Over the last week, the S&P 500 is down by 4%. Other than gold and oil, nearly every segment of the market is lower, especially over the last 3 days. We often talk about the importance of interest rates and earnings in terms of equities. And, these do matter the most in the long run. But, a third factor is…
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…
Among the main concerns on investors’ minds now would be the ongoing war in Ukraine and upcoming interest rate hikes. With these two daunting factors to consider moving forward, defensive stocks could be in focus in the stock market now. Overall, markets have and continue to remain volatile as fighting between Ukraine and Russia enters a second week. On this…
Semiconductor stocks are back in focus in the stock market today. This is in light of President Joe Biden’s recent call for a big cash infusion into the country’s semiconductor industry. During Biden’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday, he pushed Congress to send bipartisan legislation to his desk that would include more than $50 billion in subsidies to…
Perhaps you’ve heard of the “Put / Call Ratio” (PCR) and been unsure of exactly what it is or when and how to use it. First, a quick review of what Calls and Puts are. Calls are option contracts that increase in value from a RISE in the price of the underlying stock or index. Puts are option contracts that…
Cybersecurity stocks have been a popular theme in the stock market over the past few years. This would naturally be the case as more companies are utilizing the cloud for their operations. A company suffering from a cyber-attack may not only lose important information, but could also see impacts on productivity. For instance, earlier this week, Toyota (NYSE: TM) had…
If we’re being completely honest, participating in the equities market doesn’t seem so inviting at the present juncture. With the dual threat of rising consumer inflation and the escalation of tensions in eastern Europe, throwing money into the cauldron of mass human emotions doesn’t seem smart. That goes tenfold for participating in penny stocks. As long as you understand 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…
With Russia making its military push into Ukraine, investors could be thinking about the best stocks to buy during war. Accordingly, crucial sectors such as oil and oil stocks could be worth looking out for in the stock market today. For the most part, this boils down to concerns over what the current invasion could do to global energy supply…
Chris Vermeulen of The Technical Traders discusses gold’s price direction and precious metals in general with David Lin, anchor for Kitco News. It appears that we are coming into a pretty major super cycle in precious metals, which started back in 2019 – this is about a 5-year cycle for gold. Gold had a very strong rally over the past…