Volatile market behavior has increased speculation over whether or not we're headed for "stock market crash 2013" – or even 2012.
With the Dow Jones down more than 200 points in the first 20 minutes of trading today (Monday), there's certainly reason to believe wild market moves are in our future.
Even without market plunges, we may just be due for an economic growth slowdown and a stock market pullback.
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Forget about using a keyboard to type in your question on Google or Bing. Ditto for voice control on your smart phone.
Soon you'll be able to control your computer or mobile device just by moving your eyes.
A British research team did just that with a new system that costs less than $100 – all with parts they could simply pull off a shelf.
In a moment, I'll give you all the details. But first, let's put this breakthrough in context.
You see, for most of us surfing the Web, writing emails or sending texts is so routine we don't even give it a second thought.
In fact, it sometimes seems that mobile phones, in particular, have become part of our bodies. (Just try telling my teenagers to stop texting at the dinner table.)
And yet, millions around the world simply cannot join the digital age for a simple reason.
Their bodies won't let them, either because of disease or severe injuries.
That covers a wide range of problems from adults with lost limbs or broken spinal cords to kids who have muscular dystrophy, an illness that causes the muscles to wither away.
But all that is about to change…
Fact is, cutting-edge eye-control tech promises to have a profound impact on the way humans use a wide range of machines. We're taking about everything from controlling robots and wheelchairs to setting the timer on your coffee maker.
It's thanks to the research team at Imperial College London that this tech is finally within reach.
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If you're a veteran investor, you know how important it is to closely follow a company once you've bought its stock.
Companies, you see, are a lot like living beings.
They don't feel or breathe. But they do grow – both in size and stature.
They can also get sick.
And some even die.
In a market as volatile and unpredictable as the one that faces us now, corporate fortunes can change quickly, and unexpectedly.
The opposite is true, too. Sometimes new profit catalysts emerge – quite unexpectedly.
Like the one we're going to look at today.
As an investment writer and an investor, I have a regimen I follow – and it works pretty well.
I usually set up an electronic "portfolio" (you can do this in Google Finance, and on other financial Websites, or you can do this in your online brokerage account). These are typically set up to deliver the latest headlines on each of the companies you've listed.
You can do some of the work yourself, too, checking newswire services such as The Associated Press and Reuters, Websites such as Bloomberg News, MarketWatch.com and Yahoo! Finance, and publications such as The Financial Times, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal.
It also pays to learn which trade journals or specialty publications follow your company.
As I learned during my years as a newspaper business journalist, the writers and editors at these publications develop a highly specialized knowledge of the industry they follow, as well as the individual companies in it.
If you think about it, these folks have to develop such an expertise: Their audiences tend to be experts themselves, meaning they'll be able to spot a phony or dilettante from 50,000 feet in the air.
I mention this for a reason: Last week I began to see some interesting – and potentially profitable – new developments that relate to EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), the data-security and storage giant that I recommended on June 29 to Private Briefing subscribers in a report entitled "Grab This 50% Payday From the Shrewdest Player in Tech."
Let me show you what I've seen. And then we'll come back and look at these developments in more detail.
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Crude oil and gasoline futures contract prices moved down yesterday, as the market took a breather from an accelerated upturn.
But the overall medium-term trajectory for oil prices no longer appears to be in doubt.
As I have indicated on several occasions recently, the downward movement in May and June was an overreaction to softness in the sector, with the ultimate slide over twice as large as any objective reading of the fundamentals would justify.
We are now witnessing a return to a "normal" oil market. That doesn't mean a lack of volatility or a narrow range of trading.
This normal is hardly boring.
What it does mean is that oil prices will be determined by three factors:
Now we will continue to see, on occasion, external factors weighing in, such as the concerns about the European debt crisis that pushed the markets lower yesterday.
That results in something I have discussed previously – a sort of "cart leading the horse."
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by Shah Gilani
Like most people, I hate to admit it when I'm wrong. But today, I admit it.
I have been wrong about regulation. All wrong. I've been calling for more, better regulations to stem the fraud and wicked ways of errant Wall Streeters.
But it's come to light, in a sad and almost tragic way, that this whole regulation thing is wrong from the get-go.
After all, it ruined one poor man's near-perfect life. And that's where I draw the line.
