In last Friday’s Hotline, we discussed the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged, and at near zero, for yet another FOMC meeting. Janet Yellen and company cited recent global economic and financial developments that “may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term.” […]

Last Thursday, the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged, citing recent global economic and financial developments that “may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term.” Fast-forward to this Thursday, Sept. 24, and we got a decidedly different spin on what’s likely to

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It was all eyes on the Federal Reserve this week, and on Thursday, the FOMC chose to keep interest rates unchanged. Though a slight majority of pundits, as well as many Fed “proxy” indicators, were predicting that the Fed would do just that, I don’t think the so-called smart money had anticipated why the Fed […]

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged Thursday. Though a slight majority of pundits were predicting that the Fed would do just that, I don’t think many had anticipated the reason why the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept rates at near-zero. Here’s the money quote, direct from yesterday’s FOMC statement: “Recent global economic and

I have long advised a dividend-focused investment strategy. Capturing the power of compounding by reinvesting your dividends has been a platform of my portfolio strategy for decades. Even the big Wall Street firms who thrive on peddling speculative shares and overpriced IPOs have—perhaps grudgingly—admitted that dividend payers outperform non-dividend payers over the long run. “Stocks

Yesterday afternoon, we published the October issue of the newsletter. In it, I’ve devoted two pages to a most important change in how we treat sell recommendations in this service. First off, you likely are aware that there is no bigger advocate for the use of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) than me. I love ETFs for […]

I am a huge fan of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In fact, there may be no bigger advocate of these products than me. I love ETFs for multiple reasons, including their transparency, ease of use, low cost and diversity. It is my view that ETFs are perhaps the best innovation to ever come out of the

The ‘Hot Zone’ Takes No Prisoners As I write this month’s issue, it’s just after Labor Day weekend — and that means we now are firmly in the grasp of what I call the “Hot Zone” months. Historically, the Hot Zone months of August, September and October are some of the worst for stocks. On

This week marked the unofficial final hurrah of summer, and this year will be remembered as a summer investors would actually prefer to forget. For the week, the Dow dropped 3.25% while the S&P 500 sank 3.40%. The NASDAQ Composite fell 2.99% in yet another big downturn for the major averages. Bonds were basically flat […]