Silicon Valley Bank's (ticker: SIVB) collapse last week was an old fashioned bank run that happened extra fast thanks to modern social media. It took less than 48 hours for the 16th largest bank in the US to become insolvent, marking the second biggest bank failure since Washington Mutual's demise in 2008. SIVB specialized in lending to early stage technology...
Almost everyone is invested in the S&P 500 index, which may present a problem. According to ETF.com, there are 2,205 exchange traded funds (ETFs) currently trading in the US market. The largest is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) with approximately $359 billion in assets. Among the top ten equity ETFs, the top three are all S&P 500 index passive...
Any way you slice it, 2022 was a challenging year for investors. The S&P 500 lost 18.1%, which ranks as the seventh worst year since 1929. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index lost 13.0%, which ranks as the worst year ever for bonds. Amid this difficult backdrop, I am pleased to report that Silverlight's Core Equity and International Equity...
Five years ago, I introduced Forbes readers to a stock strategy called the Dobermans of the Dow. This is my annual strategy update. The Dobermans of the Dow is a screen I invented as an alternative to the widely followed Dogs of the Dow strategy. Whereas the Dogs of the Dow only ranks stocks by their dividend yield, the Dobermans...
It’s been a long December for technology stocks. The Nasdaq has fallen 8% this month and is down 32% year-to-date. That puts the tech-heavy index on pace for the worst December drop since the dotcom bubble burst twenty years ago. Technology stocks have underperformed for several reasons. First, there is an unfavorable macroeconomic backdrop with economic growth decelerating globally. When...
It’s easy for investors to be gloomy following a rough September in which the S&P 500 Index tumbled 9.2%. That marked the worst September showing since 2002, when the index fell by 11%. Before you hit the panic ‘Sell Everything’ button, though, it’s worth considering at least one bullish catalyst on the horizon—voters head to the ballot box on November...
Summary Oil and gas rig counts are still hovering below the long-term mean. PXD owns a substantial amount of acreage in the Permian Basin, one of the largest hydrocarbon-producing basins in the world. While PXD has a trailing dividend yield of 9.7%, the projected 12-month dividend yield is 13.4%. Blended forward EV/EBITDA is one standard deviation cheap. *** Pioneer Natural...
“We’re going to make sure everyone knows Exxon’s profits. Exxon made more money than God last year,” President Biden said Friday at an event near the port of Los Angeles. The S&P 500 Energy sector has returned 61 percent year-to-date compared to a 18 percent decline in the S&P 500 index. Exxon Mobile—the company the President called out at his...
The S&P 500 Index is flirting with bear market territory, down almost 20% year to date. There are plenty of reasons for equity investors to tread more cautiously these days. Most importantly, the Federal Reserve has pivoted to a hawkish monetary policy while economic momentum is starting to slow. Historically, that’s an unhealthy combination for risk assets. If you’re thinking...
Every market selloff presents opportunities. The iShares Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is down -17% year-to-date. Even though Emerging Markets are notoriously volatile, this region is attractive due to its outsized growth potential. According to Lazard Asset Management, Emerging Market (EM) economies are responsible for about 60% of global growth, yet only represent about 13% of the MSCI All Country World...
Before long, many may start to view The Great Resignation as a Great Big Mistake. Over 3 million Americans decided to retire early amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The percentage of the US population in retirement has been gradually increasing for years, but this was a significant rise above the prevailing trend. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Surging stock and...
Volatility is a two way street. It can be an investor’s friend or foe, depending on the direction. Cathie Wood of ARK Invest has the type of investment track record to demonstrate this point well. Her firm’s ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) has returned 23.5% annually since its original launch in 2014—trouncing the S&P 500’s 14.6% annualized return over the same...