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World's Richest Worth $1 Trillion on Billionaires Index

prince al waleed bin-talal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 40 richest individuals on Earth lost a combined $6.2 billion yesterday as stocks dropped amid disappointing U.S. earnings, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the wealthiest people.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal joined the index, which doubled the number of billionaires it tracks yesterday. Alwaleed’s fortune has increased 18.2 percent, or $3.2 billion, this year, as shares of his Kingdom Holding Co. (KINGDOM), a diversified investment group that is planning to build the world’s tallest tower, rose 36 percent. The 57-year-old ranks 24th on the index with a net worth of $20.5 billion.

“There is no secret to success,” Alwaleed said in an e- mail sent from Saudi Arabia. “It is based on a sound investment strategy, commitment and long-term vision.”...Continue to read.

Why Did These 2 Stocks Fall Flat?

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: A trader works on the...

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied sharply higher yesterday, closing above 13,000 again asearnings looked better for a number of businesses. But with the companies below going down hard, first let’s see whether they had good reason to drop. Sometimes, panic-fueled declines can make excellent buying opportunities.

The markets soared 194 points, or 1.5%, so stocks that went down by larger percentages are pretty big deals. These two stocks fell hard; let’s see if there’s anything to redeem them.

Stock	CAPS Rating (out of 5)	Friday’s Change
Telecom Argentina (NYSE: TEO )	*****	(10.3%)
magicJack VocalTec (Nasdaq: CALL )	*	(8.1%)

Source: Motley Fool CAPS.

What’s yours isn’t mine (anymore)
“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session,” an aphorism usually attributed to Mark Twain talking about Congress, could also be applied to certain South American countries.

No longer is it just Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez riding roughshod over the rights of business owners. Now Argentine leader Cristina Kirchner has seized the assets of Spanish oil giant YPF (NYSE:YPF ) . If she’s willing to make an international incident out expropriating the property of a foreign company, then no private property is safe in the country, and it helps explain why Telecom Argentina is falling in the wake of the news... Continue to read.

U.S. Signals Comfort With IMF Bid For More Funds

Deutsch: Offizielles porträt des US-Finanzmini...

Timothy Geithner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The United States on Wednesday threw its support behind a bid to boost the International Monetary Fund's financial resources, signaling greater satisfaction among Group of 20 nations with Europe's efforts to resolve its debt crisis.

The U.S. government will not chip in more money of its own, but warm words from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for commitments by others may clear a path for G20 nations meeting this week in Washington to agree on a way to bolster the IMF's war chest.

The idea is to bulk up so the Fund so it can aid non-European countries that get caught up in the maelstrom emanating from the euro zone.

The effort to expand the IMF's coffers is expected to dominate a meeting of G20 financial officials over dinner on Thursday and during the day on Friday. It will also be front and center at the IMF's semi-annual session on Saturday... Continue to read.

4 Cramer Dividend Stocks Poised For New Highs This Year

CNBC’s “Mad Money with Jim Cramer” came to Tul...

CNBC’s “Mad Money with Jim Cramer” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Jim Cramer of CNBC’s “Mad Money” show has been bullish on dividend stocks, and recently gave a buy rating to a few blue chip companies. Dividend stocks have been working for investors, and they have held up well in market sell-offs. When stocks saw the first “mini-correction” of 2012, just days ago, dividend stocks fared much better than others because investors are so hungry for income in a low-yield world. The Federal Reserve has promised to keep rates low for the next couple of years, so it makes sense for Cramer to stay focused on companies that have stable revenues and pay solid dividends, since they can beat savings accounts and even some bonds. Here is a closer look at some of Cramer’s favorite stocks which are likely to continue outperforming and even possibly make new 52-week highs in 2012. I would buy these stocks on pullbacks in order to... Continue to read.

Why Warren Buffett Revealed That He Has Prostate Cancer

Warren Buffett speaking to a group of students from the Kansas University School of Business (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Despite his folksy manner, Warren Buffett is not a man who likes to share intimate details of his life. So that makes his April 17 announcement that he has early-stage prostate cancer all the more intriguing. After all, as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway stated, his doctors say the condition is “not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way.” In fact, he stressed in the release, “I feel great — as if I were in my normal excellent health — and my energy level is 100 percent.” He has a point: By the age of 80, about 80 percent of men have some cancer cells in their prostate gland, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. If Buffett is like most men his age, he’s more likely to die with prostate cancer than from it.

So why bother? The answer, most likely, is to squash rumors that something more serious is going on. His disclosure is less an acknowledgement of his mortality than of his celebrity. As an investor whose every move is analyzed by people around the planet, the likelihood that Buffett could undergo two months of radiation therapy without anyone noticing is remote, if not impossible... Continue to read.

