As I discussed last week, China — while still among the fastest-growing of the world’s largest economies — is going through some economic doldrums. Its GDP is expected to grow less than 7% in 2015, down from an average of 8.1% annually for the first four years of the decade. I told you last week about some of the industries, and a few specific companies, that have enormous exposure to China. If your portfolio is heavily leveraged on Chinese growth, you may want to pare back holdings in these areas. #-ad_banner-#Today, I’ll highlight another stock that has no exposure to… Read More

As I discussed last week, China — while still among the fastest-growing of the world’s largest economies — is going through some economic doldrums. Its GDP is expected to grow less than 7% in 2015, down from an average of 8.1% annually for the first four years of the decade. I told you last week about some of the industries, and a few specific companies, that have enormous exposure to China. If your portfolio is heavily leveraged on Chinese growth, you may want to pare back holdings in these areas. #-ad_banner-#Today, I’ll highlight another stock that has no exposure to China’s economy. A slowdown that’s worse than expected over there will have no impact on this all-American gem’s bottom line. Before I get to the specific recommendation, consider the parts of our economy that don’t do much business with China — either by selling goods and services to China’s huge, growing middle class or by taking advantage of Chinese manufacturing plants.  The most obvious such area is a service provider focused solely on U.S. customers. For example, most hospital and home healthcare companies have little overseas exposure other than in Canada; Kindred Healthcare (NYSE: KND) is a prominent example. And… Read More

Earlier this month, I showed you just how oversold pharmaceutical makers and developers have become after presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s tweet about price gouging.  I recommended Gilead as a great rebound play on this theme. Since then, it’s recovered as much as 8.3% of its share price. Today, we have a different development. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) announced that it approached Allergan (NYSE: AGN), the maker of Botox, about a deal to combine forces.  Allergan confirmed this news and told reporters that it is indeed a friendly negotiation and that it would create the largest pharmaceutical company in the world —… Read More

Earlier this month, I showed you just how oversold pharmaceutical makers and developers have become after presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s tweet about price gouging.  I recommended Gilead as a great rebound play on this theme. Since then, it’s recovered as much as 8.3% of its share price. Today, we have a different development. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) announced that it approached Allergan (NYSE: AGN), the maker of Botox, about a deal to combine forces.  Allergan confirmed this news and told reporters that it is indeed a friendly negotiation and that it would create the largest pharmaceutical company in the world — topping even Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).The combined company would be worth around $330 billion. That would make it the sixth largest company in the world, ahead of General Electric (NYSE: GE), J&J and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG). And it’s not because Pfizer thinks more people are going to heading into the Botox fad.  Allergan is located in Ireland. In other words, U.S. politicians wouldn’t be able to touch the new company if it keeps its Dublin address. Although the merger was first proposed by Pfizer it will actually only benefit Allergan shareholders.  You see, Allergan has serious baggage. Read More

Some time ago, I recommended a number of leading oil companies as mid-term investments to my premium Game-Changing Stocks readers. Usually, I stick to recommending little-known “game-changing” companies working on groundbreaking new products or technology that are set to change the way we live our lives. If you allocate, say, 20% of your portfolio to these kinds of stocks (with the other 80% in blue-chip stocks and index funds), and if you’re able to reap the triple-digit potential these stocks hold, then it can dramatically alter your portfolio’s yearly performance. I call this strategy my “80/20” solution. But lately I’ve… Read More

Some time ago, I recommended a number of leading oil companies as mid-term investments to my premium Game-Changing Stocks readers. Usually, I stick to recommending little-known “game-changing” companies working on groundbreaking new products or technology that are set to change the way we live our lives. If you allocate, say, 20% of your portfolio to these kinds of stocks (with the other 80% in blue-chip stocks and index funds), and if you’re able to reap the triple-digit potential these stocks hold, then it can dramatically alter your portfolio’s yearly performance. I call this strategy my “80/20” solution. But lately I’ve been warning my readers that the market is on dicey footing, so I’ve made it a point to offer up picks suitable for the other 80% of your portfolio. My reasoning behind my energy-related recommendations are simple: I don’t know when the price of oil is going to go up, but it will. Short-term conventional wisdom always yields to the statistical reality of the law of large numbers. Sooner or later, all outcomes regress to the mean. Right now, oil is hovering in the $50 range. But it wasn’t too long ago that crude was at $140, and my Spidey… Read More

Each year, research firm Gartner releases its Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report — it is an interesting look into the innovations that will shape our lives and the fevers that will catch Wall Street.       The “Hype Cycle” maps new tech ideas from an innovation trigger through inflated expectations and eventually to productivity. I find the name an apt description for anyone investing in the markets and the often-times ridiculous valuations around companies involved.  #-ad_banner-#Here’s how the cycle typically works: First an innovation becomes commercialized and companies must rush to go public fast enough to meet… Read More

