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Cheap natural gas has made this a year for price pullbacks among natural gas stocks and related investments.
Look at United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG), the exchange-traded fund following the price of the fuel. In July 2011 it was selling for over $45 a share.
UNG hit a 52-week low of $14.25 on April 19.
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by David Zeiler
Like two mighty monsters in a 1950s sci-fi B-movie, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (PINK: SSNLF) have locked horns for over a year in an epic patent war neither can win.
Over the past year, the two tech titans have filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits against each other in 10 countries. Most seek to block the sale of one or more of the other's smartphone and tablet products.
The biggest case, filed in San Jose, CA, is scheduled for a July trial, which U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh is desperate to avoid. (She called the case "cruel and unusual punishment" for the jury.)
Earlier this week Koh ordered the CEOs of both Apple and Samsung to meet in mediation sessions, but nothing came of the meetings.
The mutual stubbornness makes sense when you realize what's at stake.
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As last week's Money Morning special report pointed out, the long-term fundamentals for silver prices are decidedly bullish.
However, in today's volatile market, picking the right time to buy silver is something of a guessing game.
But if you are familiar with options, you can let them be your guide in learning precisely when to buy.
And here's the best part: This option trading strategy will only cost you a few dollars.
It works with either options on silver futures – e.g., the standard 5,000-ounce Comex contract, recently valued at around $140,000 – or any of the much more affordable silver-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on which options trade.
For ease of explanation, I'll base our example on the iShares Silver Trust ETF (NYSEArca: SLV), recently priced at $27.34. For comparison purposes, the price of a single SLV share typically tracks the price of one ounce of silver, but is usually 75 to 80 cents lower.
Here's what you do:
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Greece is frozen in a political stalemate. Youth unemployment is running at over 50%. And there has been a $1 billion run on Greek banks.
From near and afar, there appears to be no easy way out, especially now that the Eurozone is heading back into a recession.
It's times like these when investors pour into the U.S. dollar for its "perceived safety."
With commodities priced in U.S. dollars, this spike in the greenback has sent commodities-including gold prices-into a tailspin since early March.
That has many doubters asking: "Has the commodities super-cycle ended?"
It's a reasonable question considering the Continuous Commodity Index (CCI) is back down to levels it last saw in September 2010.
What's more, gold prices have backed off to near $1,500/oz., and oil prices have fallen from $110 to $90/barrel.
But as you'll see, the commodities coin does have another side.
In fact, a recent article by Frank Holmes, CEO and chief investment officer at U.S. Global Investors, pointed out how China and other emerging nations are in better fiscal shape than much of the West.
Even if China is slowing somewhat, it is still growing at an enviable 8% per year, with only 42% debt to GDP ratio. So rather than go for more outright stimulus, it's expected that China will target new loan growth and its M2-money supply growth to around 14%.
Meanwhile, India and Australia have just lowered interest rates while other central banks are basically refusing to raise rates.
It means the world will keep turning, people will keep consuming and annual demand of raw materials is likely to remain elevated.
As for gold prices, let's cut right to the chase.
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I hope you didn't buy shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB). The valuation was always too aggressive.
And increasing both the price and amount of Facebook stock at the last moment ensured that both underwriters and retail investors ended up with far more shares than they bargained for.
In fact, the Facebook fiasco reminds me of another deal that marked the peak of the dot-com boom.
No, not the ineffable and rather sweet Pets.com- their IPO was far too small a deal to have genuine market significance.
Instead I'm talking about the AOL and Time Warner merger announced on January 10, 2000.
Like Facebook, the deal was sold as a big success. It was only later that it quickly became clear that AOL had sold itself at the absolute peak of the market.
From there on out it was all downhill as the storied merger practically top-ticked the market.
AOL had built up a nice business from "dial-up" Internet access, but it was already obvious by January 2000 that the arrival of broadband Internet would make for a difficult transition.
As such, AOL's market capitalization of around $200 billion was purely the result of the frothy market of 1999.
Nevertheless, that rich valuation enabled AOL to become the senior partner in an acquisition of the Time Warner media conglomerate, getting 55% of the merged company in a deal valued at $350 billion. It was the largest merger in U.S. history.
