There are thousands of public companies trading on the major exchanges. They are organized into 11 sectors and many individual industries. When making stock buying decisions, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of factors to consider. How is a retail investor to make sense of it all? How do you know which stocks to buy and which to avoid? Professional stock market…
The tech sector can be a fickle one. You can have years like 2022, when tech exchange-traded funds tumbled, immediately followed by a year they returned upward of 50%. While 2024 was not quite so kind, providing more modest returns in the range of 20% to 30% for many funds, the future may still be bright in 2025. But not…
In hindsight, some current market leaders appear to be obvious sure things. The reality is much more complicated, however, as these market-defining companies were not guaranteed to come out on top. When up-and-coming stocks first come out with their disruptive ideas or try to redefine how businesses operate, it is very much a leap of faith for early investors. The…
As much as President-elect Donald Trump believes that he can dictate terms to the rest of the globe, the realities of protectionism and a possible trade war are starting to hit home. First, other nations are taking actions of their own. Most notably, China has quickly issued preemptive tariffs and bans on the export of critical minerals to the U.S.…
For most investors, diversification is a plus. Spreading your portfolio across multiple sectors and assets can smooth out some of the volatility in one part of the market as you fall back on the stability of another. Of course, sometimes volatility can be a good thing when your investments are breaking out to the upside. The following list of the…
Digital infrastructure stocks – those related to data centers, server farms, call centers, cellular communication towers and related industries – have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the global equity markets. The developed and developing world increasingly depends on high-tech digital technologies. All that technological growth necessitates a tremendous amount of infrastructure to support it. The global expansion of…
A new year often brings a fresh market outlook, as an “out with the old, in with the new” sentiment takes hold. Here’s a look at how some major asset classes may perform heading into 2025. This post originally appeared at U.S. News & World Report.
The investment industry’s Global Industry Classification Standard, GICS, was created in 1999 by MSCI Inc. (ticker: MSCI) and S&P Global Inc. (SPGI). The idea was to standardize industrial and economic sector classifications and make it easier for investors to compare companies and evaluate securities. The GICS organized companies into 11 sectors: Some investors design equity portfolios to include at least one…
Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics are disrupting virtually every industry. In recent years, the world has gotten a firsthand look at remarkable advances in AI technology, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI chatbot, GitHub’s Copilot AI code generation software and Google’s Gemini AI model. Whether it be machine learning, large language models, smart applications and appliances, digital assistants, synthetic media software, or…
The drone market continues to ascend in late 2024, with the global commercial drone industry valued at $30 billion this year, according to Grand View Research. Growth should continue to escalate, with Grand View pegging the industry’s annual compound annual growth rate at 10.6% from 2025 to 2030. Still, headwinds are keeping drones from soaring higher as the new year…