By Rebecca McClay, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Stock Market News Today, Oct. 28: Stocks are weighed in morning trade, reversing out of earlier gains as investors are hit with a disappointing report on pending home sales despite a more positive report on industrial production.
Pending home sales slid 5.6% in September to the lowest level in nine months, likely weighed by higher housing prices and higher interest rates.
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By David Zeiler, Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler - • Print | Email
As the market prepares for the highly anticipated Twitter initial public offering (IPO), many investors will be tempted to jump in by the promise of big gains.
As we've warned you, investing in IPOs can be a very high-risk enterprise.
Winners can double or triple your money in very short order. But losers can cut your investment in half, or worse, just as quickly. Anyone who was around for the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s probably still has nightmares about the disastrous IPOs from that era.
By Robert Hsu, Editor, Permanent Wealth Investor - • Print | Email
It certainly seems as though the political gamesmanship that rules Washington, D.C., also rules the markets. But this isn't really the case.
In fact, there's one single "magic" number that far outweighs everything else when it comes to long-term influence.
This number's predictive power has saved me from some of the steepest market drops of the century, and it's given me everything I need to position myself for maximum gains in bull markets.
And the best part is, it's widely available – access to it costs nothing.
It's how you use this simple number that counts...
By David Mamos, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Las Vegas is not the world's biggest gambling mecca – and that's just fine with Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), which happens to hold four properties in the Chinese territory of Macau.
Macau, you see, wrested that title away from Las Vegas back in 2006 – with hotels and casinos that are mind-blowing in size and scope – even by extravagant Las Vegas standards.
And now those moves are about to pay off in a big way...
By Diane Alter, Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Amid closing the third quarter and kicking off the fourth, last week's best stocks to buy revolved around the government shutdown, the looming debt ceiling deadline, and the hotly anticipated Twitter IPO.
September is historically the worst month for equities, but investors were mostly unscathed. The broad-based S&P 500 Index rose 3% in September and 4.7% in Q3. The Dow added 1.5% in the third quarter and is up 15.5% for the year.
As Q4 gets under way, many investors have retreated to avoid giving up gains, pulling $1.3 billion out of equity funds last week. Bond and commodity funds were also walloped with redemptions.
By Rebecca McClay, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Stock market news today focuses on market reactions to the second week of the government shutdown, with markets down 80 points with just a couple hours of trading left in the day.
Investors are increasingly concerned that the conflict will not be resolved soon and fear the political stalemate will extend to the debt ceiling issue.
Without a debt ceiling resolution by Oct. 17, the United States would be in default, which would have a more damaging effect on the economy than this shutdown.
As a result, stocks are lower in trading today in all sectors. The S&P 500 is down about 0.4% at 1,683.00 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.6% at 14,989.80 points.
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By Diane Alter, Contributing Writer, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Last week's best stocks to buy were influenced by several crises building on Capitol Hill – the 2014 fiscal budget and looming government shutdown, the debt ceiling, and mounting anxieties over the Federal Reserve's QE taper timing.
As a result of these factors, many concerned investors turned to cash.
But with money market instruments yielding next to nothing, you will miss out on 100% of market gains if you are just sitting on cash. Money Morning keeps reminding readers that savvy investors make money in all kinds of markets – and we found just the right stocks to buy to make the most of current conditions.
Here's a recap of our picks for the best stocks to buy now, culled from last week's Money Morning daily articles, videos, and insights from our in-house experts:
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By Greg Madison, Managing Editor, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Short sellers got burned this year because they forgot these "golden rules" of investing…
If you looked at holdings of hedge fund barons William Ackman and David Einhorn at the start of 2013, it looked like 2013 was a year for short selling.
In December 2012, Ackman placed a $1 billion bet that Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF), which he calls "a pyramid scheme," would fail. Einhorn bet against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (Nasdaq: GMCR) back in October 2011.
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By Rebecca McClay, Money Morning - • Print | Email
Your stock market news today: Equities are higher across the board this morning after Larry Summers withdrew his name from the candidates to replace Ben Bernanke as head of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Summers told President Barack Obama on Sunday that he believes his appointment would be too controversial.
The Dow is up 1% at 15,536, Nasdaq is up 0.3% at 3,732, and the S&P 500 is up 0.8% at 1,701.
Stocks are holding their gains even as new manufacturing data on the New York region reflects an unexpected decline in manufacturing activity there. Investors also received data on industrial production and capacity utilization in August this morning that revealed the biggest monthly gain in six months last month.
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There's a great deal of uncertainty about whether there will be a Syria attack from the United States – but investors want to know how markets would react to such a strike.
Secretary of State John Kerry has said a Syria attack – when and if it comes – would be "extremely limited and targeted," and support for an attack is far from ironclad.
