Wednesday was a big day for the tech sector, as all eyes were on bellwether Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its fiscal first-quarter earnings.#-ad_banner-# About 40 minutes after the closing bell, the market heard what Apple had to say, and the reaction wasn’t very good. The stock plunged more than 10% in after-hours trading as the company’s… Read More

Wednesday was a big day for the tech sector, as all eyes were on bellwether Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its fiscal first-quarter earnings.#-ad_banner-# About 40 minutes after the closing bell, the market heard what Apple had to say, and the reaction wasn’t very good. The stock plunged more than 10% in after-hours trading as the company’s revenue fell short of expectations, as did sales of iPads and iPhones. The rotten reaction to the Apple numbers stood in stark contrast to the stellar numbers from two other tech giants, one “old school” and one “new school.”  Representing the old school is International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), and the new school rep is Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Both of these companies saw their share price surge Wednesday, as the market reacted positively to their strong earnings reports. In the case of IBM, we saw the Dow component’s shares spike 4.4% on heavy… Read More

In June of last year, I penned an optimistic commentary suggesting the king of the fast food chains, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), was a solid buy. This came despite the 11% pullback leading up to that… Read More

In June of last year, I penned an optimistic commentary suggesting the king of the fast food chains, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), was a solid buy. This came despite the 11% pullback leading up to that call, the fact that the company had warned upcoming earnings would tumble about 6%, and that Goldman Sachs had changed its opinion of McDonald’s from “buy” to merely “neutral.”#-ad_banner-# To be fair, the stock is now trading… Read More

In June of last year, I penned an optimistic commentary suggesting the king of the fast food chains, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), was a solid buy. This came despite the 11% pullback leading up to that call, the fact that the company had warned upcoming earnings would tumble about 6%, and that Goldman Sachs had changed its opinion of McDonald’s from “buy” to merely “neutral.”#-ad_banner-# To be fair, the stock is now trading about where it was then, so the “buy” call hasn’t bore fruit yet. But a handful of new factors has materialized that continue to convince me this iconic stock is being underestimated. That was then The seven months since that detailed look at McDonald’s haven’t been easy. Shares have moved as high as $94.09 and as low as $83.31 before finding the $92 level again. The prods for all that volatility were mostly earnings-based, some good and some bad. As expected, when McDonald’s posted its second-quarter earnings, they were lower by 2.2%. Even… Read More

My bull call for 2013 is well on its way to becoming a reality. The first several weeks of January have been amazingly bullish for the… Read More

My bull call for 2013 is well on its way to becoming a reality. The first several weeks of January have been amazingly bullish for the… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there are enough boulders in the U.S. economy‘s path that could derail an economic expansion. So perhaps it’s wiser to focus on companies that are poised for solid growth in 2013. Out of all the of the companies in the S&P 500, 91 (or 18%)… Read More

If you look out into the middle of the decade, then you can make the case for increasingly robust economic growth that could fuel heady top- and bottom-line gains in a number of sectors. But we’re not there yet.#-ad_banner-# Recent economic signs point to an eventual economic brightening, though there are enough boulders in the U.S. economy‘s path that could derail an economic expansion. So perhaps it’s wiser to focus on companies that are poised for solid growth in 2013. Out of all the of the companies in the S&P 500, 91 (or 18%) are expected to boost sales by at least 10% this year. And of those firms, 72 are expected to boost per-share profits by at least 15% in the coming year.  A cluster of them reside in sectors that have already received a great deal of investor attention recently, so they can’t be seen as solid values in the context of projected 2013 results any more. Housing stocks, for example, fit into this category. Instead, value investors may prefer to focus on stocks that have solid growth prospects, but sport forward price-to-earnings (… Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to… Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to China only through mega-multinational companies such as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) or General Electric (NYSE: GE).#-ad_banner-# I’ve always sided with the bears, who contend China’s economic numbers can’t be trusted because the command-and-control nature that the government has over the economy. Read More

OK, I’m always the first to admit it. When it comes to investing in Chinese stocks, I’m a bit of a skeptic.  That’s why I’ve opted to get investment exposure to China only through mega-multinational companies such as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) or General Electric (NYSE: GE).#-ad_banner-# I’ve always sided with the bears, who contend China’s economic numbers can’t be trusted because the command-and-control nature that the government has over the economy. However, I’m also a big fan of emerging markets and telecom stocks. That’s why I just can’t deny the relevance of state-owned China Mobile Ltd‘s (NYSE: CHL) role in this investment theme. With nearly 600 million subscribers, China Mobile holds the position as the world’s largest wireless provider by market capitalization, with a whopping $227 billion. China’s economic growth has resulted in a rising middle class and telecom providers are usually one of the first sectors to benefits from this rise. Read More

For decades, analysts have heralded small-cap stocks as the real growers in the stock market. And they’re right to some extent; a study that tracked stock returns from 1926 to 2008… Read More