In the quest for yield, it pays to search the obscure corners of the market. One long neglected niche: business development companies, or BDCs. These publicly traded private equity firms invest in and lend to small and midsize businesses and … Read more »
The stocks that stand to soar because of natural gas extraction The U.S. is in the early days of another energy boom. By 2030, natural gas will trump oil as the most used fuel in the U.S., according to the … Read more »
Consider A Stable Value Fund For Your 401(k) If you’re worried that interest rates will rise and your bond funds fall, you might be tempted to move your fixed-income dollars to a money market fund. The problem is that the … Read more »
Three aqua investments as world’s supply dries up Aqua America (symbol WTR) Last Price: $24.99 Year to date: 16.6% Market Cap: $3.5B P/E: 21 When it comes to dividend increases, Aqua America has been as reliable as turning on a … Read more »
Special dividends aim to beat feared Jan. 1 tax hikes The taxman is coming for your dividends, and companies aren’t waiting to see the fine print. Public companies are paying out billions in special dividends in the fourth quarter whether … Read more »
Hurricane Sandy showed the fragility of our electric grid as millions lost power for days. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated in 2009 that the grid needed $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in investment by 2030. Perhaps the aftermath … Read more »
Take a step back from the volatile market and think big. Or at least think about “big data.” We are all choking on data from our Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and mobile devices. This problem is exponentially larger for companies. … Read more »
I come to bury A123 Systems, not to praise it. The electric-car battery maker, which received a $249.1 million federal grant, has filed for bankruptcy protection. A123 illustrates the difficulty of picking winners and losers in an industry where profitability … Read more »
The stock market doesn’t care about your politics. Numerous studies of dubious merit try to turn noise into a signal to show that the market prefers a Republican to a Democrat in the White House or vice versa. The truth … Read more »
It feels so wrong to want to buy stocks of large U.S. banks. These too-big-to-fail institutions presided over the hairiest financial crisis since the Great Depression and received billions in bailouts. With unemployment above 8 percent, we are still dealing … Read more »