Many of the major equity markets are in the negative territory year-to-date. The S&P 500 is down by 4.77% based on price alone. But more than half the stocks in the index are down by more than 20% according to a recent MarketWatch article. Similarly half of global stocks are represented in the MSCI World …
Continue reading ‘Half of Global Stocks and S&P 500 Stocks Are Now in a Bear Market’ »
Investing in dividend stocks is a popular strategy among many investors. Dividend stocks offer investors a decent dividend yield in addition to any potential gains from price appreciation. So investors tend to gain twice since not only they get paid dividends quarterly or yearly or twice yearly but also the price gains. Since dividends are …
Continue reading ‘Five Risks to Consider in Dividend Investing’ »
Success with equity investing is not easy. Seemingly solid blue chips can crash any time for any number of reason. Similarly volatility in the markets can appear any time like we are seeing in the global markets in the past few weeks. Trying to time the market is also a fool’s game. So the best …
Continue reading ‘On The Performance of Fortune’s ‘Buy-and-Forget’ Portfolio’ »
Crude oil prices seem to have stabilized with Brent closing at $66.76 on Friday for Jan, 2019 delivery. The dramatic over 25% plunge in oil prices since the peak reached in early October caught many off-guard. While further declines are possible some investors may be wondering if now is the time to add some positions …
US firms are increasingly spending more of their earnings on stock buybacks than dividend payments to shareholders. One of the main reason for this is that the tax rate on capital gains is lower than that of dividends for investors. Hence investors are content with companies buying their own stock than returning cash to them …
Continue reading ‘US Stock Buybacks. vs. Dividends: Which One is Bigger?’ »