Give the benefit of the doubt to the classic 60% stock / 40% bond portfolio. That’s not easy, given its awful performance so far this year. On Jun. 13, the day the S&P 500 SPX, -0.20% officially entered bear-market territory by closing more than 20% below its Jan. 3 high, long-term US Treasurys were sitting…
Read More “Why the 60/40 portfolio is a worthy strategy even though stocks and bonds are weak” »
Experienced investors have lived through bear markets and learned they present opportunities to buy stocks at low prices. But waiting through the cycle of decline is no fun, and there can be several rallies before the bear market finally ends. Mark Hulbert explains how you can tell when the bear market is near its end….
Read More “Weekend reads: How to tell when the bear market is almost over” »
While President Joe Biden called on Congress on Wednesday to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months, analysts criticized his proposal and predicted that it would not draw sufficient support from US lawmakers. The suspension “would require congressional action, which is exceedingly unlikely,” said Tobin Marcus, a policy and politics strategist at Evercore…
Rising US interest rates and inflation at multidecade highs is waking investors up to the fact that a vivid imagination is no way to buy a stock. Until recently, the investors who had the richest imaginations seemed to make the most money – until they lost their gains in a matter of months. ARK Innovation…
Jensen Investment Management follows a simple rule for initial screenings of stocks: Companies need to have achieved returns on equity (ROE) of at least 15% annually, for at least 10 consecutive years. That’s a tall order, and it may provide comfort to investors during a period of market turmoil. The easier growth-oriented strategies of the…
Read More “Four value-stock picks from a fund manager who steers clear of the energy sector” »
The Value Gap is a MarketWatch Q&A series with business leaders, academics, policymakers and activists on reducing racial and social inequalities. While slavery in the US was abolished more than 150 years ago, organizations that profited from it still operate today – and it’s in their best interest to fully atone for the past, says…
Read More “How can companies atone for slavery ties? Financial giant sets an example: expert” »
Don’t expect a replay of the 2021 meme-stock short squeeze. Some investors are, given that short-sellers have boosted their bets against GameStop GME, + 2.47% and AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC, + 7.13%. In January 2021, it became increasingly difficult for short-sellers to find shares to borrow to sell short. Those who wanted to cut their…
I’ve been doing this — writing about the stock market and investments — for a quarter of a century. It’s been a heck of a turbulent ride, including Russian defaults, emerging market crises, dot-com disasters, terrorist atrocities, global financial meltdowns, a US housing collapse that rivaled the Great Depression, inflation panics, deflation panics, energy crises,…
If the Federal Reserve had taken the threat of inflation more seriously a year ago, we wouldn’t have the societal shift in inflation expectations, which is compounding the vicious cycle that endless liquidity, higher energy prices and supply-chain crises started. Heck, the Fed might have had a fighting chance of getting in front of this…
The US stock market is experiencing a liquidation panic where everything is getting sold. The good news is such panics usually don’t last long. Analysis from Rob Hanna of Quantifiable Edges suggests a rare Inverse Zweig Breadth Thrust (ZBT). Although the sample size is small (n = 10 since 1926), the bearish implications of the…
