The beginning of the trading week (and month, for that matter)
got off to a rough start. Conventional wisdom states that the first
couple of trading sessions in a new quarter can be strong because
of fund inflows that get put to work in the market.
There's no such thing occurring today, however, continuing the
trend from Friday, which also lacked buying sizzle. I saw a report
recently from the Employee Benefit Research Institute that said as
of 2009, Social Security accounted for almost half elderly women's
income, compared with just over a third for elderly men. The big
thing I am taking out of this is the fact that the over-reliance on
Social Security is a problem for many seniors. I hope that readers
see this stat and that it encourages you to get started as soon as
possible to building up a richer retirement nest egg.
I am so looking forward to my book, "Be a Dividend Millionaire"
to be released sometimes in the spring. It is a book dedicated for
the men and women that are working their butts off and who can use
a great template in how to get started building a wealthy
retirement, with not much money required to get started.
Back to today's action, gold-mining plays were among the
commodity sector names seeing red. Stocks like Newmont Mining (
NEM
) and Barrick Gold (
ABX
) pulled down, as did Freeport McMoran (
FCX
) - which was downgraded this morning by a Citigroup analyst.
American Express (
AXP
) was sold heavily on news that the company's merchant contracts
may be in violation of U.S. antitrust laws, according to a suit
just filed by the U.S. government. A couple of deal-rumored names
made headlines earlier as pharma play Sanofi-Aventis (
SNY
) went with a hostile bid to acquire Genzyme (
GENZ
). Also, shares of Sara Lee (
SLE
) saw some action on speculation a private equity firm was sniffing
around the food play. Private equity firms are desperately looking
for places to put their money, so big brands are becoming targets.
The usual scenario is that a PE firm will come in and slash costs
as many ways possible, so from a jobs' scenario, a takeover in many
cases may not be a great thing for the target company's
workforce.
I hope everyone had a great weekend, and thanks again for
reading!
P.S. Tomorrow's newsletter may be a bit delayed as I have a
speaking engagement.
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.