The last jobs report before the election was good news for the Clinton campaign.The October report, released this morning, showed job creation of 161,000, with unemployment dropping to 4.9%. While slightly lower than the consensus estimate of 175,000, the number of jobs created was strong enough to reflect a… Read More

AT&T’s proposed $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner is the latest and largest mega-media merger. It won’t be the last.Here’s why: AT&T andVerizon make their money giving customers high-speed Internet service at home, pay TV channels and, in some cases, Internet access to mobile devices.The shorthand labels for these… Read More

Bloomberg had an article yesterday about “where the next crisis will come from.” The list included unsettled politics, problem banks and growing debt.Guess what? That’s a woefully incomplete list. But don’t expect me to complete it because the truth is we don’t know what the next crisis will be.Part… Read More

We all know the expression that a fool and his money are soon parted. But as we observe the irrational actions of energy traders lately, it begs the question: How did these fools and their money get together in the first place?Case in point: The irrational exuberance now bidding up the… Read More

Tonight’s the final presidential debate.Oh. Boy. Like most Americans, I just want this campaign to end. Can we just fast-forward to Election Day and move on?In fact, the more relevant debate for investors is: what to buy now?U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, bonds? Or maybe increase cash, like the pros are doing?In… Read More

Professional investors have more of their portfolios in cash than at any time since 9/11.That’s remarkable—and a hopeful sign for the market in 2017.As we’ve said before, the U.S. stock market is vulnerable to a correction. Valuations are high, interest rates are likely to move higher, and there’s a not-insignificant… Read More

Economically, the energy sector has been in the doldrums for years now.But for investors, it’s been anything but boring.That’s because during the long cyclical downturn, energy prices have been fairly volatile. Check out this price graph for crude oil over the past 20 years.The collapses in 2008 and 2014 stand… Read More

It’s been a tense time for the stock market, which is richly valued and so vulnerable to any sort of bad news.But today, good news arrived to send us into the weekend feeling a bit more relaxed.(I’m not even going to comment on last night’s National(s) tragedy. There’s always next year.)First,… Read More

Over the past three months shares of Best Buy (BBY) gained 25% while the S&P 500 Index declined by nearly 2%. The biggest part of that jump occurred on Aug. 23, the day after Best Buy announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings. And over the past three days it has tacked on… Read More

Big day in my household.First: Game Five tonight in the National League Division Series … Go Nats!Second: Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Go Bob! (I’m a big fan.)The thing is, Dylan doesn’t care much about awards. In that sense, he reminds me of Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch… Read More