After a turbulent trading session, equities rallied into the close as February ended, with the widely followed Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring 601 points, or 1.39%, on the final day of the month. Of course, one might have expected the day to have ended deeply in the red, given Breaking News like, “Talks between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding rare earth minerals collapsed.” And this headline might not have inspired enthusiasm toward equities: “The U.S. economy is setting up to take a major step back in the first quarter after a pair of reports showed…

March’s Consumer Price Index report covering the month of February is expected to show a deceleration in inflation, according to nowcast estimates. That would be welcome news for the Federal Open Market Committee after inflation has heated up a little since last September. Even if there is some good news on inflation, there is still little chance that the FOMC cuts interest rates in March on fixed income market estimates, but the same projections suggest that there may be a summer interest rate cut. Over the intervening months, tariffs might complicate the inflation picture further. The Timing Of March’s CPI…

Now is a challenging time for consumers, economists, businesses and investors (including professionals). Multiple, diverse concerns are heightening uncertainties dramatically, putting the U.S. stock market at risk. There are three risk areas to examine: Normal, Federal Reserve, U.S. Government. First, the increasing “normal” risks Here are my two previous articles that address these growing “normal” risks. Dec. 28 – “Eight Issues Could Undermine The 2025 U.S. Stock Market” “As the 2025 New Year’s excitement ends, look for the U.S. stock market to falter. It is carrying a lopsided enthusiasm from 2024, so 2025 could be a period of adjustment. There…

Often as dividend investors we buy stocks that provide us with income now. We take the current yield and happily collect the monthly or quarterly payout. Sometimes, though, it is wise to punt a bit of current yield today in exchange for serious upside tomorrow. Especially when a megatrend is unfolding, as we have in the energy sector today. A dual boom in electric vehicles (EVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools is driving a transformation in power generation. New batteries are needed for storage. The grid is being tapped for more and more “juice.” This is a potential windfall for…

If there’s one thing business leaders tend to dislike more than regulation, it’s regulatory uncertainty. By that measure, 2025 has already gotten off to a tough start as lawmakers and regulators around the world have begun reexamining their approaches to corporate sustainability requirements. While the lion’s share of news has recently focused on the sustainability about-face unfolding in the U.S., the situation has also become more complex for businesses that operate in Europe, where major components of the European Green Deal that were expected to come into force this year have now been delayed. At the center of the issue…

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. 10 Oversold Stocks You Should Know About » In trading on Friday, shares of Accenture entered into oversold territory, hitting an RSI reading of 29.4, after changing hands as…

Week in Review Asian equities were mostly lower for the week as Vietnam and Pakistan saw small gains while Indonesia and Hong Kong underperformed. China came out with more stimulus and government borrowing plans this week ahead of the “Dual Sessions” next month, including recapitalizing three major state-owned banks. Travel booking site Trip.com reported Q4 earnings that beat expectations on revenue and net income, though light guidance led to weakness in the stock. Join KraneShares’ Xiabing Su and Coco Zhang as they explore Harbin, a city that transformed its sub-zero winter weather into a hotspot for tourism, in our latest…

This year’s top global growth story may be India, thanks to a confluence of improving fundamentals and pro-market government policies that have caught investors’ attention. However, the Indian stock market has stumbled recently, with the BSE 500 shedding 19% from its recent peak last September—this after climbing 14.8% in 2024 and 25.1% in 2023. The key question now is whether this setback represents a temporary pause in an otherwise robust uptrend or if it represents a degrading of India’s long-term investment outlook. Economic Backdrop India’s central bank recently shifted toward a more accommodating monetary stance by cutting its benchmark repo…

Question: Why are there so many mutual funds? Answer: Mutual fund management is profitable, so Wall Street creates more products to sell. I leverage my firm’s data to identify two red flags you can use to avoid the worst mutual funds: 1. High Fees Mutual funds should be cheap, but not all of them are. The first step is to benchmark what cheap means. To ensure you are paying at or below average fees, invest only in mutual funds with total annual costs below 1.80%, – the average total annual costs of the 588 U.S. equity Sector mutual funds my…

Market heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) delivered blockbuster results in Q4 of its fiscal year ended January 2025, which saw revenue soar to a record $39.3 billion, up 12% sequentially and 78% year-over-year. The A.I. chip leader posted $0.89 of EPS in the period, up 71% year-over-year, as the company capitalized on accelerating demand for A.I.-driven computing, particularly for its Blackwell A.I. platform, which contributed billions in its first quarter of sales. Data Center revenue hit a record $35.6 billion, up 93% from last year and 16% sequentially, fueled by hyperscaler adoption and rapid deployment of Nvidia’s GB200 systems across AWS, Microsoft…