Investing

Consumer staples stocks are a traditional safe haven from uncertainty, which has already proven to be more than abundant over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 closed 2022 with a total loss of about 18% on the year, its worst annual return since the financial crisis of 2008. Those declines, coupled with stubbornly high… Continue reading The 9 Best Consumer Staples Stocks to Buy

In the frothy days of meme-stock trading, when fortunes were seemingly made and lost in a matter of months via frequent online trading of hot stocks like GameStop, investment gamification came under scrutiny. We at CFA Institute (opens in new tab) do not regard stock trading as a game. We recognize, however, that this style… Continue reading Investment Gamification: Not All Cons, Some Important Pros

Investors fretted over persistently high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s future rate-hike plans Friday, which sent most stocks lower into the long holiday weekend.  (For those wondering “is the stock market open on Presidents’ Day,” which is this Monday, Feb. 20, the answer is no.)  And while the Dow managed to outperform its fellow indexes… Continue reading Stock Market Today: Stocks Close Mostly Lower Amid Rate-Hike Worries

There’s more rough news for the U.S. hemp industry this week. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a letter stating that “delta” cannabinoids, including Delta-8 and Delta-9-THCO, synthetically derived from hemp do not qualify as hemp and will be viewed as Schedule I drugs. This is not a surprising stance from the DEA, considering our… Continue reading Delta-8 and -9-THCO Classified as Schedule I Drugs: This Week in Cannabis Investing

Stocks closed sharply lower Thursday after the latest inflation data came in hotter than expected and two Federal Reserve officials advocated for more aggressive rate hikes. Also in focus was a fresh round of corporate earnings reports. While several companies reported well-received results, one Warren Buffett stock tumbled after a fourth-quarter miss.  Starting with that… Continue reading Stock Market Today: Hot Inflation Data Sends Stocks Lower

Cyndi Lauper was not commenting on ESG investing when she sang “Money Changes Everything” in 1984. But she could have been. The entire premise behind ESG investing is to use the power of money to create positive change. What is ESG? ESG encompasses broad areas that companies routinely impact, for better or worse. Businesses inevitably… Continue reading In ESG Investing, Money Changes Everything

An unexpectedly strong retail sales report weighed on the major benchmarks in early trading Wednesday, though the three indexes flipped higher by the close. Investors also sifted through an onslaught of 13F filings released overnight, which included a surprisingly quick turnaround for one of Warren Buffett’s portfolio picks.   While Tuesday’s inflation data showed consumer… Continue reading Stock Market Today: Stocks Close Up After Strong Retail Sales Data

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continue to gain in popularity, but the divide between ETFs and mutual funds is becoming a little murky.  In recent years, for instance, several fund companies, including T. Rowe Price (opens in new tab) and Fidelity (opens in new tab), have launched actively managed ETFs that are modeled after their best actively… Continue reading Choosing Between Look-Alike ETFs and Mutual Funds