Market Surge On Favorable Earnings Reports

JACKSONVILLE, FL - NOVEMBER 5: Jeffrey Schafe...

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)Stocks never saw saw selling after the markets jumped at the opening. Dow finished up 194, advancers over decliners a more mild less than 4-1 & NAZ gained 54 (helped by Apple snapping back 29 following its recent sell-off). The MLP index recovered 3+ to 389 & the REIT index rose 2+ to 254 (within spitting distance of its yearly highs). Junk bond funds continued higher & Treasuries slipped back. Oil climbed to a 2-week high as Spain raised more than its maximum target at a debt auction & the IMF bolstered its global growth forecast. Oil has been drifting sideways for a few days (shown in the graph below)... Continue to read.

US Housing Starts Unexpectedly Drop to Five-Month Low

HAIAN, CHINA - MARCH 07: A worker is seen at a construction site of building on March 7, 2010 in Hai'an, Jiangsu province of China. China's real estate industry is in an 'undisputable' bubble with its current skyrocketing boom, China vowed to rein in soaring real estate prices and expand low-cost housing in the next 'crucial' year as Premier Wen Jiabao said during the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Friday. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Builders began work on fewer homes than forecast in March, signaling a sustained industry recovery will take time to get underway.

Housing starts dropped 5.8 percent to a 654,000 annual rate, less than the lowest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the least since October, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The slump was led by the volatile multifamily category, which at the same time showed a jump in permits, a proxy for future construction.

While warmer weather may have spurred home construction at the beginning of 2012, a competing supply of cheap existing properties may be steering potential buyers away from purchasing a new home. That means home construction may not help boost the economy in 2012... Continue to Read.

Ypf dance a Tango in Argentina

Repsol YPF (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

YPF shareholders - you have been Corzined. The money has vaporized. Jon Corzine has been appointed to the newly formed Argentina based Board of Dictators. Have a nice day

There are those who naively believe that any time the tables turn against a government, that government will quietly sit in the corner and play by the rules as its power erodes to zero. Probably the best example of just this is Executive Order 6102 when FDR, in a country that supposedly honors contract laws, issued Executive Order 6102, which effectively nationalized all private gold, no questions asked. And while we may not be there just yet, we are getting close, as demonstrated by the most recent developments in Argentina, where president Cristina Kirchner asked Congress to "expropriate" oil and gas producer YPF (which is majority owned by Repsol YPF) thereby "allowing the government to share ownership of the company with oil-producing provinces, a spokeswoman for Ms. Kirchner said Monday." What is the pretext for this move formerly associated almost exclusively with lawless, "communist" third world banana republics? Why "hydrocarbon self-sufficiency" of course. How soon until any and every government follows suit in a world in which excess liquidity sloshing around makes expropriation of vital energy producing assets a key prerogative? ...Continue to read.

Tuesday's ETF To Watch: Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF

Citigroup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Earnings got off to a rocky start this week as Citigroup (C) missed analyst expectations, casting doubt on what will be a busy end to the week as dozens of blue chip firms will report earnings. Investors are looking to earnings season to revamp the bull run that has faltered in recent weeks, as less-than-encouraging data has put a damper on investor confidence. This slew of earnings has already brought big news, as Google (GOOG) announced a share split that will certainly shake up how the company is ran. Today, however, we look towards a different industry giant as they detail their performance during the first quarter of 2012 [see also 5 ETFs For The Earnings Bull].

Today will see earnings from semiconductor giants Intel (INTC). Based in California, Intel is regarded as the world's largest and most valuable semiconductor firm, as their chips are utilized for a number of devices across the globe. Intel had a strong 2011, as their revenues of $54 billion were a record for the company, but 2012 looks to be more questionable... Continue to read

How Ford Engages Customers With Social media

Google Chrome (Photo credit: thms.nl)Social media expert interview: Scott Monty shares how the Ford Motor Company uses Google+ and blogging to engage customers and how this impacts their business.
Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

Ford’s experience with Google+ and its potential for brands
How the conversation on Google+ is different
How their blogging impacts sales
What Ford is doing to stimulate fan engagement
How Ford wants to bring social media inside cars
How to make humor work in your social media marketing
Why you need to focus on creating a story
The upcoming trends in social media

Click here to see the video

6 Audit Red Flags to Avoid the IRS

Seal of the United States Internal Revenue Service. The design is the same as the Treasury seal with an IRS inscription. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)When I think about experiences that I would want to avoid the most a few thoughts come to mind. Being caught in the middle of a tornado. Being attacked by a grizzly bear. And being audited by the IRS. (Sorry. ... Millionaires work with accountants for a reason – generally speaking, returns prepared by tax professionals raise far fewer red flags than DIY ones. If you will make around $1 .... Use Chase Ink Classic Business to Grow Your Empire (Now with $250 in Rewards!) Want $200 for ...don't make a million dollars... double check your math... and much more...Continue to read.

