It’s a story that hasn’t gotten a whole lot of press recently, but U.S. banks are doing well. Very well. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) shares hit an all-time high on July 8. The other three large U.S. banks are also on the rise: Citigroup (NYSE: C) is up 25%, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is up 14%, and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is up 24%. The reason? Put simply, banks make… Read More

It’s a story that hasn’t gotten a whole lot of press recently, but U.S. banks are doing well. Very well. Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) shares hit an all-time high on July 8. The other three large U.S. banks are also on the rise: Citigroup (NYSE: C) is up 25%, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is up 14%, and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is up 24%. The reason? Put simply, banks make money by borrowing at a low rate and lending at a high rate. The rates being offered for the average savings account are next to nothing these days. Yet banks are able to turn around and issue loans to businesses and individual customers for rates of 4% to 5%. This difference is called the interest rate spread. On top of that, banks are able to loan many times the amount… Read More

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a groundbreaking policy change last year that is having a large impact on the biotech industry and creating a big opportunity for investors. To create a faster path to commercialization for potentially life-saving drugs and medicine, the FDA in July introduced a new “breakthrough” status for drugs that show “substantial improvement on existing therapies for clinically significant endpoints.”#-ad_banner-# For an industry that is accustomed to a costly 10-year commercialization process, the breakthrough status is a welcome shift. An accelerated channel to… Read More

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a groundbreaking policy change last year that is having a large impact on the biotech industry and creating a big opportunity for investors. To create a faster path to commercialization for potentially life-saving drugs and medicine, the FDA in July introduced a new “breakthrough” status for drugs that show “substantial improvement on existing therapies for clinically significant endpoints.”#-ad_banner-# For an industry that is accustomed to a costly 10-year commercialization process, the breakthrough status is a welcome shift. An accelerated channel to commercialization could enable drug companies to shave years and billions of dollars from the cumbersome process. But the FDA’s new breakthrough status isn’t just a win for drug companies and the health care industry — it’s also creating an opportunity to invest in the most innovative companies in the world. The companies winning breakthrough status for their drugs are in the hunt for the next billion-dollar blockbuster, something that can send both earnings and shares soaring. And now, just six months… Read More

Investing in little-known micro-cap stocks can be frustrating — but it can also be rewarding. Even if a company appears to be making substantial progress with product design or customer orders,… Read More

As companies emerge from a rough stretch, their shares can quickly move back into favor with investors. Trouble is, the rebounding share price can often overshoot the mark and move into overvalued territory, especially… Read More

Can you name the gambling capital of the world?  If your answer is “Las Vegas,” you’re wrong.  Macau is the world’s leading destination for betting, having passed Vegas back in 2006 in terms of gambling… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers.  On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35. The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer… Read More

Momentum is an important attribute when picking stocks to trade, and the strength of the price movement is something you want to embrace, not fight against. One of the strongest market sectors this year has been pharmaceuticals. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: XPH) has gained more than 30% year to date, double the gains of the S&P 500. Not all pharma stocks have fared so well, though. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is only up 11% year to date, lagging behind the broader market and sharply behind its peers.  On the chart below, we can see that the January breakout above $27 held on the June and July pullbacks, forming a key support level. The $4 range between the $27 breakout level and the $31 yearly highs targets a breakout move to $35. The $35 target is about 22% higher than current prices, but traders who use a capital-preserving stock-substitution strategy could more than double their… Read More

Buying on weakness and selling on strength is the hallmark of the professional trader. While the average Joe Investor attempts to buy stocks as they are climbing higher, the professional quietly waits for prices to drop in order to enter positions. Obviously, not… Read More

One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim… Read More

One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim of its own success. Buffett has often said that the company’s current size ($278 billion market cap) has made future growth more difficult. “Size is the anchor of performance. There is no question about it,” Buffett has said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t do better than average as you get larger, but the margin shrinks.”  Of course, having too much money is a problem most of us would like to have. And I certainly don’t mean… Read More

One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim… Read More

One hundred seventy thousand dollars. That’s roughly how much one share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE: BRK-A) stock is selling for these days. Imagine if you had been one of the fortunate few to invest in Warren Buffett‘s young company back in 1967, when shares were trading for $20.50. Right now, you would be sitting on a total nominal gain of 829,460%. But nowadays, Berkshire has, to some degree, become a victim of its own success. Buffett has often said that the company’s current size ($278 billion market cap) has made future growth more difficult. “Size is the anchor of performance. There is no question about it,” Buffett has said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t do better than average as you get larger, but the margin shrinks.”  Of course, having too much money is a problem most of us would like to have. And I certainly don’t mean… Read More