Blog

BY "Then" I don't mean the distant past, I mean this past April. The US stock market had been rising for a year (with the occasional hiccup) and investors had begun to heal some of the psychological scars inflicted by the financial crisis and global recession. Economic signs had begun to point to re...

I am not referring today to good earnings for Sherwin-Williams, though they were good. Nor about Masco, maker of Behr paints (among other fine products), though their results improved as well. Keep in mind that seeing improvement at companies who make home-building and home-improvement products is a...

Fast food juggernaut McDonald's announced a 12% increase in profits for the second quarter of 2010, earning $1.23 billion, or $1.13 a share. McDonald's has proven to be an excellent performer through the economic downturn as consumers are making the switch from $30.00 entrees to the MCD dollar menu...

A good way to "hedge your bets" in a struggling market is to use a Dollar Cost Averaging program. There is no way of knowing when the market is going to go up or down, but by establishing a systematic investment strategy you can take some of the guesswork out of investing. This means that instead of...

While I am pleased to see some level of regulatory activity from our Securities Exchange Commission, I think we may all want to hold our applause for some further review. Let's try and put this fine levied on Goldman Sachs (without admitting any wrongdoing) in perspective. The 2009 bonus pool availa...

This morning I will abdicate my post in favor of an article from The New York Times. Beware - it may make you as cynical as I am. Read it here. Aside from all that, looks like we'll have more good earnings reports and plenty of sunshine in Rochester this week. GTC (This article contains...

Last week we went home a little down at the heels, having taken a beating in the market, with the Dow down 261 points. We don't really get beat up on days like that because for most clients our job is to help them carefully select sound investments and then sit tight through the ups and downs. But i...

The sweet: one of my old favorites, The Hershey Co., reported higher earnings this morning - a sweet report for shareholders and a continuation of last quarter's gains.The sweeter (for Rochester): Xerox today also had a better-than-expected report as their acquisition this past February of ACS has h...

Last year an important milestone was reached in the history of the world's economic development: China overtook the United States as the world's largest energy consumer. Since oil was discovered in 1859 in the countryside of Pennsylvania as an abundant and convenient source of energy, the world's ec...

Yet more good news - this is the fun part - as Apple Inc reported better-than-expected earnings last night. This is a surprise? Hardly. It seems that everyone under a certain age has an iPod, and even tech slowpokes like me are using the iPhone at increasing rates. Later today we will see reports fr...