Insights

This year, every time the US market sells off in the AM over news from Europe's debt mess, it gains the loss back by the end of the day or by the next day. Today was another repeat. Greece was supposed to have completed a deal with its private creditors today in order...

The unemployment figures continue to march steadily in the right direction. The number of new hires was much higher than expected and the rate dropped again to 8.3%. US stocks are up better than 1% today and bonds and gold are up again as well. It has been a great...

US stocks were up about 3/4% today, always a nice day. Small stocks did best. Europe also did well. Gold was up, as were bonds. Oil lost 1%. Stocks had been higher but the advance was mainly in the morning and stocks dropped toward the end of the day to give back...

The Case-Schiller Housing Index was released today for November 2011 and showed that home prices nationwide continue to fall. Nationally, they are now down 33% since 2003. In the Charlotte market they dropped 18% on average and are recently up slightly. A long term...

Here is a chart from the Tax Policy Center listing the candidates' views on taxes. I have edited the format slightly but not the data. Click to Open 2012 Republican Candidates Policy on Taxes Tax Policy Center website:...

Since 2000 gold has moved higher almost regardless of what stocks did. Last summer that changed as investors and traders sold gold in order to meet margin calls on stocks and so gold moved in the same direction as stocks since July. Now it seems gold has gone back to...

After a steady climb since late December, the rally appears to have run out of steam, at least temporarily. There was moderate selling throughout the day yesterday and we will have more at the open today, based on disappointment over the GDP report on US economic...

What't the best place to invest for income with rates so low? One good place is closed end funds investing in municipal bonds. I like several, NZF for example. What they do is to buy long term municipal bonds paying, say 5% federally tax free interest and then borrow...

The price of natural gas has virtually collapsed the last few years mainly due to massive new supply unlocked by new drilling techniques such as hydrofracking. Look at the chart of UNG, which attempts to track the price of natural gas. Natural gas is a commodity, not...

US stocks have been up 12 of the last 14 days. The volume has been low, with plenty of doubters, including individuals who have been pulling money out of stock funds for some time. The pace of the advance is also slowing. That implies either a flat or down market for...