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Why Berkshire's Downgrade Isn't Such a Bad Thing
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2009 Comment (1)Moody's downgrade of Berkshire Hathaway Wednesday from Aaa to Aa2 isn't anything investors should get all worked up over.
(A primer: ratings, which measure the credit worthiness of a company's debt issues, are an assessment of a company's financial health. Moody's isn't the only ratings agency; others include Standard & Poor's and Fitch. Moody's downgrade came after Fitch and S&P cut their ratings last month.)
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Procrastinators Listen Up: How to Get an Extension on Your Taxes
Tweet Share on Facebook April 8, 2009 Comment (2)With the big deadline just a week away, anyone falling behind on their taxes--especially those slackers in the top five cities for tax procrastination--may want to review the rules for filing an extension:
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What Veterans of the 1973-74 Bear Market are Buying Now
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2009 Comment (5)Amid these market rallies and pullbacks, what are the pros buying? The WSJ asks a handful of market veterans who invested throughout the treacherous 1973-74 bear market. There are different opinions about when the recovery will occur, but one common theme: now is absolutely the time to invest.
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Could Tiger Woods Slow Market Momentum This Week?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2009 Comment (1)The big events of the week--Easter, Passover, the March Madness championship, the start of baseball season, and Tiger Woods' shot at his fifth Masters win--may distract investors and make for a slow week in the markets. So says JPMorgan chief market strategist David Kelly in his outlook for the week.
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Riskiest Companies in the S&P 500
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 CommentThere's a lot of talk about which sectors and industries are risky--financials, alternative energy, and so on. But which specific companies stand out on the risk-o-meter?
The Applied Finance Group put together a list of S&P 500 companies they consider to be the most risky (and the least risky), broken down by sector. The firm calculated each company's level of risk based on data pulled from quarterly income statements and balance sheets.
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Top 5 Cities for Tax Procrastination
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 CommentMany of us put off doing taxes--once upon a time, I used to file the eve of April 15 (no more.) TurboTax went so far as to compile data on the cities hold the most procrastinators, based on a tally of last-minute online tax filings.
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Historical Market Trends Bode Well for Spring
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 CommentMarketWatch's top headline this morning, "Bamboozling the Bulls?" questions whether we've entered a bull market--if this rally will last longer than a few weeks. The verdict leans "no" on grounds that "this rally looks dangerously similar to each of the previous bear-market rallies that have failed over the last year." On the other hand, the case for a continuous rally is heavily reliant on investors' belief that the stimulus will help the market turn a corner.
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Wall Street Meltdown Now a Museum Exhibit
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 Comment (2)That was fast. The Museum of American Finance, which opened in New York in January 2008, has an exhibit called "Tracking the Credit Crisis: A Timeline." According to Clusterstock, it's the first of its kind.
The exhibit begins with the housing-bubble burst and follows major events including the bank bailouts (here are more details, including the downloadable timeline.)
So what's next--a movie?
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Who Made Money in the First Quarter
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2009 Comment (5)Despite a huge three-week rally that included a few phenomenal one-day gains, the first quarter was a downer. The S&P and the Dow lost 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively. (Speaking of downers, the WSJ says it will take a 96 percent rise in the S&P 500 just to get back to the high set in October 2007.)
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Signs the Recession May Be Past its Peak
Tweet Share on Facebook March 30, 2009 Comment (4)Here's some optimistic market commentary to help offset today's gloomy market (from BlackRock's global CIO of equities, Bob Doll). Bold is mine:
On the broader economic front, there have been some signs that the economic recession may be moving past its peak. Lately, housing, retail sales and durable goods orders all have come in at better-than-expected levels, and the Federal Reserve’s recent announcement of its bond purchase program has helped drive up the levels of mortgage refinancing. Additionally, we anticipate two major tailwinds for consumer spending for the remainder of this year: Tax cuts start to take effect on April 1, and the opportunities for home refinancing should continue. Outside the United States, there are signs that conditions may be starting to improve (or at least are not becoming worse). Both Japan and Korea recently announced multi billion dollar jobs packages, and there is increasing evidence of an economic rebound in China.
