NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Hungry for reliable income, investors have been embracing dividend-paying blue-chips. Plenty of solid utilities and consumer companies yield 3%. That seems like a rich payout at a time when 10-year Treasuries yield 2.0%. But to get an even higher yield, consider funds that focus on foreign dividend stocks. Many foreign blue-chips yield more than 4%. Forward International Dividend(FFINX), a mutual fund, yields 5.9%. Besides paying higher yields, foreign dividend payers tend to be cheaper than their U.S. counterparts. While the S&P 500 has a forward … [Read more...]

No matter how much the Great Recession got us down, those of us in the trenches could cheer ourselves with the knowledge that the tony set was keeping itself elbow-deep in posh gloves and brocade satchels. The luxury retail market was one of the few sectors that actually gained during the recession, despite having raised prices. Such was the case with True Religion Apparel (Nasdaq: TRLG  ) , which was up until its Q4 earnings report, when it started to fall apart at the seams. The company managed to turn in earnings and revenue numbers that missed analysts' predictions by $0.09 and $9 … [Read more...]

Many prisons are private institutions that largely rely on government funding and crime to stay profitable. Its unusual source of sustenance makes it arguably one of the more distasteful industries on the market, but that hardly makes prison stocks a poor investment. When the government first outsourced part of their incarceration system, businesses saw opportunity. Far from a utopian society, America will always have some level of crime to deal with. And for prisons, the higher the crime rate and number of imprisoned citizens, the more money there is to be made. As Lawrence Meyers, president … [Read more...]

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- News that Greece had at last managed to secure its much-needed bailout funds is encouraging. Unfortunately, investors, analysts, and market commentators will have no time to enjoy this development with sights already turning to the next big hurdle threatening the global macroeconomic picture: rising crude prices. It is not uncommon to see oil prices increase as economic conditions improve and growth expectations rise. However in recent weeks, the ascension appears to have gathered steam as tensions continue to mount between Iran and the West, and China boosts lending … [Read more...]

At 10:00 a.m. ET today, the National Association of Realtors will come out with its existing home sales numbers for last month. The report should help us get a clearer sense of activity in the housing market and economy. In December, existing-home sales rose a seasonally adjusted 5% from the previous month, or 3.6% year over year. The market is expecting to see the figure edge up slightly to 4.63 million in January. We'll also get an update on how large the housing inventory is, and what is the median price. Obviously, the housing glut has been an issue, not just for homebuilders, but also for … [Read more...]

Welcome to Week 7 of the Big Idea Portfolio. This time, an earnings-fueled rally in the shares of Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX  ) lifted my portfolio. Details below, but first let's dig into the numbers: Company Starting Price* Recent Price Total Return Apple $422.46 $502.21 18.9% Google $650.09 $604.64 (6.9%) Rackspace Hosting $41.65 $52.93 27.1% Riverbed Technology $25.95 $28.34 9.2% salesforce.com $100.93 $129.17 27.9% AVERAGE RETURN -- -- 15.24% S&P 500 SPDR $127.71 $136.05 6.53% DIFFERENCE -- -- 8.71 Source: Yahoo! Finance. * Tracking began at market close on Jan. 6, 2012. … [Read more...]

The Greek bailout situation dominated early trading in the U.S. At first glance it appears the Europeans are committed to keeping the eurozone intact. After all, many central banks beyond the eurozone (China and no doubt the Fed) are teaming up to lend support. Further, the old saying, "in for a penny, in for a pound" shows TPTB have gone too far down the bailout road to back away now. Or, maybe not, since some clear thinkers suggest Greek debt burdens will be too high for their weak and weakening economy to service. So the debt situation may be the cancer that still negatively grows on the … [Read more...]

By Evan Niu (TMFNewCow) | More ArticlesFebruary 22, 2012 | I bet you think you know what an iPad looks like. If asked, you'd probably describe it as a small flat tablet computer boasting a 9.7-inch display and sporting an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) logo on its back. Wrong. It actually looks a lot like an entirely different Apple product: the original iMac. The year was 1998, shortly after Steve Jobs' return to Apple. One of the first eye-catching products that Jobs and design guru Jony Ive came up with was the iMac all-in-one, which continues to be among Apple's primary product lines. Source: … [Read more...]

Welcome to Week 7 of the Big Idea Portfolio. This time, an earnings-fueled rally in the shares of Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX  ) lifted my portfolio. Details below, but first let's dig into the numbers: Company Starting Price* Recent Price Total Return Apple $422.46 $502.21 18.9% Google $650.09 $604.64 (6.9%) Rackspace Hosting $41.65 $52.93 27.1% Riverbed Technology $25.95 $28.34 9.2% salesforce.com $100.93 $129.17 27.9% AVERAGE RETURN -- -- 15.24% S&P 500 SPDR $127.71 $136.05 6.53% DIFFERENCE -- -- 8.71 Source: Yahoo! Finance. * Tracking began at market close on Jan. 6, 2012. … [Read more...]

As an analyst for our lead newsletter service, Stock Advisor, I've been following Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX  ) since 2006. So I was very interested in an article my colleague Alyce Lomax wrote last week, "Roll Credits for Netflix," which predicted difficult times, if not the end, for Netflix. Her argument revolved mostly around increased competition, but also mentioned changes at the U.S. Postal Service and the need to please the content providers. There's lots of competition, she wrote: Streaming by Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN  ) to its Prime members; on-demand options from Comcast and Verizon; … [Read more...]