I stumbled across a prediction last week that would impress even Mad Money’s Jim Cramer. According to a recent report from Oxfam, an international charitable organization, Bill Gates has a shot at becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Oxfam speculates that if the returns on the tech mogul’s $75 billion fortune in the next 25 years are similar to those in the last 25 years, Gates has a shot at jumping the $1 trillion mark. That got me thinking, if one man has a shot at becoming a trillionaire, certainly one of the S&P 500’s biggest companies has a shot at… Read More

I stumbled across a prediction last week that would impress even Mad Money’s Jim Cramer. According to a recent report from Oxfam, an international charitable organization, Bill Gates has a shot at becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Oxfam speculates that if the returns on the tech mogul’s $75 billion fortune in the next 25 years are similar to those in the last 25 years, Gates has a shot at jumping the $1 trillion mark. That got me thinking, if one man has a shot at becoming a trillionaire, certainly one of the S&P 500’s biggest companies has a shot at becoming the world’s first $1 trillion company? Turns out, a few do.  I see five S&P 500 companies with a shot at breaking the $1 trillion mark in the next five years. — Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is the smallest company on the list with a market cap of $386 billion. Facebook’s share price would need to hit $345, up 159%. –Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has a market cap of $400 billion. Shares would need to hit $1,980, up 125%. –Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has a market cap of $498 billion. Shares would need to hit $130, up 100%. –Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) is… Read More

With stock markets setting new records in 2017, it might be prudent to recall the much weaker start to 2016. In January 2016, the S&P 500 declined 5%, followed by another 5% decline in early February. About a year ago, on February 12, 2016, a rebound started, and the market… Read More

If you want a reason to be optimistic about the S&P 500 look no further than fourth-quarter earnings. After falling for five consecutive quarters, S&P 500 earnings growth is back in the green. It started last quarter. Third-quarter earnings grew 2.1% from the same period last year, a marginal victory on the chart but a big win for morale, breaking a five-quarter losing streak. #-ad_banner-#Fourth-quarter earnings show an improvement from there. As of February 10, 71% of S&P 500 companies had reported fourth-quarter results, according to FactSet Research. From that group, earnings were up 5.0% from… Read More

If you want a reason to be optimistic about the S&P 500 look no further than fourth-quarter earnings. After falling for five consecutive quarters, S&P 500 earnings growth is back in the green. It started last quarter. Third-quarter earnings grew 2.1% from the same period last year, a marginal victory on the chart but a big win for morale, breaking a five-quarter losing streak. #-ad_banner-#Fourth-quarter earnings show an improvement from there. As of February 10, 71% of S&P 500 companies had reported fourth-quarter results, according to FactSet Research. From that group, earnings were up 5.0% from last year. This marks a strong reversal out of the earnings recession that began in 2015. Looking forward, earnings are expected to accelerate throughout 2017. Take a look at the earnings growth projections below. This return to earnings growth is a powerful macro force that I expect to be supportive of the S&P 500 this year. History also tells me that companies delivering the best earnings surprises will do even better and benefit from one of Wall Street’s best-kept secrets. The Post Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) is the tendency for a stock’s cumulative abnormal… Read More

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) the parent company of popular messaging app Snapchat, recently officially filed for its initial public offering (IPO). Calling itself a “camera company,” Snapchat, which boasts a private market valuation of $17.8 billion, has ambitious plans to raise some $3 billion from the offering — a figure which some analysts call merely a placeholder number for a far greater goal. Don’t Make Snap Decisions Estimates suggest this offering to value the company between $20 billion and $22 billion, according to MarketWatch. But should retail investors, who the company says will have no… Read More

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) the parent company of popular messaging app Snapchat, recently officially filed for its initial public offering (IPO). Calling itself a “camera company,” Snapchat, which boasts a private market valuation of $17.8 billion, has ambitious plans to raise some $3 billion from the offering — a figure which some analysts call merely a placeholder number for a far greater goal. Don’t Make Snap Decisions Estimates suggest this offering to value the company between $20 billion and $22 billion, according to MarketWatch. But should retail investors, who the company says will have no voting rights, buy into the IPO? Just as important, given the recent IPO lemons we’ve seen from the likes of GoPro (Nasdaq: GPRO) — another camera company — Snapchat investors must consider the bigger picture. #-ad_banner-#According to its recent filing, Snapchat has made considerable progress in terms of monetizing its core ephemeral photo- and video-sharing app, which had 158 million daily active users at the end of 2016 for an average of 2.5 billion “snaps” created per day. Aside from the ads posted on its photo-sharing platform, the company makes money from content created by third-party channels such as news… Read More

“You can bet your bottom dollar, residential real estate will never go down in value!” The real estate seminar speaker exclaimed. He backed up this proclamation with slides of long-term charts and graphs to the excited wannabe-investor audience hanging on his every word. As a natural contrarian and experienced investor, this overconfidence in the housing market struck me as a possible signal that a crash of untold devastation was in the cards. #-ad_banner-#That was in 2005, and we all know what happened during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Easy money sparked an unsustainable bubble in the residential housing market. Feeling secure… Read More

