Key News Asian equities were overall lower on a stronger US dollar overnight, as Mainland China outperformed while Hong Kong and South Korea underperformed. The last few days demonstrate why we say there are two Chinese equity markets and why you should hold both: onshore China/Shanghai- Shenzhen – STAR Board stocks/95% owned by domestic investors versus the offshore China/Hong Kong stocks – US ADRs/majority owned by foreign investors. While foreign investors and Western media pan Friday’s NPC release for the lack of domestic consumption stimulus, Mainland investors cheered the news with a foreign bank’s Shanghai fixed income trading desk calling…

Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. One way we can try to measure the level of fear in a given stock is through a technical analysis indicator called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30. Start slideshow: 10 Oversold Stocks You Should Know About » In trading on Monday, shares of Johnson & Johnson entered into oversold territory, hitting an RSI reading of 29.5,…

Timeshare vacation lodgings are not cheap, but they are increasingly popular. Think of it: Instead of renting a couple of hotel rooms for your family at a vacation spot, you can have an apartment. And you can have a place waiting for you in cities around the world. How to cash in on this growing trend? Buy stock in the best one, Travel + Leisure Co. Once known as Wyndham Destinations, Travel + Leisure is the biggest timeshare company, by revenue and locations. The company and its rivals benefit from larger units than hotels, often with multiple bedrooms, living space…

Stocks that are cheap relative to book value appeal to me a great deal. What’s book value? It’s basically a company’s net worth –its assets minus its liabilities. The figure is often expressed per share of common stock. General Motors Co. (GM), for example, has a book value of $70.9 billion, which works out to $64.49 a share. I look for stocks that sell for less than two times book value, and am especially fond of ones that sell “below book.” As it happens, General Motors is one, selling (as of November 6) for about $57 a share, or ten…

President-elect Trump will likely put business-friendly leaders in charge of key government agencies and ease regulatory burdens. Great news for banks and dealmakers By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff Investors celebrated Donald Trump’s decisive victory in last week’s presidential election, with banks and alternative investing firms among the biggest winners in anticipation of more lenient regulations. Goldman Sachs soared 12% in the last three days of the week, and peers like JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America as well as private equity giants KKR and Apollo all gained at least 7%. The rally extended to smaller banks, with the…

Once a symbol of American engineering, Boeing is today struggling to find ground in a terrain changed under its wings. From operational inefficiencies and high-profile scandals to delays in its commercial aircraft lines, Boeing has confronted an increasing set of difficulties over years. Investor confidence has changed as previous failures make it abundantly evident that Boeing’s structure could be unable to meet industry needs. This is not only a passing phase; it’s a call to action asking a daring question: could a planned or forced Boeing breakup by an activist investor help the company to be saved? Even after the…

It’s a party on Wall Street! While the suits fawn over the hot “Trump trade” stocks, we dividend investors are going to dumpster dive. Hey, we have no shame. We’re talking about yields from 7.8% to 13.4%, paid monthly! Why the bargains? Bonds have been bloodied since the Federal Reserve cut rates. Wait, what? Let’s remember the Fed guides short-term rates. Long-term rates , on the other hand, march to the beat of their own drum: We could dip into bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—they’ll have the same tailwind at their back. But I prefer CEFs over bland ETFs for three…

How does this market environment compare to recent history? If there was a big market reversal, could that trigger a financial crisis? I recently took a look at these questions through the lens of volatility. In particular, I focused on three measures: S&P 500 implied vol (VIX), government bond implied vol (MOVE) and BBB credit spreads. Comparing them isn’t easy. They each have a different scale and the economy’s evolution over time means deciding what a ‘normal level’ for each is tricky. For these reasons, I looked at each in terms of percentile distributions over rolling 10-year windows. For example,…

These four small cap real estate investment trusts are paying dividends and recently hit new highs. Most of the price improvement is likely the result of the Federal Reserve Bank’s policy of lowering interest rates. How much longer this can benefit the sector is definitely a question. Another question is the effect of Donald Trump attempting to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell when the new President takes office on January 20, 2025. Trump has said he should be the person who sets interest rates rather than the Fed. A substantial change in the way rates are decided would affect dividend…

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) reported a strong Q3, with total revenues jumping 63.1% year-over-year to $191.2 million, beating consensus by $7.1 million. This revenue boost was driven by the company’s newest hopper dredge, the Galveston Island, operational since January, along with increased capital and coastal protection project revenues. While earnings improved sharply to $0.13 per share from a loss of $0.09 in the prior year, they missed analysts’ $0.18 target due to additional costs for accelerating the drydocking of another dredge and higher accrued incentive pay reflecting the company’s strong operational performance so far in 2024. The slight…