A sleeping giant has awakened. One of the country’s oldest companies has reinvented itself. Once a stodgy old cyclical company, this Dow stock has used its deep pockets and global brand to create a juggernaut of earnings growth for the next… Read More

Heading into the trading week, we expected to see a flurry of economic releases that would have an outsized impact on the stock market this week. [See: 4 Can’t-Miss Items for Investors to Watch Next Week] Those data points are now rolling in, but… Read More

It’s important to maintain a watch list of stock ideas. Many of your investment ideas can be intriguing, but not quite tempting enough to merit your hard-earned dollars just yet. I like to check in on all of these investment ideas almost daily, waiting to see if the stock falls down to a level that I can’t resist, or if the company has announced new initiatives or quarterly results that make the stock a true bargain. But a stock’s downward move may be the result of bad news that has dimmed the investment picture. The question is… Read More

It’s important to maintain a watch list of stock ideas. Many of your investment ideas can be intriguing, but not quite tempting enough to merit your hard-earned dollars just yet. I like to check in on all of these investment ideas almost daily, waiting to see if the stock falls down to a level that I can’t resist, or if the company has announced new initiatives or quarterly results that make the stock a true bargain. But a stock’s downward move may be the result of bad news that has dimmed the investment picture. The question is whether the downward move is justified, or if it has sharply overshot the mark, well below where shares should trade. That scenario is playing out with DG FastChannel (Nasdaq: DGIT), which has run into some short-term growing pains after a long stretch of solid growth. Growth stalls out for now Following the dot-com boom, DG FastChannel was a perennially frustrating story. The company’s advanced media placement services, tailor made for the digital era, never saw the demand that investors had expected. In hindsight, the company arrived… Read More

Investors are always on the lookout for a competitive edge. The ability to peer slightly into the future is a key edge to exploit, be it company guidance for the next quarter or analyst projections over the next couple of years. But one company has gone a step further than… Read More

As the economy continues to slide, regional banks are failing at an alarming rate. So far, in 2010, 109 banks have failed. This brings the total number of bank failures since 2007 to 277. As a result, many regional banks… Read More

After Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) started their bidding for data storage firm 3PAR (NYSE: PAR), investors quickly went in search of possible other deals, bidding up names of several rivals that may soon be bought out themselves. [Read: This Company’s 10-Day, +169% Run is Heating up an Entire Sector] So as Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) announces plans to acquire the wireless chip division of Germany-based Infineon Technologies, it makes sense to see what other firms might be in play. (We made a similar review when Intel announced plans to buy McAfee (NYSE: MFE).) [See:… Read More

After Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) started their bidding for data storage firm 3PAR (NYSE: PAR), investors quickly went in search of possible other deals, bidding up names of several rivals that may soon be bought out themselves. [Read: This Company’s 10-Day, +169% Run is Heating up an Entire Sector] So as Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) announces plans to acquire the wireless chip division of Germany-based Infineon Technologies, it makes sense to see what other firms might be in play. (We made a similar review when Intel announced plans to buy McAfee (NYSE: MFE).) [See: Why Today’s Intel Deal Makes Tech Even More Appealing] The untethered revolution Intel’s decision to wade further into wireless technology is completely understandable. Smart phones and tablet computers are paving the way for a tech revolution that untethers us from cable modems and other desk-bound Internet connections. Industry watchers expect to see desktop-PC sales shrink and tablet sales rise in coming years. Inifineon can boast of customers such as Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) and LG, but has barely made any profits on these chips that transmit wireless signals. Intel… Read More

The BRICs are out-of-style. Brazil, Russia, India and China are already yesterday’s investing theme. And as it becomes increasingly apparent that the United States and Europe will be growth-constrained in the near future, investors are now checking out a new bloc of emerging economies called the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa). Growth in these countries has started to catch the attention of globally-focused money managers and, conveniently, there is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focusing on each country that allows individual investors to own a piece. The… Read More

The BRICs are out-of-style. Brazil, Russia, India and China are already yesterday’s investing theme. And as it becomes increasingly apparent that the United States and Europe will be growth-constrained in the near future, investors are now checking out a new bloc of emerging economies called the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa). Growth in these countries has started to catch the attention of globally-focused money managers and, conveniently, there is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focusing on each country that allows individual investors to own a piece. The question is, are these countries suitable for your portfolio? #-ad_banner-#Looking under the hood Over the years, I have had the good fortune to travel extensively and have brought back a few investing perspectives from my trips to Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and Turkey (I’ve never been to South Africa). And after consulting with Nathan Slaughter, our resident ETF expert at StreetAuthority, here are my cursory thoughts: Vietnam — I was extremely impressed by this country during my visit in 2007. It is blessed with a low-cost but… Read More

For years, market strategists have tried to explain that investor bullishness is bad for future stock returns, and when investors are very bearish, it’s a great time to buy. They’re right. I’ve gone over 25 years of data compiled by the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), and found this investing maxim to be remarkably accurate. And guess what? The AAII’s weekly survey has just revealed another low in investor sentiment. First, let’s take a look at what happened in the late 1980s when investors had just come out of a sharp market crash (the infamous… Read More

For years, market strategists have tried to explain that investor bullishness is bad for future stock returns, and when investors are very bearish, it’s a great time to buy. They’re right. I’ve gone over 25 years of data compiled by the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), and found this investing maxim to be remarkably accurate. And guess what? The AAII’s weekly survey has just revealed another low in investor sentiment. First, let’s take a look at what happened in the late 1980s when investors had just come out of a sharp market crash (the infamous Black Friday of October, 1987) and sentiment was fairly bearish. This table shows the annual low point for investor sentiment from 1987 through 1993 and how the market subsequently fared. Throughout this period, investors were very bearish, and less than one in five investors considered themselves to be bullish. Those lonely bulls sure made some money, though. Reported Date Bullish Neutral Bearish 1-Mo. Return 6-Mo. Return 1-Year Return 2-Year Return 3-Year Return 12/11/87 23.0% 45.0% 32.0% +3% +9% +18% +48% +40% 07/22/88 16.0% 58.0% 26.0% -1% +9% +30% +34% +45% 03/10/89 13.0%… Read More

In this tough market environment, many stocks have seen their value fall by -30% or even -40%. But I came across a foursome of stocks that have fallen a whopping -70% since the end of February. But don’t blame the bad economy: these stocks are stumbling for company-specific reasons. For… Read More