Tag Archives: own-shares

Stock Buybacks: The New Dividends?

Market Blog submits: By David Berman S till hungry for dividends? Recent trends suggest that chasing after companies that buy back their own shares might be a more profitable pursuit. Complete Story

Monday Options Recap

Frederic Ruffy submits: Sentiment Stocks are holding modest gains in another day of rather slow market action Monday. The consumer was in focus early after data showed spending up .3 percent in February, which was in-line with economist forecasts. Incomes were flat, and a bit less than the .1 percent uptick that had been forecast. The market didn’t show much reaction to the data. Meanwhile, major averages across Europe finished with modest gains on diminishing concerns about debt problems in Greece. The dollar fell, but gold and oil moved higher. Crude added $2.25 to $82.25 a barrel and gold gained $5 to $1094 an ounce. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has traded in another narrow 67-point range and is up 50 in the final hour. The NASDAQ added 8. The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up .04 to 17.81. Trading in the options market is on the light side. Approximately 4 million puts and 5.4 million calls traded so far. Complete Story

Red Chips vs. Blue Chips: Mega Cap China and U.S. ETFs Head-to-Head

Michael Johnston submits: From an investment perspective, the U.S. has historically been the dog and the rest of the world the tail. Global equity markets have taken their cues from Wall Street, and economic developments in the U.S have rippled throughout the world. The U.S. remains a very important part of the global economy, but the last few years have seen a meteoric rise of emerging markets, the new drivers of global economic growth. China in particular has become a critical economy to watch, as evidenced by the intense focus of investors on the government’s plans for unwinding the stimulus plan. While both the U.S. and Chinese economies offer numerous investment options, most investors tend to gravitate towards large firms with established track records. Two of the most popular ways to access these markets are with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF ( DIA ) and iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund ( FXI ) representing the “blue chips” and “red chips” respectively. Complete Story