The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) have been on a bull market stampede since March 2009. But the overall American economy has not been feeling as bullish. The policies under Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke favored the stock market.  Low interest rates made stocks more […]

While Big Oil stocks like Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) should reward long term investors, the short term performance has been painful.  That is much the same for the stock markets overall as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) have been doing […]

Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD), which has the Sears and KMart department stores, is a very volatile stock. While the beta for the overall stock market is 1, the beta for Sears Holding is 2.79. That means that the share price for Sears Holding moves up and down almost three times as much as the […]

There is no denying that uber investor Carl Icahn has been very, very good for the shareholders of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) are down.  But Apple is up for the last quarter, six months, and year of market action […]

It is certainly not news that both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) are off in recent market action.  There could be even more declines ahead: no one knows for sure, that is to be true.  What is known is the dividend history of Dividend […]

There are concerns that stocks such as BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) that serve as proxies for the Chinese economy could dip next month with Beijing allows for foreign trading on the Shanghai Exchange.  This results from concern that investors will prefer to buy shares of Chinese companies directly rather than companies such as BHP Billiton. […]

McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) is down for the last week, month, quarter, six months and year of market action (chart below).  While the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) are up for 2014, McDonald’s is off by nearly 4 percent.  The stock of McDonald’s is now at […]

There is a reason that legendary investor Warren Buffett owns shares of major oil firms such as ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), and Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU) (chart  below), among others. That was shown in the strong employment numbers just released by the United States Department of Labor. The United States just added 288,000 […]

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) in record territory, there are concerns about a correction for the stock market.  While it is certainly true that blue chip stocks such as Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) (chart below) have done well, investors should […]

  The double digit gain Friday by Quadrant 4 System (NASDAQ: QFOR) is yet another reason to read stockdesk.com! An article, “Quadrant 4 System is a Small Cap for Growth and Value Investors” ran on this site last week. On Friday, Quadrant 4 System soared by 13.16 percent.  It far outdistanced the Dow Jones Industrial […]