The road to a greener future has been a bumpy one for investors. The entire spectrum of clean energy stocks have risen and fallen in tandem with changing government policies and wildly swinging fossil fuel prices. Yet the industry has made considerable inroads as industry revenue for solar, wind and… Read More

If you were asked to name the types of stocks with the greatest appreciation potential, which sectors would come to mind: tech, energy, financial services, health care? Investors flock to those and other well-known industries for good reason. They all have a history… Read More

Emerging markets have certainly been the place to be. In the past 10 years, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) has returned an astounding average of +21.5% a year, compared to +5.1% for the S&P 500. However, this outperformance has been lost on many dividend investors who have likely considered emerging markets an exotic indulgence of growth investors. But emerging markets are an increasing force on the world stage that can’t be ignored — even by income investors. Read More

Emerging markets have certainly been the place to be. In the past 10 years, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) has returned an astounding average of +21.5% a year, compared to +5.1% for the S&P 500. However, this outperformance has been lost on many dividend investors who have likely considered emerging markets an exotic indulgence of growth investors. But emerging markets are an increasing force on the world stage that can’t be ignored — even by income investors. These nations represent 40% of the world’s population and already control two thirds of its industrial output. And their influence is growing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says emerging markets accounted for nearly all of the world’s growth last year, and they’re forecasted to grow at nearly three times the pace of the rest of the world in 2010. Investors don’t normally associate dividends with emerging markets. Many companies in these fast growing economies have used excess cash to fund expansions rather than pay dividends in the past. But things… Read More

I have a little quiz for you. I’ll describe one of the most lucrative commodity plays I’ve ever seen, and you tell me which one I’m talking about. Ready? This commodity is one of the most versatile on the planet. It… Read More

Thanks to a confluence of events, prices for corn, soybeans and wheat have been surging recently. And that has set agricultural equipment stocks afire. Shares of irrigation equipment maker Lindsay Manufacturing (NYSE: LNN) have surged more than +10% since last Thursday, while Deere (NYSE: DE) has made a similar move since last Monday. The same can be said for many other sector names, a number of which now sport price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios that are starting to get frothy. It may be too late to make… Read More

Thanks to a confluence of events, prices for corn, soybeans and wheat have been surging recently. And that has set agricultural equipment stocks afire. Shares of irrigation equipment maker Lindsay Manufacturing (NYSE: LNN) have surged more than +10% since last Thursday, while Deere (NYSE: DE) has made a similar move since last Monday. The same can be said for many other sector names, a number of which now sport price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios that are starting to get frothy. It may be too late to make a quick hit on this farm belt trade, but another sector has suddenly become very attractive simply because these commodities are seeing a surge in prices. I’m talking about the major producers of chicken, beef and pork. Their costs just went up, and their shares just went down. Yet viewed in the context of traditional long-term earnings power, these stocks are suddenly quite cheap. To fatten up livestock, farmers buy up massive amounts of corn and soybeans, which often account for a big chunk of operating expenses. But these “protein” producers… Read More

After an extended period in the wilderness courtesy of one of the most severe economic downturns in decades, retail stocks are slowly making a comeback. Just a couple of years ago, consumers shunned clothing and many other goods for more basic necessities. Consumers traded down where they could and even… 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

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

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

While companies like Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have revved up their acquisitions latesly, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) has been quiet. But this won’t last for long. The company has integrated its $7.5 billion deal for Sun Microsystems and also snagged the former CEO of HP,… Read More