Heading off early next week ahead of the Labor Day weekend? So are many others, including Wall Street traders. As they leave their trading desks, trading volumes can get awfully light. That makes the markets vulnerable — on the upside or the downside — to any news items that are unexpected. With a dearth of corporate news but a boatload of economic releases next week, investors need to stay vigilant. Here’s a look at four key items to watch: 1) On Tuesday, August 30th, we’ll get the latest reading from the monthly Case-Shiller home… Read More

Heading off early next week ahead of the Labor Day weekend? So are many others, including Wall Street traders. As they leave their trading desks, trading volumes can get awfully light. That makes the markets vulnerable — on the upside or the downside — to any news items that are unexpected. With a dearth of corporate news but a boatload of economic releases next week, investors need to stay vigilant. Here’s a look at four key items to watch: 1) On Tuesday, August 30th, we’ll get the latest reading from the monthly Case-Shiller home price index. The data reflects June prices, and this report is coming off a surprisingly robust tally the prior month that showed a +4.6% gain in home prices in May. In fact, this report has looked a tad better for 15 straight months, after bottoming with an -18% drop in February, 2009. Many of those ensuing months were still negative, but less so as time passed. Now, with a string of three straight positive readings, can we keep it up? Any reading above +5.0% would be a real positive for the markets and could boost housing stocks. Then again,… Read More

The energy industry has been especially turbulent recently, and investors looking for opportunity in companies afflicted by the offshore rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are positioned right in the middle of the hurricane. I’ve spent some time in the hurricane and… Read More

Retirees and others that rely on income from their investments will be the first to tell you that interest rates are not what they used to be. Prior to the credit crisis, an individual with $2 million saved up could achieve a six-figure income just by holding a diversified basked… Read More

Investors that look to short stocks seek out two kinds of investments: those that are simply overvalued, and those that may go out of business. The latter are known as a “terminal short,” (as in terminally ill), and though they are rare, they can be very profitable. Parsing TiVo’s (Nasdaq: TIVO) fiscal second quarter results that were released Wednesday evening, you’ll find a company that is beginning to lose altitude. And as you look out into the future of TV and Internet programming, it’s hard to see how the company will… Read More

Investors that look to short stocks seek out two kinds of investments: those that are simply overvalued, and those that may go out of business. The latter are known as a “terminal short,” (as in terminally ill), and though they are rare, they can be very profitable. Parsing TiVo’s (Nasdaq: TIVO) fiscal second quarter results that were released Wednesday evening, you’ll find a company that is beginning to lose altitude. And as you look out into the future of TV and Internet programming, it’s hard to see how the company will remain as a compelling choice for either consumers or its media partners. Back in the red As young companies like TiVo are in growth mode, they are excused from the need to show positive cash flow. The company’s sales rose nicely through the middle of the past decade, but growth sharply slowed in fiscal (January) 2008 and has since turned negative. Trouble is, the company was only able to generate positive cash flow in fiscal 2009, but is once again back in negative cash flow mode. That’s worrisome enough. TiVo’s… Read More

It’s easy to trot out legendary investor Peter Lynch’s name every time you find an undervalued fast-growing company, but the truth is that Lynch had many different criteria that had to be met before he would purchase a stock. I always keep certain Peter Lynch criteria in… Read More

Here’s a handy tip: Yahoo! Finance has a page with information on all sorts of bonds rates. The page makes it easy to see where bond yields are right now. Click here to see the list (be… Read More

Investors see little reason to buy any stocks having to do with housing right now, and for good reason. Recent data tell us that the long-awaited upturn in housing is still over the horizon. So shares prices — especially among home furnishing retailers — fall and fall some more. In the last three months, shares of Kirkland’s (Nasdaq: KIRK) have lost almost half of their value, Haverty’s (NYSE: HVT) and Ethan Allen (NYSE: ETH) have fallen by roughly one-third, while Bed, Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) and Pier One Imports (NYSE: PIR) have… Read More

Investors see little reason to buy any stocks having to do with housing right now, and for good reason. Recent data tell us that the long-awaited upturn in housing is still over the horizon. So shares prices — especially among home furnishing retailers — fall and fall some more. In the last three months, shares of Kirkland’s (Nasdaq: KIRK) have lost almost half of their value, Haverty’s (NYSE: HVT) and Ethan Allen (NYSE: ETH) have fallen by roughly one-third, while Bed, Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) and Pier One Imports (NYSE: PIR) have fallen roughly -20%. One could assume the sell-off was the result of steadily falling profit estimates, yet consensus expectations for Bed, Bath & Beyond’s profit in 2010 and 2011 have remained flat in the past three months, and Pier One’s profit outlook has actually been strengthening. (Ethan Allen and Haverty’s, which focus on more expensive bedroom and living room sets, have been the subject of downward estimate revisions). As the table below shows, these stocks now range from reasonably priced to dirt cheap. Company (Ticker) Recent… Read More

U.S. banks had a great run. From December 1994 to December 2006, the KBW Bank Sector Index (an index of leading banks) soared nearly +400%. But the financial crisis ended that party. Now the index is at 1996 levels again. Read More

When the topic is the current market, a lot of pundits like to talk about “the new normal” — that is to say, a range-bound stock market confined by a slow-growth economy. But when it comes to finding decent long-term… Read More

One of the realities of a tough market is that fully-priced stocks get discounted, and under-priced stocks become really, really cheap. You can forget about the notion that stocks always deserve to trade at whatever price they currently have — known as the Efficient-Market Hypothesis. Often times, the market is… Read More