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Dec31
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Stocks finished off 2007 with losses as investors felt uncertain about the coming economic situation. The Dow finished the day lower by 101. The Nasdaq lost 22 points. The S&P 500 fell by 10 points. It was a tale of two halves of the year for the stock market. The first half of the year was very strong with broad based gains, the second half was turbulent and marred by credit market worries. The Dow finished off the year 6.43% higher. The S&P 500 gained a much smaller 3.53% for the year. The strongest of the major indices for the year was the  Nasdaq, which gained 9.81%. Energy stocks led the way on the downside today as crude oil prices underwent some profit-taking. Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) lost 2.44% on the day. XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) shares fell by 2.62%. Weatherford International (NYSE:WFT) led the equipment and services lower, falling 2.61%. Technology stocks were also lower today. Research In Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM) shares fell 3.03% to lead the big cap techs to the downside. Garmin (Nasdaq:GRMN) lost another 2.19%, extending its losses from last week. Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) fell 2.66%, but has been very strong of late. The basic material sector which has been so strong this year, suffered from some profit-taking today to finish 2007. Gold stocks were particularly weak on the day. Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) shares lost 2.5% after being higher in the morning. Freeport McMoran (NYSE:FCX) slid 2.02% in extremely light trading today. The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) lost 1.57% today, but that measly loss probably didn't crush investors that have been along for the 342% gain this year.
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Dec30
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Looking ahead to this week in the market, the week is likely to start off very slow, but by the end of the week we are liable to see a significant ramp up in activity. The major market indices will...
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Dec28
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In continuing with our 2008 investment knowledge series, as requested by some readers, I want to take a look at the top eight ways to play emerging markets in 2008. An emerging market can be defined as a country that are in...
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Dec23
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It is a trading strategy that has made a lot of people money over the years, buying the stocks that have done the best throughout the year in anticipation of a end of the year markup from money managers. Why does this occur?...
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Dec20
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As part of our 2008 investment knowledge series I want to take a look today at stocks that investors would do well to avoid in 2008. Most of the time we focus on the stocks that will be the best...
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Dec19
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Retailing is a very tough business, and retail stocks are very tough to play because of the fickle nature of the customers. Finding a retailer that is in the sweet spot can be extremely rewarding, but finding one that is...
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Dec18
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As part of the 2008 investment knowledge series I wanted to take a look at the top five portfolio building blocks for 2008. I believe that every investor should have some stocks that they have an extreme amount of confidence in, that...
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Dec17
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It's becoming a foregone conclusion that the market will fall nearly every day of late. The sentiment on the street has worsened considerably since last week's FOMC meeting that disappointed investors. Today was no different as stocks sold off, ending...
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Dec16
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In what many individuals may consider a surprise because of the coming holiday season, this coming week has quite a few important earnings reports to look out for. Some major investment banks will get a lot of the headlines and...
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Dec15
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This is the first entry in the 2008 investment knowledge series. Today I want to look at ten investing mistakes that all investors should avoid in 2008. Every investor has made at least some of these mistakes at some point,...
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Today I want to introduce a new series I will be bringing the readers of GrowYourFunds for the next few weeks, the 2008 series. This is the time of year that many investors are looking toward their investment plans for...
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Dec13
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One group that we haven't covered much at all here at GrowYourFunds are the very low priced stocks. The reason for this is I generally don't deal too much with these stocks because of the risk with them, and my...
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Dec12
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It's time for another edition of around the investment blogging world. With the FOMC's monetary policy decision out yesterday, the investment blogging world is buzzing with opinions on the interest rate decision and what it means to you and the...
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Today was a wild one on the street. For the first hour it was off to the races, then through the midday it was more modest gains, then around 3:30 pm it was fairly large losses, then when the bell...
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Dec11
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The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates today by a quarter of a point, or 25 basis points. Investors clearly were not impressed with this move, as stocks sold off sharply in just a few minutes time this afternoon. Before the...
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Dec10
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CompUSA will be closing its doors after the holidays following its sale to Gordon Brothers Group, a restructuring firm. Last spring the company had already shut down more than half of its stores and had received a $440 million cash...
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Dec 9
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Around wall street and main street right now, all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Investors are widely hoping for a cut in interest rates to help the economy. Mortgage lenders are hoping for a rate cut to help their...
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Dec 7
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One of the mistakes that I believe is most prevalent among individual investors is the lack of differentiation between a trade and an investment. An investment should be designed to bring an investor capital appreciation over time, while a trade...
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Dec 6
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Stocks soared today after President Bush and Secretary Paulson announced that the Bush Administration has reached a deal to freeze mortgage rates. Even before the announcement stocks were showing some strength, but this afternoon after the announcement stocks jumped higher....
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Dec 5
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Unexpected to some, including myself, was today's extremely bullish tone in the stock market. It was supposed to be a quiet day with investors just waiting on Friday's employment report. Today was an example of why on wall street you...
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Dec 4
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Stocks meandered around for most of the session today, staying just barely in negative territory most of the day. Then in the last 30 minutes of trading, the selloff got some legs and the averages closed pretty close to the...
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Dec 3
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It is part of the extremely popular two hour timeframe on CNBC that teams with Jim Cramer and Mad Money to make for a very fast-paced and high-energy stock discussions. Fast Money has a unique format with Dylan Ratigan serving...
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Deere and Company (NYSE:DE) is today's interesting chart. The stock stands out as a very unique chart because of its tremendous outperformance of the market. Deere and Company is a terrific example of how the fundamentals of a company come through...
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Dec 2
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With interest rates dropping, and CD rates falling in reaction to those interest rate drops, are CD's becoming a less viable investment choice? Through the past few years we have been in a period of impressive yields from certificates of...
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Last week was a nice turnaround for the stock market. The major averages all had their best weeks in quite some time as traders covered short positions and investors bought into stocks they felt were undervalued. What will this week...
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