Stock Trading

A month ago, capital goods orders were looking disappointing. Today's release of April figures, which included a 2.5% upward revision to prior numbers and beat expectations (+1.2% vs. +0.5%), has returned this series to the "moderate growth" column. Capex orders are now up 2.6% over the past year, after fully recovering from a disturbing slump last summer. (click to enlarge) This is encouraging, to be sure, but we will need to see better numbers than this if the economy is to do better than plod along at the 2% growth rate that has prevailed over the past few years. Businesses still remain quite cautious, and one need look no further than the significant uncertainties surrounding the

As rooftop solar becomes more popular in the U.S., electric utilities are feeling the squeeze. The first concrete evidence was this May 10th article that describes the concern of utilities; they have realized that solar is costing them to the tune of 1.3 billion dollars a year, by their own estimate, in California alone. In the words of an Edison International spokeswoman, solar users are "still using the distribution grid and other utility services, minus generation, but do not pay their share."Let's examine her statement. Below is a diagram of the traditional electric grid. Notice how the power plants are connected to the residential network with a series of substations, high voltage lines, and low voltage distribution. These high voltage lines are necessary for a power plant to efficiently transmit energy. Grid for traditional energy generation: Here is the same diagram, modified for distributed solar. The parts of

The Japanese market experienced a major sell-off Thursday, prompting many investors to ask me for an update on my view of Japanese stocks.The bottom line: I wouldn’t rush to sell Japanese equities. I continue to advocate a market weight to Japan for two reasons.1. The sell-off was technical. Based on my team’s analysis, Thursday’s drop in the Nikkei and TOPIX indices was driven by a spiral of profit taking from retail investors and hedge funds, rather than a change in Japanese fundamentals. 2. What matters is Japanese stocks’ performance over the long term. The Japanese market may experience more losses this week, but Japanese stocks are up significantly year to date and over the last 12 months. In addition, they are

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL): A judge has offered a “tentative view” on a case between Apple and the Department of Justice, a rather untraditional move that revealed that she believed the DOJ could produce evidence that would show Apple was encompassed in a price-fixing scheme in the e-book department. The case involves a ring of e-book publishers, all of which are accused of banding together to raise e-book prices. Not surprisingly, Apple denied the allegations. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE): Sony will be offering $1.5 billion worth of bonds in Japan, floating the debt to raise capital to pay down existing debt. As the first debt offering in the company’s history, the electronics giant is looking to expand its fundraising options. Keep an eye on Daniel Loeb’s response to the move, as he suggested spinning off the profitable entertainment division as a means to raise capital. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Google (NASDAQ:GOOG): Following a stumble in Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) bid for Israeli GPS firm Waze, reports have surfaced that Google is also making an attempt to bid on the company, opening up a bidding war with the social media site. However, TechCrunch is suspicious, saying that its sources have no indication that Google is making moves for the company — and that it could be an attempt from Waze to squeeze out as much as it can from Facebook. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Don’t Miss: More iOS 7 Redesign Clues Emerge. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF): BMO Capital sees the pullback in Abercrombie as a buying opportunity, even after the weaker Q1 results. The firm has an Outperform rating on the stock with a $61 price target. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL):  Upcoming catalysts including results from its first Bakken Silt and Sanish down-spacing tests, Niobrara results, and potential monetization of its Potle EOR field, and its current valuation lead SunTrust to upgrade shares from Neutral to Buy, with a price target of $58, up from $51. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS): Impressed by its Q1 results, Imperial Capital raised its price target for Dick’s Sporting Goods from $55 to $60, and keeps its Outperform rating on the shares. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG): Oppenheimer was encouraged by the change and the company’s reiteration of its guidance after the it replaced outgoing CEO Bob McDonald with former CEO A. G. Lafly, but expects the company to continue to struggle to regain market share. It keeps a Perform rating on the shares. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Don’t Miss: Can Lafley Succeed Where McDonald Failed At P&G? Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Disney (NYSE:DIS): DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) have both submitted bids for Hulu, the streaming service operated by Disney and others – News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) included. However, the media firms seem to be on their own, as private equity firms have so far stayed out of the bidding according to Guggenheim Partners, which is overseeing the sale. UPDATE: KKR and Silver Lake Management have submitted bids for Hulu. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH): The satellite provider has made it one step closer to securing the financing necessary for its $25.5 billion bid on Sprint (NYSE:S), as it has received signed commitment letters from five banks for $9 billion towards its offer. CEO Charlie Ergen is waiting for Sprint’s board to declare Dish’s offer potentially superior to SoftBank’s, before Dish sets about paying its commitment fees. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA): The board of directors at News have officially approved to split the company in two, creating 21st Century Fox as one and a new, slimmer News Corporation as the other. Once the split has been completed, News Corp. will be have an authorization to buy back $500 million in stock if it so chooses. Shareholder interests are supported by a rights agreement. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Don’t Miss: Why Did Protesters Disrupt Cablevision’s Meeting? Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

One criticism of dividend growth investing that I hear frequently enough is the notion that one must be affluent for the strategy to be meaningful. Usually, the assumption is something like this, "You would only get $30,000 from a million dollar portfolio - I don't have that kind of money, and if I did, I'd want more income than that. Thanks, but no thanks."The problem with thinking like that is it ignores the second word in the dividend growth strategy: growth. There is a reason why Coca-Cola (KO) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), with their respective current yields below 3%, find a home in the portfolio of investors executing a dividend growth strategy. It is because Coca-Cola has been growing earnings by 9.0% and dividends by 10.0% for the past decade, and Johnson & Johnson has grown earnings by 11.0% and dividends by 13.0% over the past ten

In the early '90s, I engaged the services of a full-service broker to help me solve the (enviable) problem of having too much cash sitting idly in checking and savings accounts. This marked the real beginning of my investing education, and I owe much of my success to the lessons I learned under Ebenezer "Ebie" Grier's tutelage. When I followed Ebie's investing philosophy, I almost inevitably profited. When I strayed into speculative trading, I generally lost. It's worth noting that since the mid-nineties a marriage and a child has done more to solve the problem of idle cash than Ebie's best efforts.Ebie taught me the tenets of DGI before I even knew that the methodology had a name, and the last lesson I learned since joining the DGI readership here at Seeking Alpha - one that I wish Ebie had smacked his desktop repeatedly to drill

I expect the next S&P 500 (SPY) trading range to be 1600-1750. We may stay in there until Mr. Bernanke's fate is known, in January 2014. This is one of those external events that have nothing to do with mathematical valuation, but is an essential component of asset pricing: confidence in the "Grand Argentier", French for Minister of Finance, i.e. the guy with the bucks. The only pilots who can be trusted at this point are Dr. Ben Bee (Bernanke), Super Mario (Draghi) and Abe (not Lincoln, Shinzo). Actually, I continue to believe that Dr. Ben Bee, as I dubbed him in my book, should get the Nobel Prize in Economics Science. In case you missed it, Household Net Worth is now greater than its previous peak in Q3, 2007, and leverage is lower too. Compared to the trough in Q4, 2008,

US futures: (S&P -7.50, Dow Jones -46, NDX -13.50 with fair value lower lessening the ugliness) Asia mixed and Europe lower. Copper and gold lower with WTI Crude and Brent Oil Futures lower. $ is lower vs Euro, lower vs. Pound and lower vs. Yen. US 10 year Treasury Yield -2. Prices as of 7:55 a.m. EST.