SKARBECK: Dynamics of market create year-end buying opportunity
Even distressed assets can make attractive investments—if the price is right.
Ken Skarbeck
Articles
SKARBECK: Increasing number of cars complicates climate talks
The challenge for investors becomes how to analyze the future of industries that produce and rely on fossil fuels, along with assessing the viability of renewable energy sources.
SKARBECK: High-flying private firms might be about to tumble
According to CB Insights, there are 143 unicorns with a combined value of $508 billion. Lately, observers have become concerned there might be a “valuation adjustment” similar to the bursting of the dot-com bubble in these private tech companies.
SKARBECK: Wall Street activists’ antics create carnival atmosphere
Reality TV has come to Wall Street. This drama is centered on Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and the players are activist investors led by the self-important Bill Ackman, gobs of other hedge funds and short-sellers.
SKARBECK: Investors make emotions their own worst enemy
Investors who can block out the emotional influences that frequently swirl about the markets can significantly improve their investment results.
SKARBECK: Long term, inflation makes bonds riskier than stocks
The overwhelming evidence shows that, to retain purchasing power through your retirement, say perhaps the next 20 years, a significant commitment to the stock market is safer than retreating to cash or bonds.
SKARBECK: ETFs show a risky side in topsy-turvy markets
The recent volatility in the stock market has exposed problems with the fast-growing Wall Street products called exchange-traded funds.
SKARBECK: Investors shouldn’t panic over higher interest rates
Regardless of the market’s short-term gyrations, stock values 20 years from now should be considerably higher than today.
SKARBECK: ‘Conservative’ strategies can lead investors astray
What does it mean to be a conservative investor? Most of us would describe ourselves as conservative, which usually means we don’t want to take risks that will lose money. Yet in certain circumstances, investors might believe they are taking a conservative approach, only to discover they were exposed to unforeseen risks. Investors in oil […]
SKARBECK: Commodity-price plunge caught many off guard
Commodities are in the midst of a nasty bear market, with prices spiraling lower.
SKARBECK: State should tap surplus to boost teacher pension
Plenty of voices are chiming in with ideas on what to do with the state’s $2.14 billion reserves. So, here is another suggestion—make a sizable contribution to the Indiana Pension Stabilization Fund to help offset the woefully underfunded Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund.
SKARBECK: Massive debt overhang to clobber Puerto Ricans
As the world frets over the events in Greece, a giant debt default closer to home is barely raising eyebrows.
SKARBECK: U.S. investors keep faith despite global turmoil
Despite the defiant results of the Greek referendum that rejected further economic austerity in return for a cash infusion to deal with their debt crisis, it appears U.S. investors are betting the situation will be adequately solved.
SKARBECK: Indiana gets aggressive in touting advantages
Indiana’s latest pitch to lure business received national attention and stirred up some controversy. Yet that is exactly what a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal is meant to do. So, mission accomplished.
SKARBECK: Sizzling Chinese stocks should spook investors
Chinese stocks have been on a tear. Last week, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 8.9 percent. In the last year, the Chinese market has jumped 150 percent. No other major stock market has ever grown this much in dollar value over 12 months. Since the beginning of 2015, the Chinese stock market has doubled in […]
SKARBECK: Robo-advisers might alter investment landscape
Startup firms like Betterment, Wealthfront, Hedgeable, TradeKing Core and Motif Horizon have been joined by industry giants Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity in offering platforms that provide low-cost, algorithm-based portfolio management run on computers.
SKARBECK: Shifts in interest rates alter investing dynamics
Interest rates are one of the two most important variables that affect investment results. The other is profitability.
SKARBECK: Firms that buy back shares are often using cash wisely
Savvy long-term investors understand that, when a company repurchases its stock at prices below intrinsic value, their ownership of the business increases.
SKARBECK: Graham’s pearls of wisdom still resonate with investors
The title of a recently discovered 1963 speech given by Benjamin Graham, titled “Securities in an Insecure World,” sounds like a topic one might choose to speak about today.
SKARBECK: Betting against Indiana would be losing strategy
I wholeheartedly agree with the theme advocated last week by fellow IBJ columnist Mickey Kim that, throughout our country’s history, a bet against America has been a bad bet.