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Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald is scheduled to appear today (Wednesday) as a guest on the hour-long Varney & Co. show on Fox Business News.
On that show, which begins at 9:30 a.m. (EST), Fitz-Gerald is tentatively scheduled to sit in for co-anchor Chris Cotter, and to talk about State of the Union issues with company "co-members" Charlie Payne and Tracy Byrnes. The list of guests is currently scheduled to include:
by David Zeiler
Earnings season is well underway and the trend so far has been mostly positive. But as 2011 progresses, companies will be less and less likely to meet – much less surpass – Wall Street's lofty expectations.
That's because high unemployment, tight credit, an inability to further reduce cost structure and less favorable comparisons to 2010 will conspire to trip up the less nimble corporations.
Indeed, any sustained improvement in spending will depend largely on a significant reduction in the unemployment rate. And even the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn't believe the jobless rate will fall below 8% within the next two years.
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Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald is in for a busy week with media appearances. Fitz-Gerald, a popular commentator and best-selling author, is today (Tuesday) scheduled to be a guest on the popular Fox Business Bulls & Bears program that airs at 4 p.m. (EST). Then tomorrow (Wednesday), Fitz-Gerald is set to be a […]
Crude oil is about to skyrocket in price.
In fact, I believe we'll be looking at $150-a-barrel oil by mid-summer.
For most U.S. consumers, higher oil will equate to higher expenses, and a bigger drain on the household budget.
But for investors who understand where to look, these higher crude prices represent a substantial profit opportunity – one that will eradicate any concerns you have about higher household expenses.
And I can tell you precisely where to look.
For the sectors to watch, and profit plays to make, please read on…
Chinese regulators plan on developing more yuan-denominated products and allowing more offshore yuan investment opportunities in the continued push for the global expansion of China's currency.
More yuan-denominated bonds, foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities and eventually initial public offerings (IPOs) will hit the markets in coming years as China gradually allows its currency, also called the renminbi, to be more accessible in international trade and investment. Chinese regulators also want to support international development of Chinese entities.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) earlier this month announced that it has started looking into permitting Chinese companies with overseas yuan accounts to engage in FDI in the mainland. The central bank also recently said it would allow mainland companies to conduct overseas direct investments (ODI) with the yuan.
by Don Miller
Political turbulence in the Ivory Coast yesterday (Monday) shot cocoa prices higher, as Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized leader of the country, called for a one-month ban on exports.
The export ban by the world's largest producer of cocoa beans comes as the new leader hopes to choke off funding for the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to concede defeat.
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Wall Street has been calling gold a bubble since 2005, when it hit $500. Some media naysayers remained negative even as they wrote the headlines proclaiming record highs and saw gold rise almost 30% in the past 12 months.
Interestingly, despite gold's latest run, it was still a laggard compared to many other commodities. In the commodity world, gold didn't even place in the top half in 2010. Against a basket of 14 commodities that includes everything from aluminum to wheat, gold's 29.52% return places it eighth. Palladium took the top spot with a 96.6% return, followed by silver with an 83.21% return. Natural gas continued its cellar-dwelling ways, dropping 21.28% to become the worst-performing commodity of the basket.
There are two main drivers of gold demand: The Fear Trade and the Love Trade.
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The energy crisis of 2008 – during which oil prices climbed to $147 per barrel before falling to the low $30s – led to some big rewards for investors locked in to the right companies. But with oil prices again approaching $100 a barrel, it's important to remember that not all oil plays are profit machines.
However, one company that is worth watching is Brigham Exploration Co. (Nasdaq: BEXP).
Brigham is an oil & gas exploration company that's focused on the Bakken Formation in the Montana and North Dakota area of the United States. The company operates on an area of about 200,000 acres and says it could have as many as 1,600 drilling locations on its Bakken property. I would be shocked if it ended up drilling 25% of those locations, but it is always nice to know that there is a solid inventory of prospects waiting in the wings.
Brigham has turned the Bakken into one of the largest on shore fields in America, and the oil that's now being produced there is increasingly valuable. However, equally valuable is the proprietary knowledge Brigham has derived from the project.
Just one day after Money Morning columnist Martin Hutchinson told readers to invest in Germany, that country's business-confidence index jumped to its highest level in 20 years. Berlin this week also raised its forecast for economic growth by a hefty half a percentage point.
Hutchinson's report – complete with an investment recommendation – appeared in Money Morning on Thursday. On Friday, the Ifo Business Climate Index for German industry and trade advanced to its highest point since the early 1990s, the latest sign that the economy of this European linchpin is being fueled by strong domestic demand, and not just export growth.
Earlier in the week – after Hutchinson had penned his column and made the call to "Buy" Germany, but a day before the article was actually published – German Economic Minister Rainer Brüderle said his country's economy would advance at a 2.3% clip this year, a significant increase from the estimate of 1.8% he made late last year.
by Don Miller
Steelmakers’ profits are shrinking as iron ore suppliers saddle them with steep cost increases while the market for finished materials remains resistant to price hikes.
Even though the world's biggest iron-ore miners are digging up record amounts of the black rock, demand is outstripping supplies. That’s allowing them to boost prices, continuing the upward momentum that got underway in the second half of 2010.
Steelmakers, the major buyers of seaborne iron ore, are unable to pass all the increases along to end users, and are warning that raw material prices are likely to depress their earnings for most of the 2011 fiscal year.