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by Diane Alter
The only certain thing if Greece leaves the Eurozone is the uncertainty that will certainly follow.
Unable to form a coalition government during May elections, Greece has been forced to hold a second vote on June 17.
In the balance is the future of the Eurozone itself as a "Grexit" looms large.
So much is riding on the outcome that U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders of the G-8 have conveyed their optimism that Greece will remain in the Eurozone when they convened for a summit on Saturday aimed at keeping Europe's economic woes from stretching around the globe.
"All of us are absolutely committed to making sure that growth and stability and social consolidation are part of an overall package," President Obama said.
But many other principals and economic experts are not as committed and believe a Greek exit would be the best move in the long run.
The question is what impact its departure will have beyond its own ailing borders if Greece renounces its debt and leaves the Eurozone.
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Lately gold prices have been affected by a strengthening dollar resulting from troubles overseas.
On Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told Dow Jones Newswires that considerations were being made for a potential exit by Greece from the euro. He also warned that such an exit would be "catastrophic" for the country and that fallout across the entire Eurozone would be severe.
Concerns over what will happen to Greece and the Eurozone if Greece leaves have caused the euro to drop to $1.255, its lowest level against the dollar since July 2010.
These issues have led to a rising dollar as investors continue to move out of gold and into the dollar.
"Not surprisingly, Greece is the biggest single factor behind the move [out of gold and into dollars]," said Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald on May 11. "Traders are concerned that the nation will summarily go its own way, shatter the EU's bailout and potentially sink the euro itself."
Constant worries loom of a "Grexit" as European leaders met in an informal summit in Brussels today (Wednesday) to talk about the debt crisis and how best to spur growth in the struggling Eurozone.
The meeting comes a day after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued a warning that the 17 countries that use the euro risk falling into a "severe recession."
"The crisis in the Eurozone remains the single biggest downside risk facing the global outlook," said Pier Carlo Padoan, chief economist for the OECD.
So just how low can gold prices go?
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by Diane Alter
Investors are not taking lightly the lackluster performance of the Facebook stock price (Nasdaq: FB).
On Tuesday the finger pointing blame game began, followed today (Wednesday) by lawsuits.
Investors who claim they were misled in the purchase of the social network firm's stock filed a lawsuit against underwriters Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) and the other underwriters, some 33 in total.
According to a complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the investors, who are members of a proposed class action lawsuit, claim they have lost more than $2.5 billion since Facebook's debut last week.
Morgan Stanley has been accused of mismanaging the offering by either signing off on a price that was too high, or agreeing to sell too many shares.
Facebook went public May 18 amid much hype and fanfare at $38 a share, the high end of the increased price range.
Several investors are frustrated that they got more shares than they were expecting in the IPO. They in turn dumped those shares when Facebook began trading Friday, pressuring the stock's price down and taxing the Nasdaq's overburdened platform. This resulted in a myriad of problems including late execution reports, communication problems, and delayed quotes.
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Thanks to new developments from natural gas companies, fuel costs might soon be falling by as much as 25% for some individuals.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS:A, RDS.B) plans to spend $250 million on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and filling stations in what is the biggest single investment yet in making frozen gas a transport fuel.
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Most people will do just about anything to avoid getting a virus.
And yet…There is a microbe that just about everyone will want to invade their bodies.
It's a new "bug" that can actually make you young again.
Think about that for a moment. Because I want to make sure you know why this is such a stunning breakthrough.
You see, throughout our history viruses have all too often wreaked havoc on the human race.
In fact, as disasters go, it's hard to beat the Spanish Flu of 1918. It killed at least 20 million around the world.
But here's the thing. Today, scientists have tweaked a benign virus so that it can extend the lifespan of mammals by up to 24 percent.
And if taken at the right time, this modified virus could extend the average life expectancy for an American to roughly 98 years from the current 78.5.
I don't know about you but I would love to live 20 years longer just by having my doctor give me a shot or two.
Now you know why I say that we are living in the Era of Radical Change.
The next few years will be like nothing we've ever seen before in all of human history.
With biotech breakthroughs like these, we can in fact live healthy lives well past 100.
It's like having a "fountain of youth" in a bottle…
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