Market News

Hello, We recently sold a home. We have about $200,000 to invest for a year or two until we remodel our new home and start our daughters in college. Any ideas where we should put the money? We have already funded our IRAs/401k as much as allowed. Thanks!

The chart in our article "How Long Should I Give An Investment Plan?" shows that you need to give the S&P 500 at least 7 years before the worst return within one-standard deviation is positive, and at least 19 years before the worst return within two standard deviations is positive.

more...

When it comes to two major retail chains, there's no contest: Wal-Mart is making moves Target needs to.

more...

Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is betting it can build a regional apparel supply chain for Nike in the Americas.

more...

more...

Looking at options trading activity among components of the Russell 3000 index, there is noteworthy activity today in LinkedIn Corp (NYSE: LNKD), where a total volume of 4,761 contracts has been traded thus far today, a contract volume which is representative of approximately 476,100 underlying shares (given that every 1 contract represents 100 underlying shares). That number works out to 42.7% of LNKD's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 1.1 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $200 strike call option expiring January 20, 2017, with 768 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 76,800 underlying shares of LNKD. Below is a chart showing LNKD's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $200 strike highlighted in orange:

more...

Looking at the universe of stocks we cover at Dividend Channel, in trading on Friday, shares of ONEOK Inc (NYSE: OKE) were yielding above the 5% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $2.46), with the stock changing hands as low as $48.94 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market's total return. To illustrate, suppose for example you purchased shares of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) back on 12/31/1999 - you would have paid $146.88 per share. Fast forward to 12/31/2012 and each share was worth $142.41 on that date, a decrease of $4.67/share over all those years. But now consider that you collected a whopping $25.98 per share in dividends over the same period, for a positive total return of 23.36%. Even with dividends reinvested, that only amounts to an average annual total return of about 1.6%; so by comparison collecting a yield above 5% would appear considerably attractive if that yield is sustainable. ONEOK Inc (NYSE: OKE) is an S&P 500 company, giving it special status as one of the large-cap companies making up the S&P 500 Index.

more...

John Wu a decade and a half ago arrived early at one of the world's most remarkable businesses in recent times: Alibaba Group. He joined as chief technology officer at a time when few outside of China had heard of the company, which has gone on to become an icon -- albeit a controversial one -- of the country's large and growing clout in global e-commerce.

more...

A week that looks like it might start out slowly could end with some fireworks as key data and a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen loom large. Perhaps the new data and whatever Yellen says could bring some excitement to a market that’s been generally range-bound the last few weeks.

more...

The stock market recorded nice gains on Monday but then returned to its narrow trading range since it has not had a 1% move either up or down for the past month. The Spyder Trust (SPY) has been grinding higher as it is up 1.3% during the period. Even though the broad market gains have not been impressive the attitude of many professionals, as expected, has become a bit more positive. At the end of February I discussed why investors should not avoid stocks because of their fears over China, weak crude oil prices, earnings or a weak economy. It was also important that with the close on February 27th "the weekly NYSE A/D line has moved back above its WMA for the first time since the start of the year". The daily chart of the Spyder Trust (SPY) shows the both the bullish divergence at the February lows as well as the break of the downtrend in the A/D line. Despite the pickup in articles that are more positive on the stock market more high profile bears keep coming out of the woodwork. In a letter to investors in his $28 billion dollar hedge fund manager Paul Singer thinks that the negative yields in many of the world's bond markets has investors facing "the biggest bond bubble in world history" . He also fears a drop may be very sudden and very sharp. I found it interesting that Elliott further stated "Everyone is in the dark....Experience doesn't count for much, and extreme confidence may be fatal." Is this possibly an excuse for the continued poor performance of the hedge fund industry? It has been my view for over two years that the hedge industry as entered its own bear market. ("The Bubble No One Is Discussing") In last week's column I wondered why there was not any euphoria amongst stock investors despite the many proclamations of a major bull market top. The bond market is clearly a very crowded trade as nervous investors fight for yields but most bond traders I come across are nervous not euphoric.

more...

This time, Warren Buffett actually IS losing his touch.

more...