Monday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) “slipped,” “slid,” and “slumped” below 11,000. Then, in the afternoon, it “rebounded” and “recovered.” Are those descriptors accurate? Well, maybe. More likely, though, the stock market simply acted normally and fluctuated. But there is an important question behind the stock market’s last few month’s of basically... »
Archive for November, 2010
Verizon Communications (VZ) – Income Plus Potential Growth
Occasionally a stock classified as “income” dons “growth” garb. With its 6% dividend yield and burgeoning wireless growth prospects, Verizon Communications (VZ) appears to have done that. The Wall Street Journal had an excellent article outlining Verizon’s wireless growth strategy: “Verizon Rethinks Pricing” (by Roger Cheng and Shayndi Raice, November 18, page B-3). Here... »
/Quick Point/ – Insurer Reveals Inflation Expectations and Intentions
Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield (DC) let its inflation thoughts and plans out of the bag recently. Here is the new language the company inserted into its general contract with health insurance customers: »
US Stocks Clear Third Hurdle
The US stock market has cleared its third hurdle: Company earnings once again came in ahead of expectations, pulling stocks up and defeating worries of a dismal October. As June ended, the US stock market was down markedly from its April highs, and I thought it faced three hurdles to rebuild its base and... »
Political Gridlock + Stock Market = ???
Reading through the news commentaries, there are many opinions about what political gridlock means for the stock market. »
American Air’s Mishap and Statistical Misuse
Last week’s American Airlines’ Boeing 757 incident helps illustrate a common investment problem: the misuse of statistics. Every day we are inundated by numbers that seemingly prove something. Yet, many are improperly calculated, selected, analyzed and presented. Our defense is to… »