locking in profits? No, he’s been buying more, picking up another 500,000 shares in this year‘s second quarter. At current prices, his firm’s stake of 10.76 million shares is worth a cool $650 million. The key question: Why does Gates continue to buy shares even after China’s slowdown has signaled the potential end of a global commodities… Read More

In a globally connected world, viruses can spread quickly. From influenza to dengue fever to herpes to HIV, viral contagions can spread at an alarming pace.  Trouble is, it’s difficult to identify permanent cures to viral diseases. For example, even though doctors completely understand how the flu virus works, millions… Read More

We have Charles Martin Hall to thanks for many major industrial advances of the 20th century. His discovery of the process of aluminum smelting produced many breakthroughs in food services, packaging, automobiles and aerospace. But Hall and the company he founded are no longer held in such high esteem on Wall Street. Alcoa (NYSE: AA) has just been asked to pick up its things and leave the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) have also been shown the door.#-ad_banner-#… Read More

We have Charles Martin Hall to thanks for many major industrial advances of the 20th century. His discovery of the process of aluminum smelting produced many breakthroughs in food services, packaging, automobiles and aerospace. But Hall and the company he founded are no longer held in such high esteem on Wall Street. Alcoa (NYSE: AA) has just been asked to pick up its things and leave the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) have also been shown the door.#-ad_banner-# I noted the possibility of these changes last year, predicting that Alcoa and HP were headed for the exits. I also thought Travelers (NYSE: TRV) would be given the boot, though the ongoing troubles at Bank of America made that financial services firm more vulnerable. The fact that BofA has more than five times the market value of Travelers was apparently of little concern. (And the fact that Travelers was added to the index only four years ago likely meant that it… Read More

Even the best companies are finding it hard to generate solid revenue growth these days.#-ad_banner-# The slow-growth economy means that the majority of companies in the S&P 500 are expected to boost… Read More

In the past few years, diversification may have seemed like a bad idea, especially when it comes to global investing. In just the past two years, the S&P 500 has risen a solid 40% while the… Read More

While other computer and smartphone makers have repeatedly suffered from price wars, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) always takes a different path. The consumer technology giant prefers to deliver the most advanced products at premium points. Such an approach can create a great user experience, but can… Read More

The recent pullback in the stock market brings a silver lining for some companies. Those firms that have announced new or extended stock buyback programs can now retire more shares for… Read More