The odds of a September interest rate hike surged to 52% on Wednesday, up from 38% at the beginning of the week. The jump — which came on the back of surprisingly strong U.S. service-sector growth and comments by Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart — caused some rate-sensitive stocks… Read More

The historic rise in the U.S. dollar has been a major overhang on the market for nearly a... Read More

The historic rise in the U.S. dollar has been a major overhang on the market for nearly a year.  According to FactSet Research, the U.S. dollar has appreciated by 19% against the euro and 16%... Read More

Recent market commentary is starting to remind me of the periods in 2000 and 2008 just before the bottom dropped out of the market. Leading up to the bursting of the tech bubble, for example, analysts increasingly ignored valuation and warnings that earnings expectations were too high.  Similarly, housing prices… Read More

As an economist for the state of Iowa, I learned that economic stimulus can affect growth —... Read More

As an economist for the state of Iowa, I learned that economic stimulus can affect growth — but only if given time to work. Of course, patience is not something investors or the markets are... Read More

Financial statements offer a great deal of insight into the complex process that is investment analysis. Successful analysis requires understanding what these statements say… but also what they don’t say. For example, the income statement offers insight into how much a company is earning, but it doesn’t tell us whether… Read More

Interest rates have jumped on stronger economic growth in the United States and abroad causing prices for rate-sensitive investments to plunge. Traditionally low-risk investments like the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSE: TLT) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLU) have booked large losses that will likely… Read More

Whether it’s possible to beat the market has been the subject of much research and debate by... Read More

Whether it’s possible to beat the market has been the subject of much research and debate by academics and practitioners. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH),... Read More

Turns in investor sentiment can make you double- and even triple-digit gains if you are early... Read More

Turns in investor sentiment can make you double- and even triple-digit gains if you are early enough. The risk is being too early. The wait can be excruciating — and costly.  Just ask gold... Read More

Forty thousand-plus people flocked to Omaha, Neb., the first weekend of May for Berkshire... Read More

Forty thousand-plus people flocked to Omaha, Neb., the first weekend of May for Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE:BRK-B) 50th-anniversary shareholder meeting. Along with many of my peers, I always... Read More

As an investment analyst, I spend a great deal of time studying the classics in the field. For instance, I read Warren Buffett’s annual letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) and the books of his mentor, Benjamin Graham.  There are also books by Peter Lynch,… Read More