The U.S. consumer price index, or CPI, rose by 8.5% in March, its highest inflation reading since 1981. For Americans concerned about falling stock prices and soaring inflation, U.S. I bonds may be an increasingly attractive option. The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently announced that I bonds will pay a 9.62% interest rate through October 2022, their highest yield since…
The U.S. infrastructure bill and ongoing global economic recovery bode well for producers. Copper and steel are needed for any economic expansion and infrastructure push. On Wall Street, the red metal even has the nickname “Dr. Copper,” as if it had an advanced economics degree, given the correlation between its price moves and the direction of the economy. That’s because…
Analysts recommend these dividend-paying growth stocks. Most high-growth companies reinvest every spare dime into expanding their businesses. However, one of the first things companies do when growth finally starts to level off is to begin returning excess cash to shareholders via dividend payments. Fortunately, there are a handful of companies that generate impressive growth numbers and also pay dividends. Many…
Investors seeking a balanced combination of portfolio stability, monthly income, and share price appreciation generally turn to dividend stocks. These are shares of large-cap, blue-chip companies in “boring” areas, such as the financial, energy, materials, industrials and consumer staples sectors. With only so much innovation to be done at this point in the corporate life cycle, these companies opt to return…
Ten years ago, Congress and the White House enacted a law to deter insider trading on Capitol Hill and increase public transparency, but controversies over Congressional stock trades persist and the requirement to provide prompt public disclosures is often ignored by lawmakers. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, mandates that members of Congress, their immediate family…
Higher oil prices mean higher share prices for these stocks. Most of the best-performing stocks of 2022 up to this point are highly exposed to the red-hot energy market. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent oil, natural gas, coal and other commodity prices soaring, creating an earnings tail wind for many energy sector stocks. Stocks that are highly correlated to oil prices…
These seven commodity stocks offer at least 3% dividend yields. Throughout the 2010s, commodities were left for dead. The great Chinese super-cycle ended, and as demand for copper, steel and other building essentials diminished, the whole commodity space went into an extended hibernation. By about 2019, most commodity stocks barely showed a pulse. But things have changed. The pandemic and…
Gas prices topped $4 a gallon Sunday and are headed higher as oil hit $125 a barrel early Monday after briefly flirting with $140 in overnight trading as the White House considers an import ban on Russian energy. The escalating war in Ukraine is playing havoc with world currency and commodity markets and that is most commonly felt in the…
These long-term ETFs offer diversification and a low-maintenance strategy. In 2022, it can be hard to keep up with all the volatility in individual stocks. Thankfully, a lot of research shows that “active management” that involves trading in and out of positions frequently can often cause more harm than good. In fact, about 60% of active managers underperformed the S&P…
At less than $10 per share, these stocks won’t break the bank. The S&P 500 is off to a shaky start to 2022, but the market pullback has created some potential buying opportunities. A stock price under $10 can be a red flag for investors that something is seriously wrong with a company, such as a broken business model or a…