Online sales during 2021’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holidays ended up being slightly less than those of the previous year, representing the first time such a decrease has been recorded.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, love and laughter! Even if that wasn’t your experience, there’s still much to be grateful for.
The average cost of a typical holiday feast has increased 14% compared to Thanksgiving last. The price of the turkey alone is up 24%, which is nearly four times the official inflation rate.
Luxury goods sales just went from dip to rip.
Gold performed as expected this week following a monster CPI report that showed inflation skyrocketing 6.2% in October. The yellow metal broke out of its downward trend going back to August 2020, when it hit its all-time high of $2,073.
After much anticipation, the U.S. House approved a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending package last week, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to sign. Although no single lawmaker got everything they wanted, I believe this bill is generally constructive news for the metals and mining industry...
Inflation is looking less and less “transitory,” and make no mistake: Transitioning to a zero-carbon energy mix as quickly as climate scientists are urging will be highly inflationary.
These “perfect storm” disruptions have created numerous headaches for shipping and logistics companies. But as is often the case, bad news is good news, especially for investors who have seen shares of container lines surge in the 18 months since the pandemic began.
A new entrant in the battle to defeat distrust may surprise many: the U.S. Supreme Court. Three justices’ recent remarks offer a model for financial leaders.
Now nearly anyone will be able to convert their loose change into Bitcoin at their neighborhood Walmart. This week, it was being reported that Walmart quietly began installing special Coinstar machines at select locations that give customers the option to buy Bitcoin.
We’re all familiar with inflation. But did you know there’s another form of inflation that’s just as corrosive on our purchasing power and yet is nearly impossible to measure? Read on to learn more.
Many mutual funds will distribute capital gains every year—no matter what the market does. As 2021 comes to a close, advisors can begin to prepare their clients for the impact of those distributions and take steps to minimize the tax bite going forward.
Bitcoin topped $56,000 on Friday for the first time since May as a number of positive crypto developments galvanized investors in the month of “Uptober.”
There are a few important lessons that every aspiring entrepreneur should know.
Contrary to popular belief, what’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander.
Gold’s average daily trading volume for the one-year period was $183 billion, compared to the S&P 500 with nearly $235 billion. That dollar amount is enough to beat currency swaps as well as all government and corporate debt.
The Berlin Wall came down 32 years ago this November, ushering in a new era of freedom and opportunity. But judging from the results of a recent local election, it looks as if socialism is trying to stage something of a comeback in Germany’s capital city.
Evergrande Group, the “too big to fail” Chinese property developer, rattled markets last Monday when it missed interest payments to at least two of its lenders. This gave more than a few investors flashbacks to Lehman Brothers’ demise in 2008, which helped trigger the global financial crisis.
Against the backdrop of a potential Evergrande failure, gold and Bitcoin look very attractive as stores of value, and both happen to be on sale right now.
After a challenging 2020 due to the pandemic, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been flowing into Russia this year for a number of reasons. Among them is it offers positive real rates compared to other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to be in the fossil fuel business. On both sides of the Atlantic, lawmakers and unelected bureaucrats are turning up the heat, so to speak, on companies over the issue of climate change.
Having counseled numerous clients through the retirement process, I realized there was a missing piece – purpose! To be happy, retirees need something meaningful to wake up for every day. Here are some resources – paid and unpaid – to let them do that.
The numerous proposals around tax policy in the upcoming budget debates mean it’s an opportune time to discuss tax-smart strategies with your clients.
With real rates trading below zero right now, many yield-starved investors are being forced into riskier and riskier assets, including high-yield junk bonds. But even these are no longer offering a positive real return, what with inflation at multiyear highs.
So much of life is managing risk. That’s true on a micro, personal-level scale as well as a macro, country-level scale. Crises often can’t be prevented. It’s how you deal with them that makes all the difference.
Social Security is in worse shape than we thought. The program’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund is now expected to be insolvent by 2033, a year earlier than anticipated.
Social Security is in worse shape than we thought. The program’s trust fund is now expected to be insolvent by 2033, a year earlier than anticipated. According to the annual report, its finances have been “significantly affected” by the pandemic and 2020 recession, not to mention “rapid population aging.”
Mark Mobius, the legendary emerging markets investor, says that 10% of investors’ portfolios should be in gold in anticipation of currency devaluation as a result of unprecedented stimulus measures.
The country sits atop what could be one of the world’s largest reserves of various metals and minerals, including not just gold but also platinum, silver, copper, iron, aluminum and uranium. It’s believed to have so much lithium, an increasingly important metal that’s widely used in battery technology, that Afghanistan could one day be known as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” according to a 2010 memo by the U.S. Department of Defense.
It’s no secret. The highly transmissible delta variant of Covid-19 has stalled the recovery of commercial air travel and weakened bookings in July and August, which have traditionally been among airlines’ busiest months of the year.
After 20 years, the longest war in U.S. history is finally coming to a (clumsily handled) close.
So many headlines right now are instilling FUD in investors’ minds, which stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt—from the Afghanistan news to fears on cryptocurrency and the delta variant disrupting travel plans. But don’t fall for it.
Many of you tuned in this week to watch the conversation between me and Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of business intelligence company MicroStrategy.
As equity style winds shift, investors are still debating the merits of growth versus value stocks.
As I discussed in a Frank Talk this week, the Senate just approved a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that’s now the business of the House.
It may be time for investors to take a serious look at commodities and raw materials.
In 1905, the first gas pump appeared in St. Louis, Missouri, to meet the fueling demands of a rapidly growing number of motorists.
This month, Louis Vuitton turns 200 years old.
Tax proposals and changes to the tax code are a near daily story right now.
You may not be familiar with the term metaverse, but if you’ve been a consumer of popular books, movies and video games over the past 30 years or so, you probably are aware of the concept.
Recent protests offer hope that change may be right around the corner. But for now, gold and Bitcoin have helped fill the gap created by disastrously mismanaged currencies.
Two months. That’s how long the pandemic-triggered recession lasted, from February to April 2020, making it the shortest economic downturn in U.S. history, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Business Cycle Dating Committee.
Commodities rallied 21% in the first half of 2021, making them the top performing asset group ahead of U.S., European, emerging market and non-Japan Asian stocks. The broad-based index of energy, agriculture, industrial metals and precious metals rose the same amount as high-flying Bitcoin, which pulled back after hitting its all-time high of more than $63,000 on April 13.
Gold notched its third straight week of higher prices as the yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped below 1.3% for the first time since February.
Gold notched its third straight week of higher prices as the yield on the 10-year Treasury dipped below 1.3% for the first time since February. The highly transmissible Delta variant was also ruled the most dominant strain of coronavirus in the U.S., threatening economic growth and raising uncertainty about the next interest rate hike.
There may be many reasons why people spread misinformation about Bitcoin. Much of the misinformation may originate from Ripple, which is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fintech firm is believed to employ a great number of bots on Twitter and other social media platforms with the intent of tearing Bitcoin down in favor of its own XRP coin.
Legendary global investor John Templeton once said that the best time to buy was when there was “maximum pessimism,” and the best time to sell was when there was “maximum optimism.”
Bitcoin erased its 2021 gains last week as China ramped up its crackdown on mining of the cryptocurrency, a move that’s expected to help shift the industry’s center of gravity from Asia to North America.
Bitcoin erased its 2021 gains this week as China ramped up its crackdown on mining of the cryptocurrency, a move that’s expected to help shift the industry’s center of gravity from Asia to North America.
