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Dividends

Darden Restaurants (DRI): A Three-in-One Stock

July 21, 2011
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Today’s stock comes from the latest issue of the Dick Davis Dividend Digest, where it was recommended by J. Royden Ward, editor of Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter. Ward focuses on stocks that are undervalued, using the same system as Ben Graham and Warren Buffett. For his system, a company’s earnings and fundamentals are more important than its chart. So I took notice last week when he recommended Darden Restaurants (DRI). Not only does Ward think DRI is undervalued, the stock also has a decent chart: It gapped up from 50 to 52 at the end of June and...

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Braskem (BAK): A Defensive Stock from Brazil

June 30, 2011
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Markets have shown some strength in the past week, raising hopes that we may have put in a bottom, and that the current correction may be winding down. But remember the old saying, “If you think it’s a bottom you’re too early. If you know it’s a bottom, you’re too late.” We don’t try to call bottoms, preferring to use our market-trailing timing indicators to tell us clearly when we’re in a new uptrend. But it hasn’t happened yet. So I have a stock today that’s not the fastest horse in the race, but makes up for it with...

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Two Stocks for a Slow Economy

June 23, 2011
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Two Stocks for a Slow Economy

The economy’s woes have grabbed more than a few headlines lately. The economy has officially slowed in the U.S., Japan, the U.K. and elsewhere. The U.S. economy, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rose 1.8% during the first quarter of 2011, its seventh quarterly increase in a row. The growth of the economy is slow by most standards, and I believe unemployment won’t fall until GDP increases by 3.5% or more. I expect the U.S. economy to remain sluggish for an extended period of time, probably two years or more. Am I bearish on the stock market?...

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Coiled Spring Stocks

June 16, 2011
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It’s always interesting to be in my shoes during market downturns. As editor of the Dick Davis Digests, I spend the majority of my day reading what our hundreds of contributors are writing. As corrections begin to develop, they exhibit a variety of responses. The perma-bears say, “I told you so.” Advisors who were already wary, and largely in cash, may immediately sell everything and stick their heads in the sand to wait out the pain. But most of the experts will own at least a handful of stocks at the beginning of any correction, and most of them...

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Pop Goes the Silver Bubble

May 18, 2011
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Pop Goes the Silver Bubble

Last week, I wrote about the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s, still one of the most dramatic and instructive investment bubbles the world has ever seen. I pointed out a few similarities to the recent housing bubble, the most striking of which was the emergence of financial instruments that allowed unqualified buyers to enter the market. Coincidentally, just as I was writing about the inflation and popping of those bubbles, another bubble was imploding in dramatic fashion. As you know by now, that was silver. The immediate catalyst for silver’s plummet was CME Group’s announcement of several imminent...

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