Investing Topics: Investment Strategy

Utility stocks have picked up in 2020 where they left off in 2019. The Dow Jones Utility Average reached an all-time high of 934 this week. So long as investors crave yield, there’s a case the sector will reach higher ground - but this story also has a less savory side.

How many companies can one private capital firm successfully take on all at once? Paul Singer’s Elliott Management seems determined to find out.

The strong US dollar, worries about slowing global growth and disruption from uncertain politics and trade policy: That trio of entrenched trends continues to fuel investor appetites to “buy American,” dividend-paying stocks of US-based companies that generate all or mostly all of their sales within our borders.

Can the sum of the parts actually be greater than the whole? Shareholders of AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) will get a chance to find out, now that activist investor Paul Singer’s Elliott Management has taken a $3.2 billion stake in the communications giant.

Few sectors have dealt as much pain to unwary yield seekers over the past decade as communications. Here's the rundown on the weakest of the herd.

For those who want a play on solar and energy storage, there are better choices than Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Wall Street consensus is the U.S. Federal Reserve will officially close the book on three-and-a-half years of monetary tightening next week, by cutting its benchmark Federal Funds interest rate. But our focus needs to be on earnings and guidance, not headlines.

Trade wars are wealth destroyers. The longer these disputes continue and the more actions governments take, the greater the danger of severe damage to the economy and stock market. There are, however, a handful of companies in position to actually win from this worst case.

Fair value is always in the eye of the beholder. But energy investors are best advised to follow our one simple rule for picking takeover targets: Only buy companies with the strength to thrive on their own.

At the end of the day, dividend stocks behave like other stocks - returns track prospects for companies’ health and growth, whether the Fed is raising rates or cutting them. That’s what to focus on, now more than ever.