There’s a brief period after major corporations like Stellantis report on their finances and provide forecasts for the rest of the year when investors feel confident about the future of their investments, or at least know the worst for a little while. That was then; now we are in President Trump tariff turmoil territory and a key factor for valuing a huge corporation trading internationally has been undermined. If you don’t know the prices you can charge, your control over a key element has disappeared and your power to predict profitability will be destroyed. That’s why Stellantis, after reporting first…

In Warren Buffett’s final annual shareholders’ meeting as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, his parting message was one of optimism and patriotism for the country that made his career possible. Buffett said he had informed his two children who serve on Berkshire’s board about his plans to retire in advance, but surprised the rest of his board, including his hand-picked successor Greg Abel sitting beside him on stage. Perhaps the news shouldn’t have caught anyone off guard, considering Buffett is 94 years old and has $168 billion to his name, almost all of it made up of stock in the company…

Dividends over drama, please. Like these five low-volatility dividend stocks that yield 7.2%, on average. Back in school they taught us that to increase returns, investors had to take on additional risk. This was a financial engineering class at Cornell University, by the way. The prof should have known better, but he didn’t, because he was a researcher and not an actual investor. It’s a common mistake in academia, and those who try to invest “buy the book.” The book says more beta means more returns. Well, this text is often wrong! Big dividends and low volatility are a beautiful…

Week in Review Asian equities were mostly higher for the week, which was shortened for Hong Kong and Mainland China due to the Labor Day holiday, as Taiwan and the Hang Seng Tech Index outperformed, while Pakistan and Mainland China underperformed. This week was busy for economic releases. We learned that the US economy contracted by -0.3% in the first quarter, China’s factory production slowed significantly in April after a surge in March as importers front-loaded orders ahead of tariffs, and China re-affirmed its GDP target despite trade headwinds. PDD’s Temu international E-Commerce platform responded to US tariffs by adding…

“If you’re lucky in life, make sure that a bunch of other people are lucky, too.” – Warren Buffett In the fourth-floor lunchroom of the National Indemnity Company building in Omaha, Nebraska, a hand-lettered sign once hung on closed double doors: “Meeting in Progress.” Inside, beside vending machines and a coffee maker, Warren Buffett called to order the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, with approximately 20 attendees present. The perfunctory business was dispensed with in just five minutes. Then Buffett offered: “I’ve got an hour, and if anybody wants to stick around and talk about the investment business, I’m…

If the April lows hold, the S&P 500 will clock a 19% peak to trough drop on the tariff news. The drawdown could have been worse—if the bond market had not broken! President Trump was initially resolute in the face of a declining stock market. Wall Street was desperately, unsuccessfully searching for a “Trump Put”—a save from the decline by the White House. Trump, however, likened the levies to a necessary remedy: “Sometimes you have to take medicine.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, must have silenced his phone for a few weeks while his old Wall Street contacts texted and…

In the age of digital everything, the Rolex brand of mechanical watches keeps on ticking. What’s the secret to its success? A 2020 episode of the PBS television series “Antiques Roadshow” featured an Air Force veteran learning that the Rolex watch he’d bought nearly 50 years earlier for $345.95 was a rare model, estimated to be worth as much as $700,000. The shocked veteran playfully pretended to faint and a video of the segment went viral, collecting 16 million views to date. The watch in question was made in 1971, an Oyster model descended from the world’s first waterproof wristwatch,…

In trading on Thursday, shares of United Parcel Service were yielding above the 7% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $6.56), with the stock changing hands as low as $93.57 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market’s total return. To illustrate, suppose for example you purchased shares of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) back on 12/31/1999 — you would have paid $146.88 per share. Fast forward to 12/31/2012 and each share was worth $142.41 on that date, a decrease of $4.67/share…

So far in this trade war, there is one “winner” left on the board: gold. The barbarous relic has glittered amidst the financial carnage. And while everyone is climbing aboard now, we contrarians see a better buy window ahead. Below, we’ll “dig into” 4 tickers to get ready, ranked from worst to first (hint: our top play has a dividend that soars with gold prices). Before we get to that, though, let’s look at what’s really going on here—starting with Treasuries. Yields on the 10-year spiked from sub-4% to 4.5% in a matter of days at the height of the…

In trading on Thursday, shares of Microsoft crossed above their 200 day moving average of $414.40, changing hands as high as $436.99 per share. Microsoft shares are currently trading up about 9.6% on the day. 10 Stocks Crossing Above Their 200 Day Moving Average » The chart below shows the one year performance of MSFT shares, versus its 200 day moving average: Looking at the chart above, MSFT’s low point in its 52 week range is $344.79 per share, with $468.35 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $433.12. The MSFT DMA information…