Markets don’t like uncertainty, and a big chunk of it was removed Sunday after Congress passed landmark health care legislation that will extend benefits to 32 million uninsured Americans. As the dust settled the day after America “answered the call of history,” as President Obama put it,… Read More

My systems are telling me that stocks will likely move higher into mid-April, so potentially we’ve got a few weeks to make some money in an upwardly trending market. Helping the rally in stocks in April will be what I believe could be… Read More

You probably know the name Bill Miller. Aside from Warren Buffett, he might be the closest thing the investment world has to a rock star. Every year, millions of investors set out with one goal in mind: to outperform the S&P 500. Miller’s Legg Mason Value Trust… Read More

During the past few years, companies have sought to cut all non-essential expenses. Office equipment was among the many items that saw a sharp slowdown in demand. But like all other hard goods, copiers and the like tend to wear out over time. So as the… Read More

Tech stocks are notoriously stingy dividend payers. Typically, these companies use earnings to fuel growth and to keep up with the competition, not to pay shareholders. In fact, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index yields just 0.8%… Read More

You can’t blame all of the vast stock sell-offs in 2008 and early 2009 on the lousy economy. Sometimes, share prices plunged simply due to management ineptitude. MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR) was a perennially respected leading supplier of those big disks — known… Read More

This week Wall Street has had a lot of its usual fare to digest: Retail sales, housing starts, petroleum inventories, mortgage applications, some minor earnings reports. Those data points… Read More

Investors with a pulse have no doubt heard about Brazil’s potential by now. After all, given the multi-year run-up in Brazil’s main exchange, the Bovespa, and the announcement that the 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janiero, it’s a little hard to ignore. But make no mistake… Read More

Here’s a brief three-part history and economics primer, followed by some advice on how to make money from it. The Past Nearly a half-century ago, on Dec. 14, 1960, the United Nations passed Resolution 1514, a declaration on the granting… Read More

The weak economy has brought a silver lining: companies that were inefficiently operating were forced to take a hard look at their operations and address any shortcomings. And Christopher & Banks (NYSE: CBK) sure had many problems to tackle. The women’s clothing retailer… Read More