You need to start thinking differently if you want to survive the next downturn. Since Donald Trump’s victory on Nov. 8, the stock market has signaled its approval by racking up a year’s worth of gains of 9.8% for the S&P 500. At the same time, its mid-cap cousin, the… Read More

Only the bloated ‘Financials’ sector earns a lower average IDEAL score than healthcare stocks. Read More

Donald Trump’s unexpected victory ignited an equally unexpected surge in the stock market. Since the date of the election, the S&P 500 Index rose nearly 2% over the next six trading days. That put it back to where it was in early September when most political pollsters thought Hillary Clinton… Read More

The first time I voted in a U.S. presidential election was 1980, as a 21-year-old college senior. The choice then, as now, was between a conservative who earned his fame in the entertainment industry versus a dyed-in-the-wool liberal that previously occupied a governor’s mansion in the South. As we all know,… Read More

Over the past three months shares of Best Buy (BBY) gained 25% while the S&P 500 Index declined by nearly 2%. The biggest part of that jump occurred on Aug. 23, the day after Best Buy announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings. And over the past three days it has tacked on… Read More

Over the past three months shares of Best Buy (BBY) gained 25% while the S&P 500 Index declined by nearly 2%. The biggest part of that jump occurred on Aug. 23, the day after Best Buy announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings. And over the past three days it has tacked on… Read More

As the Chief Investment Strategist for Personal Finance, I am often asked by our readers what stocks are the best to own when the market doesn’t know where’s going. And with the S&P 500 going almost nowhere since July, that’s a question I hear quite a bit.However, not all… Read More

Two weeks ago we criticized the appalling lack of accountability by senior management at Wells Fargo (“Wells Fargo Sins, But…”). Looks as though others agree with me. Just yesterday Wells CEO John Stumpf morphed from bank executive into a blue-suited, silver-haired piñata before the House Financial Services Committee. And not only has… Read More

I’ll give this to the Federal Reserve, it is independent. The Fed turned a deaf ear to a growing chorus of economists and Wall Street analysts saying that the economy can withstand a modest uptick in short-term interest rates, and it didn’t feel compelled to raise rates this week.  Instead… Read More