Industrial firms, Wall Street hedge funds, and any big money investing in platinum anxiously await Johnson Matthey's semi-annual review of the platinum industry – and they got incredibly interesting reading in the group's most recent report, released Tuesday.
In its Platinum 2013 Interim Review, Johnson Matthey said the platinum market this year is moving toward a supply and demand deficit of 605,000 ounces – the largest deficit since 1999. That's up from a 340,000-ounce shortfall in 2012.
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by Diane Alter
Despite the year's nearly 30% fall in silver prices, not everyone is sour on investing in silver. The U.S. Mint reported Tuesday that American Silver Eagle bullion coin sales have already set an annual record.
Authorized purchasers of the popular coins ordered their full weekly allocation of 500,000 coins, according to the Mint. That took total sales year-to-date to a record 40.175 million ounces, surpassing the previous annual record of 39,868,500 million ounces hit in 2011.
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by Diane Alter
The top dividend-paying stocks offer more than high yield. They also steadily raise their dividends.
Companies that continue to grow dividends are the "best compounders," Don Kilbride, portfolio manager of the Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund, told Barron's.
With that in mind, check out the following list of high-yield dividend stocks that increased their payouts so far in November.
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Kmart has joined a long and "distinguished" list of retail chains who offer a rent-to-own program.
It's a sign of the times… Only, rather than being a sign of economic recovery, it's a sign of retail desperation.
Ostensibly, these programs are intended to benefit cash-strapped consumers who couldn't otherwise afford to buy big-ticket items. In reality, the program turns consumer goods like a $300 television into a $415 purchase, according to Bloomberg.
Talk about "the vig" …The imputed interest rate is more than 100%, annually.
It's absolutely appalling, and it ranks right up there with the exploitive subprime lending practices that lead to the financial crisis.
And we're not falling for it...
by Shah Gilani
Be careful out there.
The stock market rally that started in March 2009… The one that's taken us out of the Great Recession and to new highs… The rally that's driving sentiment indicators of people who benefit from rising financial assets directly, peripherally, or because they hope all boats rise with the market…
The rally has never been loved.
The thing is, equity markets don't need love to go twice as high from here, or three times as high in the next 20 years. If they get what else they need, they'll keep going higher.
We could be on the verge of a generational bull market. That's if deficit-plagued, interconnected global sovereigns deleverage and, at the same time, re-capitalize middle and rising classes by making "recourse-sound" capital available and simultaneously reconstituting entirely the notion of taxation.
Too bad the likelihood of that happening is somewhere between slim and none.
That's one reason why I'm an increasingly reluctant bull.
But there's another reason too.
And it has to do with deflation...
by Diane Alter
The stock markets have been going up so far and for so long that many analysts predict a correction is in store. The S&P 500 hit a record high today (Wednesday) to trade above its record high hit last week, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs Monday and Friday.
While the Twitter IPO dominated headlines last week, we aren't fans of the stock. There are much better places to put your money to profit from these record market highs, as we've detailed below.
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Pharmaceutical and biotech mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is on track to hand us the best year for non-mega merger deals since 2010 – which is delivering juicy profits for anyone investing in drug stocks.
On Monday, Dublin-based pharmaceutical firm Shire (Nasdaq ADR: SHPG) announced that it will buy Pennsylvania-based ViroPharma (Nasdaq: VPHM) for $4.2 billion in cash. The $50 per share purchase price is a 27% premium to Viropharma's Friday close and a 64% premium to the price when sale rumors first emerged this summer.
You, too, can profit from this "feeding frenzy"...
by Diane Alter
Financial ratings agency Standard & Poor's reported this week the 16-day U.S. government shutdown costs delivered a massive $24 billion hit to the U.S. economy.
Standard & Poor's said the shutdown equaled some $1.5 billion a day and "shaved at least 0.6% off annualized fourth quarter 2013 GDP growth." Moody's Analytics reported similar numbers, saying the shutdown cost $1.4375 billion per day, for a $23 billion wallop to U.S. gross domestic product.
and why it should make you hopping mad...
by Robert Hsu
My favorite kind of money does three things.
First, it grows. And it keeps growing every single year – by double digits.
Second, and unlike most corporate profits, it only gets taxed once.
And third, it's "lean." The businesses paying my favorite kind of money are very sensitive to cost, while retaining virtually no earnings. After all, they have to pass through nearly all their income to investors.
Few investments give you all three of these benefits, of course. That's what makes the shares below so attractive.
First, let's look at each of my "favorite money factors" more closely...
by Diane Alter
The latest gold news out of China is yet another bullish development for investing in the yellow metal…
Increasing gold demand in China has put the Asian nation on track to become the world's biggest consumer of the precious metal.
According to the World Gold Council, China's gold consumption is on pace to increase to a record 1,000 tons this year, up 29% year over year, surpassing India as the leading global user of gold.
Imagine what this will do to the price of gold over the next few years...