Thanks to a suicide note, penned before (obviously) his attempted mea culpa exit stage left, which thankfully failed, we know why poor Russell Wasendorf Sr. was so distraught.
Yeah, that Russell Wasendorf Sr., the guy who founded and was CEO of failed brokerage house Peregrine Financial, also known as PFGBest.
Well, it turns out poor old Russ actually is poor – "poor," as in he has no more money (still has that jet and a few other little assets, however) – and his firm is being liquidated because of those stupid, useless regulations and those horribly pesky regulators.
According to Russ' suicide note, for almost 20 years, he ripped off his clients by stealing their money to keep his firm afloat so he could continue to service them, his clients, that is… and the regulators.
Now, that's what I call service!
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Everyone likes getting a bargain, and investors are no exception – but finding cheap U.S. stocks that also offer huge profit potential is no easy task.
Picking stocks with low prices is not enough. Thanks to the market's May swoon and seven-for-eight losing streak earlier this month, there's no shortage of low-priced U.S. stocks in 2012. But many of those are destined to chug along forever with low prices – or go bust altogether.
At the same time, some U.S. stocks priced at $100-plus per share could be considered bargains.
The key in both cases, of course, is value.
Only by comparing a stock's price to its underlying value can you decide whether it's a "bargain."
Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. There are almost as many definitions of "value" as there are securities analysts.
However, most agree on the following fundamental measures of intrinsic worth:
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by Diane Alter
Fresh weak economic data and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have stoked hopes that another round of quantitative easing is on the horizon. Those expectations gave gold and silver prices a boost this week.
Glum retail sales numbers released from the Commerce Department on Monday and high initial jobless claims on Thursday fueled optimism of QE3 despite the lack of hints from the central bank chief earlier in the week. But, Bernanke and his team have clearly left the option of QE3 on the table and stand ready to intervene when they see fit.
The markets' recent spate of lackluster financial reports and escalating concerns over the waning global economy are suggesting a pressing need for QE3 – sooner rather than later.
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Now that the Libor manipulation scandal has been revealed, it looks like oil prices could be the focus of the next search for misreporting.
According to the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the current system of oil price reporting is "susceptible to manipulation or distortion."
Comparisons to Libor manipulation have been made because oil prices, such as Brent, serve as a benchmark for trillions of dollars of securities and contracts.
There is the potential for market participants to manipulate oil price assessments published by price-reporting agencies (PRA) through the submission of false information and selective reporting of deals.
Traders at various banks voluntarily report the prices they pay for oil contracts to Platts and other PRAs. Platts, which provides the most influential assessment, uses a number of trades to decide what the benchmark price, quoted to the outside world, should be.
That is where the trouble begins.
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by David Zeiler
Recently many professional analysts have scrambled to lower their estimates of Apple profits and revenue for the third quarter, as their earnings report is due out after the markets close on Tuesday.
As usual, those analysts will be wrong.
The Wall Street consensus for Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) June quarter is for earnings per share of $10.38 on revenue of $37.34 billion.
But Apple has beaten the expectations of the "pros" 25 out of the past 26 quarters, and usually by an embarrassingly large margin. Back in April FactSet Research reported that over the previous 20 quarters, Apple has beaten Wall Street's consensus by an average of 22%.
A miss by that margin for the June quarter would put Apple's EPS at a lofty $12.66.
Philip Elmer-Dewitt, who writes the Apple 2.0 blog for Fortune, has been documenting this phenomenon for years.
Each quarter he tracks the predictions of dozens of analysts, both pro and independent. After Apple announces Elmer-Dewitt produces a scorecard to show how each fared. The independents, he's found, hit the mark far more often than the pros.
His current poll of 66 AAPL analysts includes 32 pros and 34 independents. For the June quarter, the average estimate for the pros is earnings per share of $10.32 on revenue of $37.3 billion. The indies, however, see EPS of $12.28 on revenue of $41.43 billion.
Meanwhile, EarningsWhispers.com gives an EPS of $11.63.
Where Wall Street often goes wrong is in severely underestimating Apple's product sales.
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After almost two and half years of adding jobs to the economy, could the next U.S. jobs report reveal a decline in employment? Money Morning's Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald appeared on Fox Business' "Varney & Co." Friday to discuss that and more. He analyzed job projections if the Bush tax cuts expire for the […]
