Mercenary Trader submits: By Mike McDermott The past six months have featured an astonishing run for agriculture (or soft) commodities. Emerging market demand for food products, coupled with currency concerns have charged prices for ALL commodities – with grain, beef, poultry and other “soft” commodity experiencing particularly strong demand. Complete Story »
Tom Lydon submits: Tom Lydon is editor and publisher of ETF Trends, a website with daily news and commentary about the fast-changing trends in the exchange traded fund (ETF) industry. Mr. Lydon is also president of Global Trends Investments, an investment advisory firm specializing in the creation of customized portfolios for high-net worth individuals. He [...]
Patrick Chovanec submits: As the year comes to a close, and we look forward to 2011, it’s worth taking a brief look back at the top stories that shaped China’s business and economic climate in 2010: 1. Google Quits China. Google’s (GOOG) sudden announcement, last January, that it had been the target of a major [...]
Mexican restaurant Chipotle (CMG: Charts, News, Offers) suffered a downgrade earlier this week after Barron’s made a bearish claim that its earnings could fall 20% along with smaller specialty restaurants due to a stagnant market, rising commodity prices, and overly conservative guidance. Shares of the restaurant have been on fire since late 2008, rising nearly [...]
John Petersen submits: Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) and an icon of cleantech venture capital investing, is famous for bluntly telling audiences that "Economics matters, NOTHING that defies the law of economic gravity can scale." This principle is a simple yet self-evident adaptation of Newton’s law gravitation to the human condition. An [...]
Ben Comston submits: H&R Block (HRB) was founded by two brothers shortly after the Second World War as a bookkeeping business. In a short time they came to realize that handling tax returns for individuals could be lucrative. H&R Block dominates the current tax preparation market and also owns RSM McLadrey which provides business services [...]
Morningstar submits: By Zoe Tan Based on early readings of better-than-expected 2010 holiday retail sales, specialty apparel retailers will likely be upbeat heading into the new year. Though we still harbor some concerns about discretionary spending amid elevated unemployment rates in the United States and economic uncertainty in a number of overseas markets, we believe [...]
Paul Frank submits: Paul M. Frank is the president of Aviemore Asset Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of the ETF Market Opportunity Fund (ETFOX), which has earned five stars from Morningstar for three-year, five-year and overall performance. ETFOX currently has nearly $56 million in assets under management. Seeking Alpha’s Jonathan Liss recently spoke with [...]
H&R Block (HRB: Charts, News, Offers), the largest American tax preparation company, was dealt a severe blow this week when banking partner HSBC (HBC: Charts, News, Offers) announced that it would no longer fund the company’s RALs, or “refund anticipation loans,” during the 2011 tax season. RALs are tax refunds given to the tax filer [...]
Michael Johnston submits: The past year was an exciting one for the ETF industry, as assets continued to surge (recently passing the $1 trillion mark), new and innovative products hit the market (now nearly 1,100 U.S.-listed ETPs), and the pipeline continued to fill with exciting ideas and new issuers. But 2010 wasn’t all sunshine and [...]