Insurance agents reach for the antacids whenever the economy slows down. Their clients start to look for ways to trim costs, and reduced insurance coverage (and the smaller premiums they are charged) eats into the insurers’ bottom lines. Any hopes of actually raising insurance premiums go out the window, as a client will quickly jump ship to a rival in search of a better deal.#-ad_banner-# Yet as the economy strengthens, the whole dynamic changes. Once a clear economic upturn is underway, competition… Read More

Insurance agents reach for the antacids whenever the economy slows down. Their clients start to look for ways to trim costs, and reduced insurance coverage (and the smaller premiums they are charged) eats into the insurers’ bottom lines. Any hopes of actually raising insurance premiums go out the window, as a client will quickly jump ship to a rival in search of a better deal.#-ad_banner-# Yet as the economy strengthens, the whole dynamic changes. Once a clear economic upturn is underway, competition becomes less cutthroat, clients grow less sensitive to the cost of insurance, and insurers can finally push through long-delayed premium increases. With the U.S. economy on the mend — economists expect U.S. GDP to rise at nearly a 3% pace in the second half of this year — the stage is set for insurers to move back into the sweet spot of their pricing cycle. Right about now, you… Read More

Insurance agents reach for the antacids whenever the economy slows down. Their clients start to look for ways to trim costs, and reduced insurance coverage (and the smaller premiums they are charged) eats into the insurers’ bottom lines. Any hopes of actually raising insurance premiums go out the window, as a client will quickly jump ship to a rival in search of a better deal.#-ad_banner-# Yet as the economy strengthens, the whole dynamic changes. Once a clear economic upturn is underway, competition… Read More

Insurance agents reach for the antacids whenever the economy slows down. Their clients start to look for ways to trim costs, and reduced insurance coverage (and the smaller premiums they are charged) eats into the insurers’ bottom lines. Any hopes of actually raising insurance premiums go out the window, as a client will quickly jump ship to a rival in search of a better deal.#-ad_banner-# Yet as the economy strengthens, the whole dynamic changes. Once a clear economic upturn is underway, competition becomes less cutthroat, clients grow less sensitive to the cost of insurance, and insurers can finally push through long-delayed premium increases. With the U.S. economy on the mend — economists expect U.S. GDP to rise at nearly a 3% pace in the second half of this year — the stage is set for insurers to move back into the sweet spot of their pricing cycle. Right about now, you… Read More

Private-market value. It’s a simple concept most investors overlook. Yet it’s an approach that has catapulted fund manager Mario Gabelli into the billionaires’ club. He’s made big profits at his firm, GAMCO Investors, which now manages more than $40 billion in… Read More

Investors who seek to hedge their portfolios by taking short positions in certain stocks have felt a huge amount of pain in recent quarters. As the S&P 500 is on track to… Read More

In today’s fast-moving markets, investors are always on the prowl for stocks that can deliver rapid gains. It wasn’t always thus.#-ad_banner-# Back in the days of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd — known as… Read More

All across Europe, power companies are being forced to mothball natural-gas power plants. In just the past few weeks, renewable-energy companies such as Germany’s E.ON and Norway’s Statkraft have done so as well, as a key dynamic taking place in the United States starts to have a global effect. That dynamic: abundant production of natural gas. As U.S. power producers have shifted their multi-fuel plants from coal-burning to gas-burning (known as coal-to-gas, or C2G), demand and pricing for coal have collapsed.#-ad_banner-# Coal is now so cheap that European electricity producers now realize it’s far cheaper to switch back to imported… Read More

All across Europe, power companies are being forced to mothball natural-gas power plants. In just the past few weeks, renewable-energy companies such as Germany’s E.ON and Norway’s Statkraft have done so as well, as a key dynamic taking place in the United States starts to have a global effect. That dynamic: abundant production of natural gas. As U.S. power producers have shifted their multi-fuel plants from coal-burning to gas-burning (known as coal-to-gas, or C2G), demand and pricing for coal have collapsed.#-ad_banner-# Coal is now so cheap that European electricity producers now realize it’s far cheaper to switch back to imported coal rather than continue burning pricier gas. Call it the gas-to-coal movement. In fact, the C2G trend, a key theme in the United States over the past few years, has run its course. And a switch back to coal has been the new response from some U.S. power producers as well. There is a multi-month lag time regarding power-plant usage, but UBS’s analysts noted in a May 1 report that “Coal once again appears to have continued to regain market share in… Read More

I’ve been investing for 20 years, and for the first half of my investing career, I repeatedly made the same mistake. I’d buy beaten-up stocks, they’d barely budge for an extended period, and I’d finally give up and sell my investment for a modest gain or loss. Invariably, when I looked back on that stock a few years later, it had greatly appreciated in value — long after… Read More

I’ve been investing for 20 years, and for the first half of my investing career, I repeatedly made the same mistake. I’d buy beaten-up stocks, they’d barely budge for an extended period, and I’d finally give up and sell my investment for a modest gain or loss. Invariably, when I looked back on that stock a few years later, it had greatly appreciated in value — long after I had given up on it.#-ad_banner-# Any time a stock falls sharply, it’s awfully tempting to jump in. We’re simply conditioned to pursue items when they are on sale, so a 50% or even 70% plunge can get our juices flowing. You’re probably right that deep value exists when a stock has sold off sharply. But that doesn’t mean you should jump right in. Turnarounds are one of the few types of stocks in which you can double or triple your… Read More

Remember the “super spike”? That phrase entered our vocabulary five years ago this month when crude oil prices suddenly surged to $120 a barrel. By July 2008, prices surged to $140 a barrel, which surely played a role in pushing the global economic into a deep crisis.#-ad_banner-# Consumers had to slash discretionary spending to have enough money to fill up their gas tanks, airline carriers were hit with a rising tide of losses, and many companies saw their profit margins squeezed as costs rose faster than… Read More

Remember the “super spike”? That phrase entered our vocabulary five years ago this month when crude oil prices suddenly surged to $120 a barrel. By July 2008, prices surged to $140 a barrel, which surely played a role in pushing the global economic into a deep crisis.#-ad_banner-# Consumers had to slash discretionary spending to have enough money to fill up their gas tanks, airline carriers were hit with a rising tide of losses, and many companies saw their profit margins squeezed as costs rose faster than revenues. Though crude oil prices tumbled to just $40 a barrel by year‘s end, the global economic damage was already done. Now, as the U.S. economy starts to percolate again, some have expressed concern that the world’s largest economy may again lead a surge in demand — and prices — for crude oil. Yet a pair of factors implies that it’s quite unlikely we’ll see another super spike and we may in fact be on the cusp… Read More

In the depths of the financial crisis in late 2008, shares of tobacco maker Lorillard (NYSE: LO) were struggling as much as any other blue-chip stock. That summer, shares slid from around $20 to nearly $15 by… Read More

Here at StreetAuthority, we talk a lot about the appeal of rising dividends, but it’s unwise to pursue high yields solely through stocks. The market can gyrate wildly, and a bad… Read More