Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, which is pro-stimulus, won a landslide election this past weekend, and some hope massive political change will spur an economic turnaround in Japan. Money Morning Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald appeared on FOX Business Network's "Varney & Co." program Monday morning to discuss Japan's economic future. Fitz-Gerald said the election itself […]
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December 2012 - Page 8 of 185 - Money Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From
Fiscal Cliff Deal: Boehner Takes a Huge Step
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, lead negotiator for the Republicans, took the first step late Friday in making a fiscal cliff deal when he agreed to accept a tax hike for the wealthiest Americans (those making more than $1 million).
Boehner also agreed to a one-year increase to the debt ceiling.
In return, the GOP wants U.S. President Barack Obama to implement steep cuts to entitlement spending, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"Boehner has now accepted the premise of higher rates. So now we're just arguing over details. I think it's a significant step," Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group told Reuters.
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Stocks to Buy Now: Bet on these Three Casino Stocks for 2013
Rather than being suckered by the glamour and neon lights at casinos, savvy investors looking for stocks to buy now are putting the odds on their side and betting on "the house."
That's because casino stocks are promising big returns for shareholders.
Plus, the gaming industry is still in the early stages of what should be a sustained recovery from the financial crisis that had lightened gamblers' wallets.
But identifying the best casino stocks to buy now involves more than a weekend jaunt to Vegas.
Due diligence on gaming stocks now requires a look at gambling's biggest hotspot – Macau, a former Portuguese colony that is now a special administrative region under Chinese rule.
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U.S. Economy 2013 to Get Boost from Offshored Jobs Coming Home
The U.S. economy in 2013 should get a badly needed push from the acceleration of an improbable trend – the return of offshored manufacturing jobs to America.
Often referred to as reshoring, the trend started to gain traction this year, but is attracting more and more interest from manufacturers who just a decade ago couldn't move production to China and other foreign countries fast enough.
Companies rushed to send work abroad to take advantage of cheaper labor costs as well as to have factories closer to customers in rapidly expanding Asian economies.
Some companies did improve their bottom line, but at a great cost to the U.S. economy: America lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010.
Yet calculations that favored the offshoring of manufacturing just a few years ago no longer add up. Some argue they never did, as offshoring turned out to have many hidden, unforeseen costs for many companies.
"There was a herd mentality to the offshoring," John Shook, a manufacturing expert and the CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, told The Atlantic. "But it was also the inability to see the total costs – the engineers in the U.S. and factory managers in China who can't talk to each other; the management hours and money flying to Asia to find out why the quality they wanted wasn't being delivered. The cost of all that is huge."
Now jobs once thought lost forever are starting to return to the U.S.
According to a Boston Consulting Group survey taken in February, 37% of U.S. companies with sales of $1 billion or more are either planning on reshoring some production or actively considering it.
Why Companies are Reshoring
Reshoring already has reversed the long, steady decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Since 2010 America has added 500,000 manufacturing jobs, an increase of 4.3%.
With the disadvantages to manufacturing overseas growing each year, it's no wonder reshoring is becoming popular:
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Facebook Stock Fails to Rally as Lockup Ends
Facebook stock (Nasdaq: FB) fell more than 5% Friday as some 156 million shares held by early insiders and employees were freed from a lockup period.
It marked the fourth time a torrent of the social networking giant's shares were let loose for trading since the company's hugely hyped initial public offering (IPO) on May 18 at $38 a share.
The reaction to the sizable release of shares has been mixed.
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MagnaChip Semiconductor - Value
MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp. (MX) topped earnings estimates by an impressive 120% in its third quarter, which was also the sixth straight quarter with a positive surprise. Following the report, this provider of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products enjoyed raised earnings estimate revisions that helped it become a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy). Moreover, MagnaChip has […]
Three "Fiscal Cliff" Moves to Make Right Now
The prospects of a "Fiscal Cliff" impasse are causing more nightmares in middle class America than Freddy Krueger did on Elm Street.
