(Bloomberg) — The latest hurdle to shipping goods in a world gripped by pandemic-driven supply chain disruptions is a shortage of cardboard boxes, according to one of the world’s biggest makers of the material. The supply chain is “very stretched” and making and shipping high-demand packing materials to customers is expected to remain tough in […]
Read MoreMarket volatility has picked up since the beginning of the year, with all three major indices now sitting at legitimate correction levels. The good news is that this week, all three indices look like they may have started to stabilize, finding support that could provide a new basis for another rally back in the direction […]
Read MoreOne of the things that market uncertainty does to a lot of investors is to make them more hesitant about taking on new positions. I think that’s a pretty natural reaction, especially when we see the market start to reverse existing trends. Since the beginning of the year, increasing bearish sentiment has finally pushed all […]
Read MoreStocks in the Technology sector get a lot of attention and buzz from investors, analysts and talking heads alike no matter the time of year or current status of the economy. I think that a big reason comes from the reality that progress and evolution in just about every other sector of the economy is, […]
Read MoreInsatiable demand for goods by American consumers heading into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to a scenario in which supply-chain bottlenecks may “never” let up, absent major infrastructure improvements at the U.S.’s two busiest ports, based on an analysis by RBC Capital Markets. In a report released Thursday, Michael Tran, RBC’s […]
Read MoreOne of the themes that has become more and more prevalent over the past year in the stock market is the pace of inflation. Inflation is one of those words that tends to stoke fear in the marketplace, because it is usually tied so closely with central bank monetary policy. it is also something that […]
Read MoreAs a conservative-minded, value and fundamental-driven investor, my natural tendency is to shy away from stocks that market experts and popular market media analysts tend to talk to the most about. That means that my investments rarely look very sexy – but I’m far more interested in being able to keep my money working for […]
Read More“Supply chain” seems to be a stock answer to everything that’s wrong with the world these days. That’s because supply chain is shorthand for how the world is connected — from idea to product to consumer. This supply-chain disaster is real. Thank goodness. Human psychology, along with all those systems we designed, recognizes meaningful alerts […]
Read MoreThe Food Products industry in the Consumer Staples sector is an area of the market that tends to get overlooked because, let’s face it, it just isn’t very sexy. Even so, it is one of very few segments of the market that saw consumer-driven improvements in demand in 2020, especially in the early stages of […]
Read MoreFor investors, the holiday season generally marks a time when consumer activity should be healthy and demand for consumer goods will be high. That’s a big reason that the latter part of the year, as the colder months set in across the country that retail stocks often start to see healthy increases in prices. That […]
Read MoreNo matter what current market conditions may be at any given time, one of the primary questions any long-term focused investor – whether you prefer a growth or value approach – should be whether the strength of the underlying business is strong enough to justify a stock’s current price. For growth-focused investors, the question is […]
Read MoreDecember means a lot of things. The start of the holiday season means seeing family, shopping for gifts, and planning social events. In a pandemic-driven world, a lot of us have been looking forward to this holiday season to restart many of those same activities that we were forced to minimize or possibly even avoid […]
Read MoreFor more than two years – even before COVID-19 became a global pandemic that collapsed economic and social activity for most of 2020 and that continues to strain health care systems and keep pressure on a variety of economic forces – I’ve been writing about the wisdom in being very selective about the investments you […]
Read MoreAs wrap up 2021 and look toward 2022, the sad and simple truth is that, no matter how much we might want to be able stop including COVID-19 and its impact on every aspect of life in our daily discussions, the health crisis hasn’t gone away, but instead is showing more persistence than any of […]
Read MoreOver the last three years, I’ve used economic uncertainty – first from a year-long trade war through 2019, and then of course the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 – as the basis for a lot of the analysis, and certainly some of my own investments in the marketplace. I think that when economic conditions become […]
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