MEMBER SIGN IN
Not a member? Become one today!
         iBerkshires     Berkshire Chamber     Berkshire Community College     City of Pittsfield    
Search
Home About Archives RSS Feed
The Retired Investor: The Trump Trades
By Bill Schmick,
04:20PM / Thursday, November 07, 2024
Now that the election is over and a clear winner has emerged, it is time to take a closer look at how investors perceive the winners and losers in the weeks and months ahead. It appears that the economy was the top concern of voters and therefore Trump's future actions within the economy will be important.   In the last month, there was speculation on Wall Street that Donald Trump would win the presidency. Certain areas of the financial markets nicknamed the "Trump trade" started gaining momentum.   Certain sectors saw gains while others experienced losses. Investors base their decisions on the actions of his past presidency and his statements and

0 Comments
Read More >>

@theMarket: Will Election Fears Trigger More Downside
By Bill Schmick,
02:12PM / Friday, November 01, 2024
Tuesday's presidential elections and the Fed's decision on interest rates have traders rushing to hedge their portfolios or go to cash. It is a little late in the day to take such action.   Over the last few weeks, I have been warning readers that the days surrounding the election could prove to be volatile. That situation appears to be taking center stage as we close this week's trading. I also urged investors not to get caught up in the panic and I hope you listened.   We are no further along in predicting the election outcomes than last month. The only thing we do know is that the race is too tight to call, and the popular vote will not be a

0 Comments
Read More >>

The Retired Investor: Betting on Elections Comes of Age
By Bill Schmick,
03:57PM / Thursday, October 31, 2024
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. The odds favor Trump right now, but anything can happen in the topsy-turvey world of online betting. That's right, presidents have now entered the list of what Americans can bet on alongside sports games, horse races, and blackjack.   Last month, a federal District Court judge ruled that betting on election outcomes was neither unlawful nor considered gaming. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission had fought against this outcome claiming that this kind of betting could undermine confidence in elections and adversely affect election integrity. The ruling made election markets legal for the first time in 100

0 Comments
Read More >>

@theMarket: Election Unknowns Keep Markets on Edge
By Bill Schmick,
03:18PM / Friday, October 25, 2024
Markets vacillate between betting on a GOP sweep and a Democrat victory with little justification for either outcome. Don't get caught up in the frenzy.   The betting markets have Trump winning but they have been wrong in the past and it is easy to tip the odds one way or the other with a couple of big bets. The polls are no help either because the results are all within a margin of error that makes them useless.   Only 36 percent of the S&P 500 have reported third-quarter earnings. So far, 79 percent of companies have beat earnings by a median of 6 percent. Sales results have also been strong with 58 percent beating estimates. The corporate results have

0 Comments
Read More >>

The Retired Investor: Natural Diamonds Take Back Seat to Lab-Grown Stones
By Bill Schmick,
04:31PM / Thursday, October 24, 2024
There was a day when a man's love for his bride was measured by the clarity and size of a diamond ring. That notion is as outdated as believing that "artificial" or lab-grown diamonds are second-class stones.   Chances are that if you purchased a diamond this year, it may have been manufactured in a laboratory. Lab-grown diamonds account for roughly 46 percent of the U.S. diamond jewelry market. What is interesting is that while the quantity of diamonds sold is almost neck and neck with the natural market, as a percentage of revenue, lab-growns only account for 23 percent of sales.   There are two trends at work here. Natural diamonds are getting

0 Comments
Read More >>

Pittsfield.com is owned and operated by: Boxcar Media 106 Main Sreet, P.O. Box 1787 North Adams, MA 01247 -- T. 413-663-3384 F.413-663-3615
© 2008 Boxcar Media LLC - All rights reserved