But Permanent Wealth Investor Editor Martin Hutchinson has a surprisingly contrarian take on the escalating tempest.
Indeed, when the Obama Administration took a hardline stance yesterday and said it's "absolutely" willing to go over fiscal cliff unless it gets what it wants, Martin made his own feelings crystal clear.
"Let them jump," he said.
Martin's sentiment was based on economics, not politics. There's been so much fear-mongering and political obfuscation that most Americans have lost sight of what's really at stake here, Martin said during one of our talks last week.
"Bill, it's all such rubbish," the former global merchant banker told me. "As I said to you when we first started talking about what's become known as the fiscal cliff, it makes a lot of sense just to go over."
Before you grab your heart in mock horror, let us make sure you understand a key point. The feckless crew down in Washington has a lot of folks believing that this whole debate is about dodging the pain – forever. That phony safety pitch is what Martin is referencing with his "rubbish" comment.
"Some of our leaders want us to believe this debate is about avoiding the pain of higher taxes, another recession, a spike in unemployment, an inability of businesses to grow and hire," Martin said. "The truth is that there's no way to avoid the fallout from the fiscal mess this country now faces. We can either accept the pain now, or be forced to face it later. And if we wait, the pain will be far more excruciating than most Americans can even imagine."
Let's look at what Martin means.
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A New Speed of Light Breakthrough Gives Tech Investors Two Ways to Profit
If you could find a way harness the speed of light – 299,792,458 meters per second – in computing, processors could handle massive amounts of data at mind-numbing speeds.
That's why industry leaders have been pursuing the promise of optical computing for decades now.
At the very least, it could lead to computer speeds that are up to 100 times faster than what we have today.
Indeed, we've figured out how to pump light through fiber optics for super-high-speed communications in computer networks and the Web. That's become routine today.
But still, no one could find a way to solve the challenge of focusing light in tiny spaces like computer chips. It's a brick wall known as the "diffraction limit." Simply stated, it means that once you get into tiny spaces – like the postage-stamp size of a semiconductor – you can no longer focus a light beam.
Until now…
Two teams of computer researchers have just announced major advances that promise to make optical computing a reality in the very near future.
One comes from a famous tech leader whose shares are publicly traded; the other out of academia.
Of course, major advances in the lab often make it to the market in ways that mean profits for early investors.
This is one of those rare cases where a breakthrough happens at a prestigious university… and you could literally invest in the field today.
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The Hands Down Best 3 Dividend Plays For 2013
If you listen to the press, Taxmageddon is going to be a "nightmare" for dividend stocks.
There's only one problem with this scary story: It isn't true.
Of course, if we fall off the "fiscal cliff" taxes on dividends will revert to the full income tax rate of each individual taxpayer.
For the top taxpayers that means the top rate on dividends will rise from 15% to 43.4% if dividends become fully taxable again.
However, that's not as bad as it sounds, which is why dividend stocks will still remain the place to be in 2013.
Here's why.
First institutional holders of dividend stocks are taxed at their own rate so they did not benefit from the 2003 cut in dividend taxes. That means they won't suffer from a new increase.
And even among individual investors, many have their investments in IRAs or 401(k )s or other tax- deferred accounts. These holders will continue to receive dividends that won't be immediately taxed.
As for those on more modest incomes, perhaps being retired and living mostly on their dividend income, they will pay taxes only at 15%, 25% or 28%.
These are the thresholds which have been indexed for inflation since 2001, meaning the vast majority of tax payers will never get close to the 43.4% figure that makes for great scary headlines.
But it's not just all about tax rates. There are other reasons why savvy investors should continue to invest in dividend stocks in 2013.
Synovus Offloads Distressed Assets - Analyst Blog
Synovus Financial Corp. (SNV) completed the bulk sale of its distressed assets. The selling process was initiated on Dec 10 with an aim to reduce balance sheet risk. Inclusive of the aforementioned sale, the company anticipates vending distressed assets worth roughly $530 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. This will involve roughly $400 million […]