It doesn’t matter whether it’s a solid company with an expanding book of business, good assets and credit credibility; if the market’s in a dour mood, a stock can and will get sold off with the rest of the lot. Read More

We’re focused not just on the fundamentals of our stocks, bonds and funds but also on how the markets may treat them. On this basis we’ve sold otherwise solid vehicles such as BlackRock Global Floating Rate, Eaton Vance Floating Rate and Pioneer Floating Rate Trust. Read More

Earnings season is when market emotion meets reality. Income Portfolio denizens Regions Financial and Verizon Communications are two cases in point. Read More

Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Fund has trimmed its distribution slightly to an annual rate of 93 cents a share due to higher costs for maintaining leverage. Read More

It’s hard to imagine a group more tied to economic growth than the air carriers. After all, leisure travel is the very definition of discretionary spending. Read More

Shallow-waterGulf of Mexico driller Hercules Offshore reported earnings of 35 cents per share, comfortably above Wall Street estimates of 32 cents. Read More

Tullow Oil (London: TLW) has sharpened its focus on exploration and appraisal work in Africa. The London-based company will drill eight wells in six countries in the next quarter alone. Its 2008 capital expenditure budget is estimated at approximately GBP400 million (USD795.7 million). Read More

More and more investors are hitting social networking hubs, meeting and sharing ideas in online communities. The unruly market volatility and recession fears of late have caused much anxiety for investors far and wide. But some have found some solace in social networking communities, where they can see how fellow investors are riding out the storm. Read More

Our composite materials manufactures have performed well for us overall, though there were some setbacks because of the continuing delays in production of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. Read More

Everyone’s familiar with the Federal Reserve System, our nation’s central bank, so it requires little in the way of explanation. But few people can actually tell you much about the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed’s monetary policy arm aside from the fact that it sets the federal funds rate. Read More