Bob's Journal
Found 589 Articles.
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Bob’s Journal For 9/21
FDIC Identifies Continuing Risks in the Banking System The banking system isn’t making headlines, but it still “continues to face significant downside risks,” according to the chairman of the FDIC, the primary insurer of bank deposits, Martin Gruenberg. There was a banking crisis last spring, when a series of mid-size banks, led by Silicon Valley […]
Bob’s Journal for 9/14
With Tech Stock Investing, Timing is Crucial Sometimes a technology company is a great long-term business, but its stock is a bad investment. Investors need to be careful about when they buy stocks of the great tech companies, according to a recent report from Research Affiliates. Last week, I discussed how Nvidia (NVDA) has been […]
Bob’s Journal for 9/7
Lessons from the Nvidia Surge The top-returning stock of the year so far is NVIDIA (NVDA). The second-best stock isn’t even close. NVDA also is the top-performing stock of the last 10 years, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Again, second place isn’t close. NVDA was up 230% in 2023 through the end of August. Over […]
Bob’s Journal for 8/31
IRS Delays New 401(k) Catch-Up Contributions Rule The IRS recently announced that it was delaying the effective date of a rule on catch-up contributions enacted in late 2022 as part of the SECURE Act 2.0. The new rule provides that any catch-up contribution to a 401(k) or similar plan made by an employee earning more […]
Bob’s Journal for 8/24/23
Long-Term Returns Are Driven by Very Few Stocks Treasury bills earn higher returns than most stocks, according to a recent update and expansion of a classic study. A group of economists led by Hendrik Bessembinder of Arizona State University surveyed returns of 64,000 global stocks from January 1990 to December 2020. The research found that […]
Bob’s Journal for 8/17/23
Household Allocations to Stocks Near Record Highs The percentage of household assets invested in stocks is near all-time highs. The other periods when stock ownership was this high turned out not to be good times to own stocks. At the end of the first quarter of 2023, households had 16.57% of their total assets invested […]
Bob’s Journal for 8/10/22
Why Interest Rates Could Move Higher Soon We’re probably at a turning point in the treasury bond market. Over the last 18 months, interest rates on treasury bonds didn’t increase as much as many observers expected. The Federal Reserve rapidly increased the short-term interest rates it controls. Other interest rates increased, but not as rapidly […]
Bob’s Journal for 8/3/22
How Inflation Distorts Data In times of elevated inflation, we need to be careful when examining economic and financial data. Inflation distorts a lot of numbers, including gross domestic product (GDP) and corporate earnings. It is important to look at the real changes after adjusting for inflation and also consider the time period involved and […]
