Bob's Journal
Found 589 Articles.
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Bob’s Journal 7/24
The Stock Market’s Winners are Changing Several major stock indexes are near historic highs. But some other indexes, as well as many sectors and individual stocks, aren’t doing as well. The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Nasdaq Composite all closed last week near or above their highs. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average is well […]
Bob’s Journal for 7/17
A New Proposal to Fortify Social Security Two U.S. Senators came forward with a new proposal to shore up Social Security. For years, the Social Security trust fund has been estimated to run out of money in the early 2030s. The latest estimate from the Board of Trustees is that the trust fund will be […]
Bob’s Journal 7/10
Most 401(k) Plans Offer Underperforming Funds Most corporate 401(k) plans offer too many investment funds that charge high fees and underperform their peers, according to a study by Abernathy Daley 401(k) Consultants, a firm that administers 401(k) plans. The study examined the funds owned by 58,300 U.S. corporate plans. More than 99% of the plans […]
Bob’s Journal 7/3
Changes in Prior Approval Coming to Traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage There were two major announcements recently regarding prior approval of treatments and services for Medicare beneficiaries. Original Medicare hasn’t required prior authorization of treatments and services, with a few exceptions. For most care, providers and patients agree on a treatment. Then, the treatment paperwork for […]
Bob’s Journal 6/26
Social Security Retirement Trust Fund Continues Toward Insolvency The Social Security trust funds have $2.72 trillion in assets, but they’re likely to run out of money in less than 10 years, according to the 2025 annual report from the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare. The Social Security system has two trust funds. The major […]
Bob’s Journal 6/19
The Mega-Cap Stocks Are Breaking Up The stocks with the largest capitalizations were highly correlated with each other for a long time, but that hasn’t been the case in 2025. The stocks with capitalizations of more than one trillion dollars generally are known as mega-cap stocks. Currently, there are nine such stocks: Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia […]
Bob’s Journal 6/12
The Labor Market Weakens Most investors and analysts were optimistic about the economy after last week’s Employment Situation reports were released. But the details of the reports reveal the labor market is weakening. The reports said 139,000 new jobs were created in May. That beat consensus forecasts of 126,000 new jobs. But the numbers initially […]
Bob’s Journal 6/5
Are the Magnificent Seven Magnificent Again? The seven growth stocks that dominated stock returns in recent years, known as the Magnificent Seven, tumbled in early 2025. They fell especially hard after President Donald J. Trump began announcing tariffs. But they bounced back after most of the tariffs were delayed or reduced. Yet, the Magnificent Seven […]
