Even after yesterday’s rip-roaring gains, the S&P 500 is stuck–so what comes next?
Yesterday, May 18, the Standard & Poor's 500 closed at 2953. We've been here before. Several times, in fact. On May 8, the index closed at 2929.80. On April 29, the close was 2939. With the 200-day moving average at 2998.,56, even yesterday's big move doesn't...
Selling Illinois Tool Works out of my Dividend Portfolio to make room for new dividend strategy and new picks
Way back in November 2019--if you remember a period when projected earnings growth was strong and before the coronavirus recession--I argued for a dividend strategy that focused on companies with fast growing and solidly predictable earnings that were, in my opinion,...
Selling Visa out of Dividend Portfolio to make room for new dividend strategy and picks
Way back in November 2019--if you remember a period when projected earnings growth was strong and before the coronavirus recession--I argued for a dividend strategy that focused on companies with fast growing and solidly predictable earnings that were, in my opinion,...
Stocks roar ahead on perfect storm of good news
As of 1 p.m. New York time today, May 18, the Standard & Poor's 500 is up 3.17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is higher by 3.60%. The NASDAQ Composite has climbed 2.47% and the Russell 2000 small cap index is ahead 5.29%. The iShares Emerging Markets ETF...
Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…
...China fireworks. We ended last week with the Commerce Department slapping new restrictions on the sale of any chip made with U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China's Huawei Technologies. (Which means that Taiwan Semiconductor Manuacturing's plans to...
Trick or trend: Mark your investing calendar–carefully
Our regular (or occasional or perhaps occasionally regular) Friday series (actually running on Saturday this week) Trick or Trend looks at what might (or might not) be emerging investible trends. Exclusively on JAM. This post won't run anywhere else. Ever. Pay very...
The U.S.-China trade war looks to move beyond words–and again it involves Huawei Technologies
China is ready to put U.S. technology companies such as Apple, (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), and Qualcomm (QCOM) on its "unreliable entity list." That would likely result in investigations and economic restrictions on those U.S. companies, according to the Global...
Retail sales plunge 16.4% in April
U.S. retail sales fell 16.4% in April from March levels, the Commerce Department reported today. March itself had seen an 8.3% month to month drop. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for a 12% decline. In a separate report from the Federal Reserve today...
This round of U.S.-China trade war is still just words–so far
This week President Donald Trump mused about trashing the U.S.-China trade agreement or, maybe, eliminating the U.S.-China trading relationship completely because, Trump said, China is  to blame for the coronavirus outbreak. (An maybe the U.S. could replace China with...
We need to start worrying about the economy–and especially the country’s small businesses–stepping off a fiscal cliff
Almost none of the provisions in any of the coronavirus rescue packages provide even medium term support or stimulus. Extra unemployment benefits, small business loans, and even the airline bailout expire in a period that stretches only from the end of June to...
Weekly new claims for unemployment near 3 million again, above projections from economists
Initial jobless claims totaled 2.98 million for the week ended May 9, the Labor Department reported today. That's down from last week's 3.18 million claims and marks a sixth straight week of declines. But the figure was higher than the 2.5 million claims estimated by...Download Jim’s eBook for Free
