More than a half decade removed from a deep crisis, the U.S. housing market is on the mend. Home prices in many cities have been rising again, and the PHLX Housing Sector Index has risen more than 250% from its March 2009 lows. The other major economy of the Western… Read More

Across the main thoroughfares of the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo, trendy consumers are embracing Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) latest iPhone. And just about every other trendy neighborhood in Japan, for that matter. According to the Japan Daily Press, Apple now controls more than one-third of the… Read More

Dividend hungry investors are accustomed to the occasional hiccup. If business trends slump, then the board may be forced to trim the payout a bit. But when a company tells investors that the dividend has been cut to zero, investors vote with their feet. That’s what happened back in November,… Read More

Dividend hungry investors are accustomed to the occasional hiccup. If business trends slump, then the board may be forced to trim the payout a bit. But when a company tells investors that the dividend has been cut to zero, investors vote with their feet. That’s what happened back in November,… Read More

Judging by some of the frothy action around the market’s hottest stocks in 2013, you might presume fundamentals don’t matter. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), for example, which is a very well-run company, trades for an eye-popping 95 times projected 2014 earnings. Yet perhaps no single stock has become so disconnected from… Read More

Judging by some of the frothy action around the market’s hottest stocks in 2013, you might presume fundamentals don’t matter. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), for example, which is a very well-run company, trades for an eye-popping 95 times projected 2014 earnings. Yet perhaps no single stock has become so disconnected from… Read More

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) makes it look easy. The e-commerce titan has just wrapped up its 15th straight year of at least 20% revenue growth, which is harder than it sounds when you consider its revenue base now stands at $75 billion. If only all other kinds of e-commerce businesses were… Read More

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) makes it look easy. The e-commerce titan has just wrapped up its 15th straight year of at least 20% revenue growth, which is harder than it sounds when you consider its revenue base now stands at $75 billion. If only all other kinds of e-commerce businesses were… Read More

Did you ever wonder why a number of electric utilities hand out rebates for energy-efficient appliances? After all, you’d think these firms want customers to burn more energy and rack up higher electric bills. That’s not the way they see it though. A number of utilities aim to operate near… Read More

We are losing the battle of the bulge. Though health care practitioners have been trying to raise awareness about the perils of obesity for a decade, the numbers keep getting worse. According to a survey conducted by Gallup-Healthways, 27.2% of all Americans are classified as obese, up a full percentage… Read More

We are losing the battle of the bulge. Though health care practitioners have been trying to raise awareness about the perils of obesity for a decade, the numbers keep getting worse. According to a survey conducted by Gallup-Healthways, 27.2% of all Americans are classified as obese, up a full percentage… Read More

While most companies will have plenty to cheer these holidays, as their stock prices soared in 2013, some companies would just as soon turn the page and focus on the new year. Companies operating in the mining industry certainly fall into the latter category. This sector hasn’t suffered such tough… Read More

In any given year, you’ll come across “no-brainer” investments that are universally loved by the crowd. Trouble is, these stocks can be loved too much, and no matter how sales trends develop, some disappointment will be inevitable. Indeed, one of the most popular stocks of the past few years has… Read More

For many folks in Latin America, 2011 seems like an awfully long time ago. Just two years ago, regional economies were booming, and growth in middle-class consumption was off the charts. That proved to be a fortuitous time for Arcos Dorados (NYSE: ARCO) to go public. At the time, the… Read More