Month: October 2019

Here we are, October 1…
The start of Q4…
And the start of one of the historically worst months in market history.
According to Macro Risk Advisors, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) tends to peak in October.
As a note, a “peak” on the VIX equates to a market under heavy selling pressure. The index is sometimes called the “fear gauge.”
Coming off September, the S&P 500 somehow shrugged off a series of troubling geopolitical news items (from impeachment news to China trade talks) to gain 1.7%.
So, as we head into October, it’s easy to realize that it might be hard to hold on to …read more […]

The race is on to develop a lighter, safer and more efficient type of battery, and the latest competitor to the dominant lithium-ion battery is an aluminum-based battery …read more […]

Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older (I turned 66 last week), but as time goes on, my opinions about money and investing are changing.
Ten years ago, I didn’t own a single dividend-paying stock. Virtually all of my stock positions now earn at least a 3.5% dividend.
That’s a huge shift for me.
But what is most surprising to me is how my opinion of annuities has changed.
The last year I worked in the brokerage business, I was with a bank that specialized in converting maturing certificates of deposit (CDs) to annuities. Essentially, when a person came in to renew a CD or …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — When the Federal Reserve first lowered interest rates in July and then a few weeks ago, it was hard not to think that perhaps the central bank was bowing to pressure from the White House. Although there were signs that the economy was slowing, there were few true red flags that suggested the wheels were falling off the cart. That all changed Tuesday with the release of the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index, which fell to its lowest in 10 years, moving deeper into the zone that signals output is contracting. But that’s not all the …read more […]

The report showed that manufacturing weakened in September for the second straight month as President Donald Trump’s trade war with China dragged on confidence and factory activity. The Dow is down 247.21 points, or 0.9%. The Dow is up 3,245.58 points, or 13.9%. …read more […]

Deere & Co. said on Tuesday it will indefinitely lay off 163 U.S. manufacturing workers at plants that make agricultural, forestry and construction equipment, citing decreased customer demand. The announcement comes months after the company said it would reduce production by 20% at its facilities in Illinois and Iowa in the second of half of the year. The facilities affected by the layoffs are Harvester Works in Illinois and Davenport Works in Iowa. …read more […]

Deere & Co. said on Tuesday it will indefinitely lay off 163 U.S. manufacturing workers at plants that make agricultural, forestry and construction equipment, citing decreased customer demand. The announcement comes months after the company said it would reduce production by 20% at its facilities in Illinois and Iowa in the second of half of the year. The facilities affected by the layoffs are Harvester Works in Illinois and Davenport Works in Iowa. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Juul Labs Inc., the largest maker of nicotine vaporizers in the U.S., said it will stop lobbying for a ballot measure to overturn San Francisco’s ban on the sale of e-cigarette products.The measure, called Proposition C, will still appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, but the loss of the biggest financial supporter of the effort comes at a crucial time, in the final weeks when voters are weighing the issue. Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, is funding a campaign to defeat the measure. Ads from both sides have blanketed the city in recent …read more […]

OPEC Chief Mohamed Barkindo has cordially invited every oil producing nation in the world to join the OPEC+ coalition in an attempt to balance oil markets …read more […]