“You can bet your bottom dollar, residential real estate will never go down in value!” The real estate seminar speaker exclaimed. He backed up this proclamation with slides of long-term charts and graphs to the excited wannabe-investor audience hanging on his every word. As a natural contrarian and experienced investor, this overconfidence in the housing market struck me as a possible signal that a crash of untold devastation was in the cards. #-ad_banner-#That was in 2005, and we all know what happened during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Easy money sparked an unsustainable bubble in the residential housing market. Feeling secure that price appreciation would never end, banks were heavily pushing NINJA (no income, no job, no assets)-type loans. There were stories of low paid retail workers purchasing $500,000-plus McMansions and other tales of incredible financial debauchery. Economists estimate that second mortgages during the bubble years fueled $1.25 trillion in consumer spending from 2002 to 2006. When the bubble burst, consumption collapsed, triggering the Great Recession. Huge numbers of homeowners lost their homes as the housing market was rocked by overleverage and plunging real estate prices. No longer able to sustain the payments by refinancing, many homeowners and investors just walked… Read More

The other day, a headline in a financial publication caught my attention. “Small Is No Longer Beautiful,” it read. I was intrigued. I knew all about the strength in small-cap stocks this past year and how their strong post-election rally started to fizzle in December. But would I go so far as to predict that these stocks have totally lost their appeal compared with their large and mega-cap peers? I don’t think so. Yes, it’s true that the Russell 2000, represented on the chart by the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM), strongly outperformed the S&P… Read More

The other day, a headline in a financial publication caught my attention. “Small Is No Longer Beautiful,” it read. I was intrigued. I knew all about the strength in small-cap stocks this past year and how their strong post-election rally started to fizzle in December. But would I go so far as to predict that these stocks have totally lost their appeal compared with their large and mega-cap peers? I don’t think so. Yes, it’s true that the Russell 2000, represented on the chart by the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM), strongly outperformed the S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) index of U.S. large-cap stocks over the past year. And it might also be true that the index was getting a little ahead of itself, as suggested by its December pause. —Sponsored Link— The 8% Income Strategy: Never Run Out Of Money In Retirement If you’re living off income from your investments, or are nearing retirement and worry how long your savings will last, the “No Withdrawal” approach could change everything. Inside, you’ll discover the simple portfolio strategy to locking in 8%-plus dividends, along with six top high-yielders set to gain 20%… Read More

President Trump has made a border tax adjustment a key part of his trade policy, promising to raise taxes on imports into the United States to make domestic production relatively inexpensive. The idea has also been used to keep companies from moving production abroad. The President has explicitly threatened automakers… Read More

Coal has been an important fuel source since the dawn of history. Scientists have found evidence that Neanderthals used coal as a fuel in Les Canalettes, France as far back as 73,500 years ago. Today, coal counts as the largest source of electric energy worldwide. #-ad_banner-#Of course, there’s one major… Read More

One would think that the company would be making headline news after returning over 360% in the last 52 weeks. However, this high-return stock is not very popular among investors. The majority of today’s stock market players seem to prefer the latest technology or cutting edge pharmaceutical stock to this top performer. In fact, the entire sector has fallen out of favor due to years of underperformance and lackluster returns. But things are changing and changing quickly. Investors who caught this trend early have earned handsome profits, but don’t worry — there are still plenty of profits to be made… Read More

One would think that the company would be making headline news after returning over 360% in the last 52 weeks. However, this high-return stock is not very popular among investors. The majority of today’s stock market players seem to prefer the latest technology or cutting edge pharmaceutical stock to this top performer. In fact, the entire sector has fallen out of favor due to years of underperformance and lackluster returns. But things are changing and changing quickly. Investors who caught this trend early have earned handsome profits, but don’t worry — there are still plenty of profits to be made by risk-embracing investors. #-ad_banner-#Rest assured, I’m not talking about flash-in-the-pan, sky-high-return penny stocks with shady marketing, or questionable biotech stocks with “miracle cures.” This company has existed for over 115 years, and counted many of them as the market-leader. It boasts revenues of nearly $12 billion annually and a market cap of almost $7 billion. I can’t think of many companies further away from the penny stock arena. The company is Pittsburgh-based steel company U.S. Steel (NYSE: X).  Once one of the leading industrial firms in the nation, the company has suffered since the 1980s due to cheap imports. It… Read More

Last week, I told you that my colleague Joseph Hogue had just put the finishing touches on his new book about investing in innovative startup companies before they go public. Joseph is one of the foremost experts in what’s known as “pre-IPO investing” through the relatively new form of online crowdfunding. I also explained how we are extending a special offer to StreetAuthority readers who want to get their hands on Joseph’s new book. (To read that article, go here.) For newcomers, I won’t be spending much time going over the basics of how this works today. Frankly, we’ve covered… Read More

Last week, I told you that my colleague Joseph Hogue had just put the finishing touches on his new book about investing in innovative startup companies before they go public. Joseph is one of the foremost experts in what’s known as “pre-IPO investing” through the relatively new form of online crowdfunding. I also explained how we are extending a special offer to StreetAuthority readers who want to get their hands on Joseph’s new book. (To read that article, go here.) For newcomers, I won’t be spending much time going over the basics of how this works today. Frankly, we’ve covered this topic extensively and I don’t want to get too much into the weeds. Suffice it to say, as we’ve pointed out many, many times before, we think pre-IPO crowdfunding represents one of the absolute best chances to make the kinds of life-changing returns every regular investor has always dreamed about. —Sponsored Link— Did Elon Musk Just Lock In FAST 985% Gains For HZNM? Tesla Motors needs as much lithium as they can get to keep up with demand for their electric cars. Recently discovered Horizon Minerals (HZNM) could give them exactly what they need!… Read More