It should come as no surprise that Europe is now pulling out
their own version of the "printing press" to handle their economic
crisis. "Kicking the Can" isn't hard to resist, especially when you
see how the markets react to accommodation in the short term. Long
term, however, these methods may be built more on hope than
reality.
Not to dwell on much negative news from this morning, but we'd
be remiss not to mention
the fundamental earnings shock
we got from Nike (
NKE
) last night. As an investor, you can not ignore the fact that
earnings are what ultimately determine a stock's share price. If
Nike is any indication, the third quarter earnings picture could be
quite treacherous to maneuver for investors (and potentially fatal
for traders betting the wrong way in the short term). We could see
opportunities arise of course from over-reactions, which we will
certainly be looking out for.
Elsewhere, earnings results pushed shares of Accenture (
ACN
) higher, despite the company tightening up its profit guidance.
Wall Street analyst upgrades helped boost stocks like Oracle Corp (
ORCL
) and Vail Mountain Resorts (
MTN
). On the flipside, cautious commentary brought down shares of Ford
Motor Company (
F
). One of the unfortunate parts of today's spike is the surge we
saw in oil prices (up over $7 a barrel today or 9%), as well as
many other commodities. Inflationary costs running back up on the
back of a stimulus/bailout plan isn't exactly great news for
everyday folks - especially since we've seen so very little job
growth here in the U.S., despite all the bailouts.
Make a Call, Make a Market
I'm still astounded by some of the moves Wall Street analysts
have been making recently. It is not rare to find an analyst remove
a "Buy" rating from a stock after it drops 50% or more. They firm
will also then lower its price target, but still leave it laughably
high.
You would think Wall Street firms would me more cognizant of the
calls they make. However, major brokers' role in the markets isn't
much different from the mainstream financial media. The "breaking
news-centric, what stock will perform the best this week" mentality
runs rampant on the business networks worldwide. The strategy is
simply to "make a call, make a market." As long as shares are
changing hands, they're happy.
As investors, we need to pay close attention to analyst calls.
Never count on a Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan analyst to get you out
of trouble in time. These folks are notoriously late on updating
their calls, and rarely take responsibility for their bad
moves.
In contrast, we at Dividend.com remain undeterred, with our
focus squarely on building long-term wealth through quality
dividend-paying stocks. As the Federal Reserve continues to punish
savers, investing in income-producing assets is one of the few
options individual investors have to remain ahead of real-life
inflation.
Our
Beat The Markets with Dividend Stocks
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Dividend.com! In this digital-only book, we look ahead to 2012 and
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A Look to Next Week and a Weekend Preview
Looking ahead to next week, earnings will not be much of a
factor. The focus will likely be on the economic data as well as
the latest Wall Street analyst calls.
Be sure to catch up with our latest watchlist updates this
weekend on
Dividend.com Premium
, including reports on earnings/story stocks, analyst
upgrades/downgrades, dividend ETFs, and much more. And as always,
you can view our current recommendations on our industry-leading
Best Dividend Stocks List
.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you this weekend! P.S. Please
pass this e-mail on to someone you think can use some financial
motivation as well as being kept in the financial news loop that
could affect them.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.