The current bull market has not been kind to precious metals like platinum. Since hitting a high of $1,976.70 in August 2011, platinum prices have been halved to the current spot price of $981.60. While platinum is trading at a six-year low, below its 200-day and 50-day moving…

The one thing that companies aren’t doing is hitting their earnings out of the park and this is a problem for a stock market at its high. Countless companies aren’t reporting material comparable growth in their financials. So there’s no particular reason why stocks should be appreciating in…

If it weren’t for the NASDAQ, this stock market would be flat once again. The resilience of technology and biotechnology stocks is a positive signal for equities. The Dow Jones Industrials, S&P 500 Index, and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index‎ are basically flat year to date. Earnings season…

Income-starved investors are helping prop up the long-in-the-tooth bull market (up 220% since 2009) on the S&P 500. How else can you explain the support the S&P 500 has found in the face of a really mediocre earnings season? The only way is if investors think it’s a…

With the Federal Reserve waiting to change the interest rate cycle, the saving grace for the stock market is that the central bank will only do so if the economic and inflationary data is strong enough. Last year, investor sentiment reacted positively to the potential for changes in…

A lot of economic news has been coming in softer of late and it’s affecting the stock market. That is to say that the data are often just slightly below existing Wall Street consensus. Stocks have been churning all year and the market’s lack of direction is a…

Going back to the lackluster corporate earnings from early reporters that I talked about in my last article, today, I’m taking a closer look at NIKE, Inc. (NKE), which appears to be outperforming the market so far in 2015. Current Economic and Stock Market Action In the fourth…

With the broader stock market gyrating based on expectations of the Federal Reserve’s possible interest rate increase, the NASDAQ Biotechnology index and Russell 2000 are still holding up near their highs. A closer look at the current market dynamics suggests rising interest rates won’t be the cause of…

There is plenty of price strength in this bull market. It’s still coming from transportation stocks and dividend-paying blue chips. There’s also been continued price strength among home improvement retailers. Lowes Companies, Inc. (LOW) recently soared on the stock market after beating Wall Street consensus with its latest…

Credit card companies are some of the best indicators in the global economy. Visa Inc. (V) just reported a pretty decent quarter. While earnings were down comparatively due to a one-time charge, adjusted earnings handily beat consensus. The company’s fiscal fourth quarter came in solid, with growth of…

The demand and supply situation for gold bullion, something I’ve often talked about in these pages, has taken a new course…one very favorable to gold bulls like me. Gold buying in India is up 450% in the first nine months of 2014 compared to the first nine months…

Over the past few months, I warned my readers the stock market had become a risky place to be. While I also suggested euphoria could bring the market higher than most thought possible—to the point of irrationality—the bubble has now burst. Key stock indices are falling and fear…

Despite the choppy trading action before the end of the third quarter, a lot of the market’s best stocks are still ticking higher. And the positive trading action remains especially prevalent with large-caps and dividend-paying blue chips. Big investors want earnings reliability and dividend income in a slow-growth…

Getting a sense of where stocks are going to go in the year ahead is always difficult with the major indices at their all-time highs. The fundamental backdrop is still very favorable for equities. While the Federal Reserve has put off raising interest rates for the near future,…

Large-cap technology stocks, particularly old-school names, have really been on the rise, though they remain an untold story this year. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) is on a major upward price trend and is getting close to its all-time record-high set during the technology bubble of 1999. The company’s stock…

There’s good resilience to this market. On most days, the NASDAQ Composite is still beating both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average comparatively, which is bullish. Lots of stocks are pushing new highs and many seem to be breaking out of their previous near-term trends. NIKE,…

So long as transportation stocks are ticking higher, the stock market is much less susceptible to a price retrenchment. The Dow Jones Transportation Average just blew past 8,500, recently hitting a new record-high after taking a well-deserved break around mid-July and August. Airline stocks led the index’s recent…

Countless stocks are pushing new highs and a lot of them are still blue chips. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is lagging the other indices this year, but this is not unusual. The fact that many blue chips are still slogging higher is further indication of a bull…

The stock market has an underlying strength to it, seemingly only to be undone by geopolitical events. Fed action always has the potential to shock the system. Negative economic news isn’t fazing this market. On the back of a pretty decent second quarter, many corporate outlooks predict another…

As evidence of the continuing bull market, Kinder Morgan, Inc.’s (KMI) massive acquisition of its partnership companies is a significant sign that business conditions remain strong in the energy industry. Kinder Morgan surprised the marketplace by announcing plans to purchase Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (KMP), Kinder Morgan…