A million bucks doesn’t go as far as it used to, but it is still a lot of money. Nationally, only 5.8% of households have $1 million or more in investable assets. But the wealth isn’t evenly distributed across the states. According to Kiplinger the states with the highest concentration of millionaires are as follow: Maryland (7.87%) New Jersey (7.86%) Connecticut (7.75%) Hawaii (7.57%) Alaska (7.50%) Massachusetts (7.41%) New Hampshire (7.36%) You can check out Kiplinger’s entire ranking of Millionaires by state here. … [Read more...]
Has Amazon Officially Jumped the Shark?
Would you buy your tires from Amazon? According to Fortune, Amazon is getting into the tire business. Yup, the tire business. An e-commerce tire business? Apparently we are going to try that. As Fortune reports here, Amazon is partnering with car maintenance firm Monro to sell tires. Monro will initially offer tire-installation services to Amazon customers in the Baltimore area before expanding to more than 1,170 stores across 27 eastern states, the Rochester, New York-based company said in a statement Thursday. The company, which offers similar services to customers of online sellers … [Read more...]
American Workers See Biggest Pay Raise in a Decade
Corporate tax-reform and deregulation have been a potent tonic for U.S. economic growth, and now that growth is translating into higher pay. The employment cost index, which measures the total compensation paid to employees including wages and benefits, is up 2.8% over the last year—the fastest rate of growth since 2008. For employees in private industry, the news is even better. Wages and salaries are up 3% over the last year—faster than the average wage growth over the last two-decades. Bloomberg has more details. The latest results indicate employers are offering better compensation … [Read more...]
Are Apple Bulls Paying Attention?
Apple shares are up more than 4% this morning in early trading as the firm beat revenue and earnings estimates last night. Apple also raised projections for their fourth quarter. Apple’s better than expected results came on the back of higher average selling prices for the iPhone. Is that good news? It could be if you believe the higher price for the 10-year anniversary model is sustainable. We aren’t so sure. Pricing power tends to be illusive in the consumer electronics space. The chart below is perhaps the single most important chart for Apple investors. What you are looking at is … [Read more...]
Tech Analysts: “The Selling Has Just Begun”
After years of an unabated bull market in tech stocks, investors may be finally beginning to take note of the shortcomings in tech shares. Bloomberg's Lu Wang reports that after the tech-focused Nasdaq index fell more than 1% on Monday, some analysts are calling out the sector's risk. Wang writes: Mike Wilson at Morgan Stanley on Monday reiterated his bearish call on tech high-flyers, urging investors to seek safety in shares with cheaper valuations as the market is likely to be headed for the biggest correction since February. While the magnitude of losses is no worse, the pain for active … [Read more...]
Has Social Media Already Peaked?
Is it over? Has social media already peaked? After revolutionizing the way people share information with each other, is the era of growth for social media companies over? Last week was a disastrous one for Facebook and Twitter, the two best known social media platforms. Yoree Koh and Michael Wursthorn report for The Wall Street Journal: Twitter said Friday that its number of monthly users dropped in the second quarter and could continue to fall as it purges fake accounts, results that echoed Facebook’s bombshell guidance Wednesday that its growth is expected to slow through the end of … [Read more...]
The Biggest Stock Market Wipe-out in History
Facebook's shares cratered yesterday, racking up the biggest single-day wipe-out in stock market history. The company lost $119 billion dollars of market capitalization in a single day. There are fewer than fifty stocks in the U.S. that have a total market value of $119 billion. Zuckerberg's fortune fell by almost $16 billion yesterday. Sophie Caronello reports at Bloomberg: It’s official. Facebook Inc. just had the biggest stock-market wipeout in American history. Shares tumbled 19 percent on Thursday to close at $176.26 after sales and user growth disappointed investors. The drop … [Read more...]
How Facebook’s Disaster Quarter Can Make You A Better Investor
Facebook reported second quarter earnings last night that beat analyst estimates, but the shares tumbled as much as 24% on the news in after-hours trading. Why the sell-off? Doesn’t the quarterly earnings crowd reward companies that beat expectations? Not always. Investing is a counterintuitive art. So what went wrong for Facebook? The CNBC video below offers a clue. This was taped before the company reported. Anything stand out? Note the almost universal agreement from the panel that Facebook is an outstanding stock. The confidence is off the charts. Lopsided bullish … [Read more...]
Exxon’s “Fairy Tale” Multi-Billion Barrel Oil Find in Guyana
Off the coast of Guyana, Exxon Mobil Corp. has found what appears to be a multi-billion barrel oil patch. The find could be a just what Exxon needs, and could put Guyana among the major oil producing countries in the world by generating even more production than OPEC members Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Bloomberg's Kevin Crowley reports: Exxon Mobil Corp. increased its estimate for a giant offshore oil discovery in Guyana by 25 percent yesterday, but it may just be the beginning. Some 8 of 10 exploration wells have struck oil since 2015 and Exxon has identified a further 19 targets to … [Read more...]
The “Sith Lords of Crony Capitalism”
That's what Eric Peters calls Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in an article on The Spectator. Peters is referring to Musk's reliance on government subsidies to sell Teslas, and Jeff Bezos' contracts with the Department of Defense for cloud storage. According to an investigative report in the Wall Street Journal, Bezos has a lobbying operation in DC that’s bigger and better-funded than Walmart and Exxon Mobil. He has 100 full time lobbyists beating the bushes on behalf of Amazon and spent some $13 million on glad-handing the government last year alone — a five-fold increase over what it spent on … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- …
- 218
- Next Page »