Fed Parses Job Numbers For Clues on US Economy

In 1935, Cret designed the Seal of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two top Federal Reserve officials pointed on Monday to last month's surprisingly weak jobs report as all the more reason to take a wait-and-see approach to a U.S. economy that, in general, is improving.

Although the unemployment rate slipped to a still high 8.2 percent in March, jobs growth slowed sharply, raising fears the labor market could start to sputter as it did a year ago. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by only 120,000 last month, roughly half the gains in each of the previous two months.

Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto, a voter this year on the central bank's policy-setting panel, called the March job gains "meager" and illustrative of "the uneven pattern" of economic activity.

"Monthly ups and downs like these make it hard to confirm the underlying pace of job creation," she said at a bankers' event in Lexington, Kentucky, citing the robust jobs reports in January and February. "So it seems as though the labor market is still improving, albeit at a modest pace."...Continue to read.

Social Media ETF Back in the Spotlight

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook is making headlines again with its latest move to capture the photo sharing service of Instagram. As the social media sub-sector of the technology market continually heats up, how can investors gain exposure to these hot spots with exchange traded funds?

A game plan is indeed necessary if an investor wants to gain exposure to the social media side of the technology sector. ETFs can be of service, but investors must be ready to do some research. Don Dion of The Street reports that the social media industry is still young, so finding the right tool is not easy. [Facebook and the Social Media ETF]

For instance, the major social media ETF trading is the Global X Social Media ETF (NYSEArca: SOCL) which represents a host of domestic unknowns as top holdings. The familiar holdings, such as Yelp (NYSE: YELP) and LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) are good lures, but this is where the U.S ends. About 40% of the portfolio is domestic and the rest is a global social media investment. [Facebook IPO Drives Interest in Social Media ETF]... Cotinue to read.

Spanish Government Bonds In The Crosshairs: The Sidelines Look Good

European Central Bank (Photo credit: kumbarov)

Spain has once again brought the focus of the markets on the continuing eurozone crisis as yields continue to climb an Spanish ministers are calling for more bond purchases. In an article on Bloomberg we read that: A Spanish minister called on the European Central Bank to do more to stem the sovereign debt crisis as the cost of insuring the country's bonds against default surged to a record.

"They should step up purchases of bonds," Jaime Garcia-Legaz, a deputy minister in Luis de Guindos's Economy Ministry, said yesterday in an interview.

"If you're demanding ultra-restrictive fiscal policies from Spain and Italy then it makes sense to have monetary policy with stronger bond purchases," said Garcia-Legaz, a former secretary general of the Faes research institute that's linked to the ruling People's Party.

Average net borrowings from the ECB by Spanish banks climbed to 227.6 billion euros last month from Continue to read

Five Things to Watch Out For in First-Quarter Earnings

little new york charlotte downtown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)First-quarter earning season kicked off this week with Alcoa(AA) and Google(GOOG) delivering more than respectable results. But will this trend play out for the rest of the season? If the recent past is any guide, the answer is yes. Despite the malaise elsewhere in the economy, corporate America is on a pretty impressive run. Deep cost cuts made during the recession, global footprints, and a rebound in demand in many industries have pushed profitability to very high levels.

There is no immediate sign that this trend is poised to dramatically turn around this quarter. We've had very few warnings from management teams that previous guidance was wildly optimistic, and the first quarter's macroeconomic indicators seem to point to a continued expansion. But even if the headline numbers remain robust, there could still be hints in earnings reports that the next few quarters may not be quite as rosy for investors. Here are five areas I'll be keeping a close eye on when examining the reports in the coming weeks...Continue to read

Nasdaq ETF Sees Outflows as 14-Week Win Streak Snapped

During the annual Logitech Chinese New Year party in Taiwan, CEO Guerrino De Luca announces that Logitech has joined the NASDAQ 100. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Investors pulled over a half billion dollars from a popular ETF tracking the Nasdaq-100 Index as the fund suffered its first weekly loss of the year after a 14-week string of gains. In a volatile week that began with heavy selling pressure met by mid-week buying, the S&P 500 hovered around key near term support levels, finally closing at 1370.26 on Friday. Our market technician David Chojnacki pointed out in a note to trading clients last Friday morning that the SPX has near term support in the 1370-1374 level but there is overhead resistance between 1385-1388 as well as 1397-1400.

Additionally, the SPX dipped below its 50 day moving average on several occasions last week for the first time since early December of 2011, and ultimately closed below this level (currently 1375.71) on Friday. Volumes were reasonably heavy throughout the week in broad-based equity products as well as those in other asset classes including commodities and fixed income, as it appears that institutional players were in ...Continue to read.

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