Why Stock Markets Love Falling Budget Deficits

By Gary Alexander The biggest investment cloud hanging over the market in 2010 seems to be the expanding federal budget deficit, which grew by $1.4 trillion in fiscal-2009 and now threatens to top that record this year. But according to Ken Fisher — CEO of Fisher Investments, a Forbes columnist and one of the Forbes…

Consumer Electronics Purchases to Rise This Holiday Season

By Chris Morris, Contributor, InvestorPlace.com Never doubt the drawing power of a low-priced HDTV. 26 percent of the people surveyed by ChangeWave Research say they plan to spend more on consumer electronics than last year — a nine-point jump from the previous month — and an overall 18 percent improvement over the same period a…

Who Will Prevail in Fertilizer War? (CF, TRA, AGU, POT, MON, MOS)

By Paul Ausick Last January, fertilizer maker CF Industries (CF) made a $2.1 billion all-stock offer for rival Terra Industries (TRA). A month later, Canadian fertilizer giant Agrium (AGU) made a $3.6 billion offer for CF, provided that CF drop its bid for Terra.   The 5 Top Performing Stocks of the Decade The competing…

Alcoa’s (AA) Drop Today May Be Just the Beginning

By Paul Ausick Since the beginning of the year, Alcoa (AA) shares have risen more than 20%. The price of aluminum on the London Metals Exchange in the same time has risen less than 10%. Copper prices have nearly doubled in 2009, and nickel has jumped about 50%.   13 Dow Stocks That Are Doomed…

Amgen (AMGN) Holds Up Despite FDA Delay

By John Ogg Amgen Inc. (AMGN) shares actually held up quite a bit better today than many investors might have guessed considering an FDA delay.   The biotech giant was on deck for an FDA decision due no later than today on its Prolia drug for the treatment and prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis.  Unfortunately, the…

Ruby Tuesday (RT) Beats Earnings Expectations

Ruby Tuesday (RT) beat analyst expectations by $.02 per share today, when it reported earnings per share of $.11 on a net income of $6.1 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2010. This is compared to earnings of $.01 per share on income of f $285,000 from the same quarter a year ago.…

PepsiCo (PEP) Earnings Expected to Pop

When your biggest competitor is one of the top brands in the world, it can be easy to grow an inferiority complex. But in the age-old debate of Coke vs. Pepsi, PepsiCo (PEP) has taken the challenge head-on. In fact, over the last 10 years, PEP’s earnings per share have soared 150% compared to Coca-Cola’s…

Don’t Be Lured by the Glitter of Gold

This article is written by InvestorPlace’s Neil George. Thousand-dollar gold. For some investors, after years of patiently investing in gold, the market is finally seeing the light, and it’s buying. The soaring nature of gold isn’t new of course. The last time the metal was soaring, it seemed like there was no top in sight.…

Will Unionizing the Fed Lead to Better Control of the Markets?

This article is written by InvestorPlace’s Neil George. The are a lot of folks who are still steamed about how the Federal Reserve Bank allowed credit markets to expand willy nilly, leading up to the financial disasters of the past year. Perhaps as a way to stem that anger toward white collar guys running the…

Seven Ways to Get 7%

This article is written by InvestorPlace’s Neil George. Is the stock market the best place to be over the long haul? That’s the popular wisdom, to be sure. But this theory also assumes that over the long term, you will earn an average of 7% by investing in stocks. In recent years, that has devastated…