It’s little secret that China is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. It already boasts the world’s largest population of nearly 1.4 billion citizens, and through the first half of this year, its economy grew by +11.1%, which comes despite a global… Read More

Voters across the political spectrum can agree on at least one thing: the long-term health of the U.S. economy absolutely depends on jobs being created by the private sector. So Friday’s report that 64,000 private sector jobs were created is a hopeful sign, though… Read More

Think the weakening auto sales trend in the United States is an omen of unpleasant things to come, economically speaking? If so, then investors may want to slice the numbers in a way the media isn’t — car sales are still trending bullishly by most measures, even if nobody’s talking… Read More

On a recent trip to Boulder, CO, I stood outside a Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) showroom ogling its sports cars with lust in my heart. A few weeks later, when a Tesla roadster whooshed silently past me on a New York City street, my heart skipped a beat. Tesla makes the kinds of cars that auto enthusiasts lust after. Then again, I have a short attention span. Minutes later, a Porsche 911 zoomed past me with its inimitable throaty growl, and my lust was re-directed. My fickle tastes highlight a real problem for Tesla. The company is… Read More

On a recent trip to Boulder, CO, I stood outside a Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) showroom ogling its sports cars with lust in my heart. A few weeks later, when a Tesla roadster whooshed silently past me on a New York City street, my heart skipped a beat. Tesla makes the kinds of cars that auto enthusiasts lust after. Then again, I have a short attention span. Minutes later, a Porsche 911 zoomed past me with its inimitable throaty growl, and my lust was re-directed. My fickle tastes highlight a real problem for Tesla. The company is aiming to crack two auto market niches, though success looks like a long shot in each. The car faces heady competition in a crowded sports car field, and the electric car market is also about to get crowded. Investor message boards are filled with Tesla’s vitriolic detractors and even more rabid supporters. So I won’t weigh in as to whether Tesla builds the world’s coolest cars or simply overpriced go-karts. The truth lies somewhere in between. Others suggest that Tesla isn’t a car company, so much as a technology development company. Hogwash. This is… Read More

If you are a close watcher of retail stocks, you have every right to throw up your hands in exasperation. With all of the distress taking place among consumers, who would have guessed that the back-to-school season would be so good? Some retailers, such as Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) and Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD), posted surprise double-digit gains in same store sales, while many others posted comps in the mid single-digits. Almost all of them were ahead of analysts’ forecasts.   Does this mean that we should take all of the gloom and… Read More

If you are a close watcher of retail stocks, you have every right to throw up your hands in exasperation. With all of the distress taking place among consumers, who would have guessed that the back-to-school season would be so good? Some retailers, such as Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) and Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD), posted surprise double-digit gains in same store sales, while many others posted comps in the mid single-digits. Almost all of them were ahead of analysts’ forecasts.   Does this mean that we should take all of the gloom and doom about consumers with a grain of salt? Yes. Does this mean that retail stocks have become a compelling buy? Yes. But not for the reasons you think, and only in the long-term context.  It may look as if we’re off to a strong rebound in retail spending. But one month’s data does not a trend make. October sales could just as easily be lackluster. Instead, the real reason to like retail stocks is the tremendous amount of earnings leverage they can garner from… Read More

An extremely valuable investment strategy is to keep tabs on what the major players on Wall Street are doing with their money. Warren Buffett, George Soros, Bill Gross, Mario Gabelli and Jeremy Grantham quickly come to mind — especially considering they are more than willing to put their own money… Read More

Interest rates near zero and record-low U.S. Treasury yields make finding good income investments a bit harder these days. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still possible to find attractive yields, but you need… Read More

Even as the high-profile spat between the United States and China over the too-cheap Chinese currency gets much press coverage, currency wars are brewing all over the place. And how these battles shake out will determine whether the global… Read More

Brazil is emerging as one of the great stories of the 21st century. Sound economic policies and abundant natural resources have led to sustained economic growth. And investors are racing to get in to this Samba party — the iShares Brazil (NYSE: EWZ) exchange-traded… Read More