Investing

An exceedingly rare downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating sparked a selloff in stocks Wednesday, but experts say any longer term fallout for both the equity and debt markets should be muted.  To recap: after the stock market closed Tuesday, Fitch Ratings cut the United States’ long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating by one notch… Continue reading Why Investors Needn’t Worry About U.S. Credit Downgrade

Stocks were choppy Tuesday ahead of some high-profile earnings due out later this week and the July jobs report, set for release early Friday. Today, though, Wall Street weighed data from the manufacturing sector and the labor market, as well as solid earnings from blue chip stock Caterpillar (CAT).    Shortly after the opening bell… Continue reading Stock Market Today: Dow Outperforms on Strong Caterpillar Earnings

Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), is the most successful investor of our time. His daughter, Susan, worked as my assistant when I was the publisher of a magazine 40 years ago. Just before she got married, Susie told me she worried that her fiancé’s parents had bought a couple of shares of… Continue reading Warren Buffett Advice: Why You Should Pick Businesses, Not Stocks

Bonds help add diversity to your portfolio and control risk. But they can be complicated. Zero-coupon bonds are cheaper to invest in than conventional bonds but have some unique characteristics that set them apart. We can help you understand the basics of zero-coupon bonds and make them work for you. What is a bond coupon? Most… Continue reading Bond Basics: Zero-Coupon Bonds

There are thousands of ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, in the modern investing environment. But what is an ETN, and how is this product similar or different from an ETF? An ETF is a type of investment fund that makes sense when you unpack the first three words of the acronym. It’s “exchange traded,” meaning it… Continue reading What Is an ETN?

Stocks opened lower Wednesday and continued declining as the session wore on as a rare downgrade to the U.S. credit rating spooked investors.  Also on Wall Street’s radar today was a much higher-than-expected reading on private payrolls, though this did little to change expectations about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates at… Continue reading Stock Market Today: Stocks Slide on Rare U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade

Bonds can help diversify your portfolio, but they are not risk-free. You can learn to identify and evaluate the risks and see if they work to your advantage or disadvantage. Find out more about how bonds work and how to put them to work for you.  Risk in the bond market Bonds have two major vulnerabilities… Continue reading Bond Basics: How to Reduce the Risks

Folks seeking out the best long-term investment stocks to buy have a few ways to approach the task. One is to follow the advice of Ben Graham, the father of value investing, using his classic book, The Intelligent Investor. Graham suggests that a defensive investor should buy stocks of large, conservatively financed companies with good… Continue reading Best Long-Term Investment Stocks to Buy