Each year, research firm Gartner releases its Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report — it is an interesting look into the innovations that will shape our lives and the fevers that will catch Wall Street.       The “Hype Cycle” maps new tech ideas from an innovation trigger through inflated expectations and eventually to productivity. I find the name an apt description for anyone investing in the markets and the often-times ridiculous valuations around companies involved.  #-ad_banner-#Here’s how the cycle typically works: First an innovation becomes commercialized and companies must rush to go public fast enough to meet the boom in investor expectations. When the market realizes that profitability is still years away, the crash begins. Only those companies with the market share and balance sheet strength to survive make it to profitability.  As with all financial busts, disillusionment can take the good down with the bad and this sentiment often sinks a stock much further than a rational look at the outlook would suggest. Then when the market catches even a glimpse of profitability, the leaders’ stocks boom.  The 2015 Hype Cycle report shows that the 3D printing industry might be ready to take that last step… Read More

It’s one of the most important pieces of research we do all year — and it just went “live” this week. If you’ve been a StreetAuthority reader for a while, then you probably know each year we release a report on the best stocks to own for the coming year. Hundreds of thousands of investors have read — and profited — from this advice. Since we started issuing our forecast, we’ve beaten the market more times than Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. And we’ve even had years where the picks in our Top 10 Stocks report delivered average gains of 37%…… Read More

It’s one of the most important pieces of research we do all year — and it just went “live” this week. If you’ve been a StreetAuthority reader for a while, then you probably know each year we release a report on the best stocks to own for the coming year. Hundreds of thousands of investors have read — and profited — from this advice. Since we started issuing our forecast, we’ve beaten the market more times than Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. And we’ve even had years where the picks in our Top 10 Stocks report delivered average gains of 37%… 38%… even 39%. By comparison, the S&P 500 has only posted 37% annual gains once in the past 40 years. We don’t tout these numbers to simply brag. There’s a reason our annual report — The Top 10 Stocks For 2016 — is one of our most important and popular pieces of research. You see, one of the things we believe in as a company is that investors too often get caught up in the market’s wild swings, the machinations of the Federal Reserve and the daily market chatter. And while there are many ways to do well in the… Read More

What should be obvious in investing is that the best companies last the longest, reward their shareholders the best and avoid widespread collapses like we saw in 2008-09.  But investors still search for high-risk, low-reward stocks simply because they are more fun to talk about. Just think of the “hot, new IPOs” we’ve seen over the past several years: Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), etc. Are these great companies? One could easily argue that none of them have the earnings, let alone margins, to be considered real money makers.  So when my colleague over at Top… Read More

What should be obvious in investing is that the best companies last the longest, reward their shareholders the best and avoid widespread collapses like we saw in 2008-09.  But investors still search for high-risk, low-reward stocks simply because they are more fun to talk about. Just think of the “hot, new IPOs” we’ve seen over the past several years: Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), etc. Are these great companies? One could easily argue that none of them have the earnings, let alone margins, to be considered real money makers.  So when my colleague over at Top 10 Stocks, Dave Forest, began discussing what actually makes a great company, my ears pricked up. Among the many qualities he looks for, two stand out to me. Each great company has to have irreplaceable assets and top-tier customer retention. The first is obvious. If you own something that you can’t get anywhere else, it has a high value. That goes for anything from a patent on a one-of-a-kind consumer gadget to a piece of real estate next to a major throughway.  The second is where the flash-in-the-pan type stocks lose their charm. If you make a product that becomes… Read More

One of the best ways to make money in the market is to find areas where mainstream investors are simply looking at the wrong numbers. For example, take a look at International Business Machines Inc. (NYSE: IBM). IBM is the glue that holds all of the modern-day tech world together.  Not only has this company long been the guiding hand in making technology so important these days; it also continues to control a large swath of the hardware side of the industry. The company still makes servers and storage solutions for huge organizations like the Department of Defense and Google. Read More

One of the best ways to make money in the market is to find areas where mainstream investors are simply looking at the wrong numbers. For example, take a look at International Business Machines Inc. (NYSE: IBM). IBM is the glue that holds all of the modern-day tech world together.  Not only has this company long been the guiding hand in making technology so important these days; it also continues to control a large swath of the hardware side of the industry. The company still makes servers and storage solutions for huge organizations like the Department of Defense and Google. In fact, it is making great strides in competing with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) on that front. But it’s IBM’s other operations that should have investors taking note.  IBM is an industry leader in some of the most important new trends in the tech world is analytics: cloud computing and big data,. For instance, big data studies how users are accessing information and exactly what kind of information they are accessing. IBM’s big data solutions include the systems and sensors that tally that info to report back to the Googles and Amazons (Nasdaq: AMZN) of the world. Of course, to continue… Read More

