The bulls are tired. After four days of pushing the markets higher, even the most aggressive investors are taking some profits at least for the next day or two. However, if the number of client phone calls I have been receiving on Thursday and Friday are any indication, I suspect that the markets will break [...]

Bond investors are a different lot from those who buy stocks. They have to be since their market is many times the size of equity markets and a lot more of the world’s economic well-being is riding on its shoulders. So far the 20% gain in the stock market over the last few weeks has [...]

The bear market bounce that began two weeks ago is alive and well. The S&P500 index hit the 800 level on Wednesday and then pulled back for the next two days. This consolidation is a good sign (the pause that refreshes) and I expect the markets to move higher sometime next week. However, several important [...]

At the end of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee Meeting (FOMC) the Fed announced they plan to buy as much as $300 billion of long-term U.S. Treasury Securities and over $700 billion in mortgage-back securities. In the short term this should mean lower mortgage and other rates for the consumer. The Fed is hoping this [...]

There was a time when Steve Lehman was the lone bear in a building full of bulls. Now, he is one among many. The 51-year-old Lehman and P.M. Dana Meissner, 40, are about 40% in cash, long commodities companies and have been outperforming the indexes since September of last year.

In this economy of growing unemployment and health care costs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) addressed one important consideration for individuals and families who have been hit by lay-offs. Unfortunately it created as many questions as it did answers.

The bounce I was looking for in last week’s column arrived on Tuesday and continued for four solid days. As bear market rallies go, this one has been pretty good so far. All three indexes—the Dow, NASDAQ, and the S&P500 are up about 10% for the week giving investors their first sign of relief all [...]

“Shouldn’t the market bounce here?” “How oversold can we get?” “Are stocks going to zero?” These are the kinds of questions I fielded this week from clients. My answers:

Next year investors will be given a once-in-a-life-time chance to convert their traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs regardless of how much you earn. Most savers’ knee-jerk reaction is to convert, pay the taxman now and forevermore be free of giving the government a cut of their tax-deferred retirement money. When I dig beneath [...]