Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published Aug. 22, 2013. At StreetAuthority, we often look at where Washington’s most powerful men are putting their money. Recently, we learned what not to do from Barack Obama’s portfolio, picked up some tips on diversification from Mitt Romney and revealed Ron Paul’s affinity for gold and silver miners. But none of these men have the potential clout of a woman who may soon become the world’s most powerful economic force.  If you’re thinking of Hillary Clinton, Marissa Mayer or Angela Merkel, you’re wrong.  As the first chairwoman of… Read More

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published Aug. 22, 2013. At StreetAuthority, we often look at where Washington’s most powerful men are putting their money. Recently, we learned what not to do from Barack Obama’s portfolio, picked up some tips on diversification from Mitt Romney and revealed Ron Paul’s affinity for gold and silver miners. But none of these men have the potential clout of a woman who may soon become the world’s most powerful economic force.  If you’re thinking of Hillary Clinton, Marissa Mayer or Angela Merkel, you’re wrong.  As the first chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen would have a deciding role in determining the monetary policy of the world’s largest economy and her portfolio holds some interesting stocks. I know, Yellen has yet to be approved by Congress, but she has some important qualifications:#-ad_banner-# First, Yellen has been on the Fed’s Board of Governors for a full economic cycle, and she’s been there for the discussions on an unprecedented monetary policy. Obama needs that kind of institutional knowledge to help guide policy coming out of this historic period. Second, Yellen is much more dovish than any other possible pick, helping to… Read More

Stocks ended the week unchanged, but they should break out soon as earnings season begins.#-ad_banner-# Traders Seem Unconcerned By Washington SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) closed down $0.02 on the week, virtually unchanged from a week ago. Despite the small change in price, analysts were very active, explaining that… Read More

For years, Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) has been known as the ultimate “story stock.” Investors have been asked to overlook the e-commerce giant’s relatively unimpressive cash flow metrics, assuming that the company will eventually deliver the bottom-line numbers that mature companies deliver.#-ad_banner-# How large is the disconnect? The company delivered an… Read More

And so it begins… As the clock struck midnight Monday, Congress failed to reach an agreement on a short-term budget resolution. As a result, for the first time in 17 years, the United States has entered a shutdown, and thousands of government employees have been furloughed. Depending on how long… Read More

Coming out of the housing crisis, hundreds of thousands of homes could have been bought on the cheap. And some of the world’s largest investors did just that.  For example, we noted earlier this year that the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) spent roughly $100 million per week buying distressed real… Read More

Thanks to the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, the decades-long ban on hedge fund advertising ended Monday. The question you need to consider is whether you should pay attention. Hedge funds have almost been a secretive society in the investment world. Individual investors are largely prohibited from buying… Read More

Do earnings matter? It seems as if the market moves higher with each passing quarter, even as year-over-year earnings growth has markedly slowed in recent quarters. Simply put, it’s easy to assume that investors aren’t paying attention to quarterly updates.#-ad_banner-# But earnings do matter, of course. They’ve been just good… Read More

Stocks pulled back last week and prices could fall a little more before this pullback ends. But there are two very good indicators pointing to higher stock prices by the end of the year. Fourth Quarter Could Determine Wall Street Bonuses SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) dropped 1.06% last… Read More

September is nearly in the record books, and as it turned out, a month that began replete with potential headwinds for equities turned out to be a very good one so far for the bulls. The S&P 500 index is up 3.8% month to date, a move that I doubt… Read More

Traders were pleasantly surprised by the Federal Reserve’s decision to continue buying $85 billion worth of bonds a month. Stocks, bonds and gold moved up on the news, but the effect was short-lived as stocks and gold… Read More