As tech stocks were exploding in the late 1990s, companies offering video conferencing technology were all the rage. Investors assumed that all business meetings would eventually be replaced by video and audio feeds, allowing for virtual face-to-face collaboration. A decade later, the industry has made major inroads (if not completely… Read More

In times of crisis, investors invariably seek shelter in the almighty dollar. The perceived resilience of the U.S. economy has given the impression that we are simply too large a ship to sink. And although we are well past the scary times of 18 months ago, the global economy still feels dicey, and the dollar, which rallied sharply as the global economy crumbled, still remains fairly strong against the euro and the Chinese yuan. Yet as the global economy sputters back to life during the next year or two, the dollar… Read More

In times of crisis, investors invariably seek shelter in the almighty dollar. The perceived resilience of the U.S. economy has given the impression that we are simply too large a ship to sink. And although we are well past the scary times of 18 months ago, the global economy still feels dicey, and the dollar, which rallied sharply as the global economy crumbled, still remains fairly strong against the euro and the Chinese yuan. Yet as the global economy sputters back to life during the next year or two, the dollar is likely to resume its downward drift that had begun back in 2007 and 2008. If it weakens in a slow and steady fashion, it could help pave the way for a long-awaited export boom that finally reverses stubborn trade deficits and spurs a badly-needed employment surge in our nation’s heartland. Why the long-term bearishness on the dollar? Here are three reasons why… 1. For starters, our budget deficits for fiscal 2010 and 2011 are at record levels (on a non-inflation-adjusted basis). The amount of debt held by the public (that is, excluding intergovernmental… Read More

Super-investor Warren Buffett has made a big bet on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), adding more than 17.4 million shares to the portfolio of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B). His stake in J&J is worth about $2.4 billion at current prices. The move can be seen as a classic Buffett “value” play: J&J shares, at about $58, are well off their 52-week high of $66.20 and are down nearly -10% for the year. The company has annual revenue of more than $60 billion and consistently earns returns on… Read More

Super-investor Warren Buffett has made a big bet on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), adding more than 17.4 million shares to the portfolio of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B). His stake in J&J is worth about $2.4 billion at current prices. The move can be seen as a classic Buffett “value” play: J&J shares, at about $58, are well off their 52-week high of $66.20 and are down nearly -10% for the year. The company has annual revenue of more than $60 billion and consistently earns returns on shareholder equity of between 25% and 30%. It has posted an increase in earnings for at least the past 10 years, and 2010 profit forecasts imply a +188.3% increase in net earnings since 2000. (Earnings have surprised to the upside for the past five years, according to Bloomberg.) The J&J stake wasn’t the only health-care bet made by the 79-year-old Buffett, whom Forbes lists as the second-richest man in the United States, with an estimated net worth of $40 billion, second only to… Read More

General Electric (NYSE: GE) is back. Its shares have more than doubled from the early 2009 swoon to near $16 and profits have begun to rebound. Then again, maybe not. Shares never traded below $30 in the middle part of the… Read More

I’ve never been an alarmist. I spend far more time talking about promising investment opportunities than spouting financial doom and gloom. But there’s a real debt crisis brewing in the United States, and turning a blind eye to the problem won’t make it go away. An endless… Read More

Warren Buffett and his geeky, bridge-playing sidekick Bill Gates have talked 40 billionaires, including some of the business world’s marquee names, into giving half their fortunes to charity.   It’s an interesting scenario: If the avuncular Buffett showed up at your house and asked you to donate half… Read More

There are so many crosscurrents in the U.S. economy right now that the stock market has no idea where it wants to go. Every trading day, we get a new set of items to digest that sets a short-term trend for the market. As… Read More

Over the course of June, the market swooned on fears that the economy was on a downward path. And sure enough, the economic data have indeed been sobering. Just this morning, we learned that the economy created a paltry 71,000 private sector jobs, and the unemployment rate seems to be stuck in the 9.5% area. When you consider that the U.S. population grows by about two million per year, it’s clear that we’d need to see roughly 200,000 jobs created every month to help bring down unemployment. Read More

Over the course of June, the market swooned on fears that the economy was on a downward path. And sure enough, the economic data have indeed been sobering. Just this morning, we learned that the economy created a paltry 71,000 private sector jobs, and the unemployment rate seems to be stuck in the 9.5% area. When you consider that the U.S. population grows by about two million per year, it’s clear that we’d need to see roughly 200,000 jobs created every month to help bring down unemployment. And that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. Yet investor sentiment toward this bleak set of news seems to have made an about face. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were each off around -0.5% on the weak employment news, indicating that fewer investors are fleeing the market whenever a bleak economic report hits the tape. Tepid economic data in the near-term is now to be expected, and as long as the economy doesn’t slide back into recession, investors may actually start to see the glass as half-full rather than empty. It’s important to remember that… Read More

You could get freebies every day if you wanted to. Go to any restaurant and chances are high you’ll be able to grab matches, toothpicks or mints free of charge. While going out to eat in order to get a free mint seems a bit absurd, there are plenty of… Read More

When officers and directors decide to buy their company’s stock with their own cash, it’s invariably seen as a bullish sign for shares. Yet when they decide to sell, investors need not necessarily be overly concerned. Perhaps shares have had a nice run… Read More