Bob's Journal
Found 466 Articles.
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Data Provide Mixed Bag of News
Economic growth decelerated in August, but the economy still grew at a healthy rate. No one should be surprised about slower growth in August, because July’s economic data were among the strongest of the last two years. The reports for August activity were released in September, so now we can take a comprehensive look and […]
Economy Perseveres against Tighter Monetary Policy
For several years now, the economy has been resisting the Federal Reserve’s tighter monetary policy. In 2015, the Fed stopped its quantitative easing program, and it has been increasing interest rates at a very slow rate ever since. The Fed also is letting the bonds and mortgages it bought mature and roll off the balance […]
Why All Investors Should Pay Attention to Emerging Markets
U.S. investors should pay attention to what’s happening in emerging markets, even if they’re not invested in those markets. Emerging markets had strong recoveries after a bear market ended in early 2016. Latin American markets were among the strongest, with equity returns outpacing U.S. stocks for most of 2016 and 2017. But the situation began […]
Why Not to Use a Single Piece of Data
Investors recently were given another good reason why not to rely on one piece of data to make decisions. For years, we’ve been told that Americans weren’t saving enough money and that the savings rate was declining, even after incomes and asset prices recovered from the financial crisis. As it turns out, that was all […]
Bob’s Journal
Investors soon will be reminded that index investing isn’t the same as passive investing. Standard & Poor’s and MSCI, the leading constructors of market indexes, will be overhauling their indexes. This isn’t the typical periodic change in which they move a few stocks in and out of the indexes. Instead, the firms are overhauling the […]
Bob’s Journal
There has been quite a divergence between U.S. stock indexes and international indexes. Leading up to the correction in early 2016, U.S. stocks were far ahead of stocks from most other countries. After the correction, overseas stocks surged ahead of their U.S. counterparts. Latin American stocks were particularly strong. In the first part of 2017, […]
Bob’s Journal
Three key factors are causing small company stocks to outperform larger company stocks in U.S. markets. Large company stocks led the way through the early stages of this bull market, but smaller company stocks surged ahead more recently. As proof, the S&P 500 gained 8.21% for the year to date, while the small company index […]
Bob’s Journal
Earnings season for the second quarter is over, so you should be ready for stock prices to decline. I know that sounds counterintuitive, since the economy is strong, and growth might be increasing. This earnings season was a positive one with about two-thirds of companies reporting results exceeding estimates for earnings and revenue. Also, more […]