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) shocked the investment community on Wednesday morning during its 22nd annual investor meeting. The company, not known for investor surprises, lit up online forums and made headlines by announcing that its bottom line could fall as much as 12% next year. Shares plummeted 10% by the end of the day, causing some to question whether the inevitable pressure from e-commerce competitor, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), is finally getting to Wal-Mart. As for why the company expects to see a profit cut of 6-12% next year, its management blamed it on its spending programs.  Earlier this year, Wal-Mart raised… Read More

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) shocked the investment community on Wednesday morning during its 22nd annual investor meeting. The company, not known for investor surprises, lit up online forums and made headlines by announcing that its bottom line could fall as much as 12% next year. Shares plummeted 10% by the end of the day, causing some to question whether the inevitable pressure from e-commerce competitor, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), is finally getting to Wal-Mart. As for why the company expects to see a profit cut of 6-12% next year, its management blamed it on its spending programs.  Earlier this year, Wal-Mart raised its employees’ minimum wage to $9 per hour. Next year, that’ll go up to $10 per hour. Along with this wage increase, the company is also putting hundreds of millions of dollars into its ecommerce business.  These are not truly new ideas. Investors have already known that Wal-Mart was raising wages and spending more on ecommerce. Yet apparently, they didn’t think it would have these consequences. This fall has only added to Wal-Mart’s terrible year in the market.  Prior to this meeting, its stock was already down 22% on the year. Considering Wal-Mart was one of the only stocks to… Read More

Is the economy slowing? Last Thursday the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its manufacturing index dropped unexpectedly; on Friday, employment growth was lower than expected. The strong dollar, which hurts exports, was partly to blame. But some economists think these negative reports are but two of many factors that point toward economic recession: slowing growth in China and other emerging markets, the specter of rising interest rates, dim prospects for corporate earnings this fall, evidence that corporate profit margins are falling, and even the rising power of anti-spending Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. #-ad_banner-#Granted, some of… Read More

Is the economy slowing? Last Thursday the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported that its manufacturing index dropped unexpectedly; on Friday, employment growth was lower than expected. The strong dollar, which hurts exports, was partly to blame. But some economists think these negative reports are but two of many factors that point toward economic recession: slowing growth in China and other emerging markets, the specter of rising interest rates, dim prospects for corporate earnings this fall, evidence that corporate profit margins are falling, and even the rising power of anti-spending Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. #-ad_banner-#Granted, some of these factors are unlikely to impact the market at the same time — notably, if the economy slows, the Fed may delay its long-planned interest-rate increases. But perception matters, and if more signals flash “slowdown” in the coming weeks and months, it will have an impact on investor decisions. As legendary investor Benjamin Graham said, in the short run the stock market is a voting machine. And it pays to be prepared if the votes seem to be tilting away from growth. One way to cope with the risk of economic slowdown — or the perception thereof — is to… Read More

Are you aware of the Elsa and Anna phenomenon? The executives at Mattel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAT) are. They’ve watched their once-popular Barbie doll lose appeal as young girls switch allegiances to the new dolls based on the popular children’s movie, “Frozen.” Barbie’s steady demise was one of the factors behind the January 2015 resignation of CEO Bryan Stockton. He took the reins of the company in November 2011, and though shares initially rose in the first few years of his tenure, they subsequently went into freefall.  After such a sharp drop, shares of Mattel are inarguably cheap. They… Read More

Are you aware of the Elsa and Anna phenomenon? The executives at Mattel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAT) are. They’ve watched their once-popular Barbie doll lose appeal as young girls switch allegiances to the new dolls based on the popular children’s movie, “Frozen.” Barbie’s steady demise was one of the factors behind the January 2015 resignation of CEO Bryan Stockton. He took the reins of the company in November 2011, and though shares initially rose in the first few years of his tenure, they subsequently went into freefall.  After such a sharp drop, shares of Mattel are inarguably cheap. They sport a 7.6% dividend yield (more on that later), and trade for just 1.2 times trailing sales, compared to a 2.1 multiple for rival Hasbro (Nasdaq: HAS). Hasbro now has a greater market value than Mattel for the first time in more than 20 years.  Low valuations don’t make a stock inherently appealing, unless they are accompanied by a good turnaround plan. And that is just what new CEO Chris Sinclair has offered up to investors. Since becoming CEO of the company earlier this year (losing the “interim” tag in April), Sinclair has taken a close look at every aspect… Read More